whacha doin'?

Painting.

...and I am sooooo dead meat if I am still telling you about this when

Brian gets home! I needed a break.

Back to work.

the raw end of the stick

Hey sis...
malapropism \mal-uh-PROP-iz-uhm\, noun:
The usually unintentionally humorous misuse of a word, especially by confusion with one of similar sound; also, an example of such misuse.

Maddie picked this word off dictionary.com to 'stump' her teacher.

I told her we actually knew someone that was great at that!
Unintentionally, of course. That's the definition...
AND that's a cool web sight. Loads of laughs with the 6th grader.

xoxoxo

leaf me

The tree has been 'leafed'.

It was fun too.

I picked up these little 1/2 pints of color from the local

Home Depot

and was a bit worried if they would be good colors or not.

They were GREAT colors!

I tell ya. That was lucky.

The dark green was glossy

(ugh-didn't even look for that on the can)

but it turned out all right in the end.

It actually added a bit of texture and variation...yeah...

I'm an artist imposter. But I keep trying.
(My camera is having issues so please stop by if you are able, and check it out in person. It's pretty good if I do say so myself.)
There will eventually be a little birdie perching on the upper empty branch. I just have to get brave again....tweet.

Fun Stuff.

finally, a sheet

It's happening.

Right now!

Yeppers!

The drywall is up.

The mud and taping is done.

And the sanding has begun!

Really.

Right now!

finally, a tree

I wanted so badly to paint a mural or something fun on Erin's wall before we moved in here.

I was dissuaded by the few that had input and so I didn't.

But now...I did!

And I guess it's not really a mural...

it is

a tree.

I have yet to do leaves...but I was excited that I got this far so I thought I'd share.

Okay, Okay...singing at Target.

If that's the worst they can do then I'm a lucky girl.

And I am. I know it.

I started early and worked hard at getting them to stay focused for long periods of time.

Nobody can say my kids have ADD. They can watch that TV for HOURS without moving a muscle. That is focus.

And they are sooooo computer savvy.

I tell you, I am impressed with their mouse control at only 2 1/2 years of age.

And so what if I have to 'count to three' to get them outside to play and then set the timer so they'll know when they can come back in and will stop pressing their noses to the window looking wistfully at...inside. They stay out there. They sit right on the stoop nice and quite. sigh. I'm gonna blame that one on the "outside dangers" course they gave them at school. They are a little nervous about ticks and poision ivy. But who isn't!

We now have "No Screens Day" on all the T days and Sunday.

(and time limits on the other days)

They are getting good at Legos. And they built a fort.

And they swim - that's outside.

My kids are smart and funny and gorgeous and healthy and careful-ish and they have good memories.

I love those guys. They're my favorite.

And they are a lot like me...except for the memory part.

Someone mentioned to me that I don't post very much.

Actually...I post everything.

And I'm not complaining.

Jen said I'm in for something big.

I hope not.

I'm quite content with what I've got.

shopping with kids

One reason I am looking forward to school starting is that I will only have one child to take grocery shopping or to my beloved Target.

Today I had the pleasure of running errands with all four kids. It wasn't so bad actually. Except for the asking for gumballs at every shop we went to and hiding in the hanging rugs at the paint store. Really, not too bad.

Then we arrived at Target.

After taking Erin to the potty I came out to find the three older kids all jammed into the extra seat part of those longer buggies that are nice except if you have to turn or come too close to the shelves. And they're not just sitting quietly. They were stating that there were kids for sale. Only $20.

Now, this is Target.

I frequent this store often and have to keep up appearances.

The fussing began as I told everyone "OUT!" Then I thought...they only have a week left before school, let them do something fun. So I said okay but NO fighting and NO asking for anything or else you're walking.

Erin climbed on and I saw four smiling kids - so I smiled and began my journey.

There's no fighting. That's fabulous.

THEN they all got it in their minds to sing that peaceful jungle song...you know, the one I have painstakenly found for you to listen to as you read the post. A-Wimoweh, A-Wimoweh... Now, I've been a Mom for 11 1/2 years and am actually quite fabulous at blocking out a lot of their noises. And I really didn't notice that they were singing at all until they hit the high pitched

A-Weeeeeeeeeee-eeee-eee-eee-eeeeeee-umm-umm-a-weh

It was screechy and so loud! So I nicely asked them to shush.

Nope.

The whole rest to the shopping trip I was serenaded to sleeping lions, hush my darlings, and HEY HEYs.

Not so peaceful.

I have slowly learned my lesson that as soon as you lose it and begin to talk angrily (aka. yell - yes, sometimes I do) someone you know walks around the corner.

So I smiled and tried to go to my ignoring place. I managed quite well until the screeching A-Weeeee....came up again.

I then decided to wait a week and a half for the rest of my Target 'wants' and head to the register, glad that I hadn't yelled and hadn't run into anyone I knew. As I swiped my card (smiling because I was almost out of there- although dreading the car ride home - less air space for the sound to dissipate in) I turned to look at the kids and saw Mike Parkhurst from church standing right next to the cart.

I guess if it was anyone I'm glad it was him. He has a good sense of humor.

(unlike some of the shoppers who weren't as amused with my children's budding performance skills)

Fortunately they didn't think it was as fun to sing it in the car.