Did You Say Cheez-Its or Jesus?

We were driving to dinner last night with Sweet Girl, Sweet Girls Friend and Little Man in the truck. Friend was looking at a Jesus/Bible book that was in the truck. She says "That's Jesus!"
Garrett replies quite adamantly with "I CAN'T HAVE CHEEZ-ITS!" (which was a true statement after his tonsil surgery so apparently the kid does listen...shocking)
Sweet Girl and Friend both say "No Little Man, NOT CHEEZ-ITS. It's JESUS".

Leo and I are trying not to laugh really loud in the front. Maybe it was one of those things, that you had to be there.

The Booty

There is a whole lost of booty shaking going on at our house. Sweet Girl LOVES to shake her booty!
...in the bath
...during dinner
...watching tv
...outside
...in the car
...in the pool
Well you get the idea.

She asks Little Man to shake his booty with her. I'm not sure where the booty obsession came from or how it developed.

There is also another booty obsession at our house....it's the Pirates Booty. Have you ever had this stuff? White Cheddar Puffed rice? Holy shit that stuff is good! And the kids love it. And they ask for it, even in public... "I want some booty", yes you can imagine the weirdo looks we get when your kids starts asking for booty.
Little Man will run around saying "I love boooottttyyyy". Also very funny, and so far has only been said in our house not out in public. But give it time. I'm sure we'll be getting more weird looks when a 3 year old busts out with "I love booty".

If you haven't tried Pirates Booty, I highly suggest it. You can eat some and then burn it off by shaking your booty...win win!

I Am A Candle Burning At Both Ends

I've been doing some thinking in light of my post about having too much going on. I do have too much going on, and how does that happen? I think I have become a victim of myself or maybe it's a result of the current society and how fast moving everything is. We seem to always be busy or running everywhere doing something in every waking minute. You want to sit and relax on the couch? What's wrong with you, man? Sit? Relax? What's that? It's like some sort of syndrome we're dealing with now. The Go Go Go Syndrome. My parents even commented on how much we go and move. Don't get me wrong I like to be out doing fun things with the kids and Leo. I like to go out to eat and I like to do stuff. But it seems like we're always doing something and if we're not doing something I feel like we should be doing something.

I feel like I'm burning the "proverbial" candle from both ends. My head burns with all the thoughts of things I want to do, should be doing, could be doing, need to do, need to do and need to do. It's endless. My feet and legs are burning because of all the moving I do. I'm tired and I'm trying to sort out all my things I could, should, want, and need to do. I get it under control for a while, then it's spirals out again. Maybe I suck at time management. Maybe that is the key to everything, I am a sucky time manager. That and I put a lot of pressure on myself.

You would think with all that pressure and weight on my shoulders I might lose some pounds. But that hasn't happened yet, shockingly enough.
I pressure myself to be a good mom, not the perfect mom, but a good mom. I think I do a good job but could probably do better. Like I probably could spend more time with them in the playroom and just playing with them instead of trying to do other things while we're home. I probably should be trying to help Sweet Girl read more or Little Man learn more.

I pressure myself to be a good wife. I want to be there for Leo and listen and help and work on our marriage. I enjoy spending time with Leo and connecting with him on all kinds of levels. I'm sure he wishes we "connected" more often...

I pressure myself to be a good employee. Even thought I might tell you I don't enjoy my job all the time, I still want to do a good job. If I say I don't care, it's really not true. I can't just NOT care about my work. I have too much pride in what work I produce to not care. It's more of a vent then anything else, there is no stock behind it. At least most of the time there isn't. I know when I get to the point that I really don't care it's time for me to find another job. I do a good job, but I have to wonder why it takes me 4 hours to do something and someone else 2 days? What the hell are these people doing? Get your shit done and move on to something else that needs doing. It's frustrating working with some people.

And there are plenty more pressures I put on myself, but I didn't intend for this post to be a woe is me post, about all the stuff I have to do and blah blah blah. More of one that could springboard some discussion, does this happen to you? How do you handle it? Do you think it's a trend in our society that we're to always be busy or we're not doing something positive for our family?
Has it always been like this and I'm just now seeing it because I'm in the thick of it with a husband, job, kids and all their and our activities? How do you keep yourself grounded and in control and create that "balance"? All rhetorical questions, right?!?!

Who You Gonna Call?

If you've completed the sentence with...GHOSTBUSTERS...you are exactly right! And I'm not talking about the fact my home is riddled with paranormal activity because that would just be way too cool, I'm actually referring to the movie.

This movie has quickly become a favorite in our house. The kids LOVE it. And we've watched it for the past three nights.

Sweet Girl even refers to the EPA guy as "Pencilneck". (Thanks Grand-dad...) and they are starting to know the "bustees" by heart. They want to be the "KeyMaster" or "GateKeeper".
They also ask incessant questions about the "ghosts" in the movie.

And they LOVE the Stay-Puft marshmallow man.

They are quite funny with it.

Too Much

I have too much going on at both work and home. Here is just a rundown, if there are any readers even left. I have been such a fickle poster as of the last few months.

Little Man had his tonsils and adenoids out last Friday. He's recovering nicely and aside from me being really nervous on Sunday he is much better today. Almost back to his old self and trying to electrocute himself by plugging and unplugging things.

My parents left this morning. Very sad and difficult. It certainly was nice having them here for this long. Sweet Girl had a really hard this morning and just burst into tears as we were getting ready to leave for school. I feel so bad for her.

I have more projects at work then I have time or presence to fulfill. Something will get dropped, forgotten, or lost in translation. This is not my favored working environment. Busy is good but overloaded is not.

I have another allergy attack or something. I'll blame it on the dust storm the other night. It occurred after that. So I feel like crapola. My head is congested and I'm sneezing and coughing. It's a great feeling. Especially considering the next item below with the hot ass weather.

I hate summer in Phoenix, the last few days have been 114+. I'm sorry but give me 32 degrees, sweaters and a jacket and I'll be happier. The pool isn't refreshing. I don't even want to go outside.

We had the best thunderstorm last night, it even hailed. It was awesome. And it even rained more than 3 mins. It was almost 30 mins of rain. Too bad it will only do it once or twice a year.

Sweet Girl has just adjusted to her glasses and now she has to get bifocals. So I'm praying for not another long adjustment period. At least the frames won't change but the lenses will obviously.

Good times. Good times.

Dry or Not, 112 is HOT (and gross and wrong)

Welcome to July in Phoenix/Chandler. Our temps are up into the 110's. Like 112, 113, 114, and even a disgusting 115.
The fact it's a dry heat becomes moot in my opinion when temps get this high. It's just plain hot and disgusting and gross. I mean it basically feels like you're in an oven. Below 108 the fact it's dry does in fact make a difference, because we can move to the shade to cool off, you can't really avoid humidity even in the shade.

On the Danielle meter this weather is the worst. Here is the Danielle meter breakdown:
Hot = Worst
Warm = Good
Cool = Better
Cold = Best

So same with last year, I start yearning for the cooler temps of fall. Hell at this point I would be happy with 95!

Speak No Evil

I'm curious as to what kinds of things my kids repeat at school. We have some pretty random and odd sayings around here that I am sure would make their teachers think 'what the hell' if they are in fact repeated.

So far I haven't received any notes because they are concerned that my kid is walking around calling others "Crap Pants" if they have poop in their diaper.

Or if they tell some kid "You'll hurt yourself and then we're gonna lose the house" when they are doing something dangerous or something they are not supposed to.

Or "I have replacement ears" because for some reason Little Man's original ear was broken. He does point to his left ear and proclaims it's his "new" ear. And knows the right one is the "old" one.

Or they may affectionately ask someone "do I need to cut it off?" when they have an injury of an arm, hand, leg or foot.

Or "Settle down Beavis" if someone is acting crazy.

Or "What the heck?" if something is out of the ordinary. (And yes believe it or not it is HECK).

Or "I lose my feet when I wear pajamas" because Little Man thinks his feet disappear when he wears footed pajamas.

I am sure we have some other random comments that they will repeat. But it's all good.

I just hope the notes don't start coming...

The Eerie Silence

Our house is quiet now. After a weekend of a lot of people over it's eerily quiet. We had 5 extra people in our house. We had a great weekend, there was a lot of food eaten and a lot of beer consumed. I mean A LOT of beer.

Everyone enjoyed themselves. We even had a thunderstorm on Friday night. It cooled the air down and provided a nice breeze. It was a wondrous night to sit on the patio and enjoy all the company.

Little Man had an excellent birthday. He cleaned up with a lot of loot. We ended up getting him Lincoln Logs, a transformer and a dinosaur. He got lots of neat dinosaurs and dragons. Cool stuff. And he got this snazzy Viewmaster that projects on the wall and talks.

And now we're back to the usual routine. Kids are in school, we are back at work and tonight is swim lessons.

Back to normal I guess.

Two Birthdays One Day

Today is Little Man's 3rd birthday. He's kind of modest about his birthday and when my mom tried to sing to him this morning he went running back down the hallway (it could have been from her actual singing though...) but he's shyed away from others talking about his birthday as well. When you ask him how old he is he'll tell you he is 98. Or 7. Or 92. I talked up his birthday with sprinkles of cupcakes and presents so now he seems to be OK with the fact he'll get attention today.

He is such a sweet boy. I wish I could write one of those posts that includes all I wish for him. But I can never get them right.

He was born at 9:52 on this day 3 years ago. He was an easy birth with 3 easy pushes, less than eight minutes and I didn't even break a sweat. I didn't ruin my makeup or my hair. It was great. He was 9 lbs 2 oz. The nurses had some issue with the fact he was that big, came out that fast and the fact I refused the narcotic pain meds.
He was wonderful to have. A good but horribly slow eater, he still is to this day.
He is a a total momma's boy. Which I have to admit I love. The love between him and myself is so much different than Sweet Girl and me. He is so giving, he will make sure everyone is taken care of when we're eating or drinking. He's quick to share, most of the time anyway. He's a sensitive little man who also has a wicked mean streak when he wants to cause havoc with Sweet Girl.
So I guess really I hope he continues all these things. I hope he continues to be sweet, compassionate, giving, loving and a strong man. I hope he continues to love and take care of his sister. I hope when he sees the fireworks he knows that they are in part for him too. I hope all these things and more. I hope he's around to see and enjoy all the freedom we celebrate today, our Independence day.

Happy Birthday Little Man!!

Happy Birthday United States of America!

Is It Friday Yet?

I am glad this is a short week, my last few weeks of work have been stressful, busy and just crazy. So I'm ready for a break. I'm ready for longer than a 3 day weekend but at this point I'll take when I can get.

And I am so excited because Leo's cousins are coming in on Thursday night. I've written about them before, we used to hang out with them all the time when we lived in TN. They were over at our house 2 -3 times a week. I certainly never minded having them around. It was great and the kids loved them. And so many times since we moved here, I would be thinking about dinner and would be like I wonder if Chip and Hillary would like to come over. That was how much they were over, it took me a long time to break that habit. But now they are coming over!

The kids are excited to see them and their sweet baby girl. Chip's brother who also lives in Arizona is coming to spend some time as well. So we'll have a full house of fun with everyone here. My parents are still here too! Ahh...just like old times. It feels good.

It will really be a great weekend. There will be lots of eating, drinking and laughing!