the young and the precious

since we last saw each other ...

2011-12-04T23:18:00.003-06:00

... i turned 28. and managed to take a photo with both of my sisters where nobody was throwing a punch!

... the wild woman decorated the kitchen for mommy's birthday.

... we cheered our beloved razorbacks through a 10-2 (WOO PIG!!!) season.

... the wild woman learned to sing the razorback fight song in its entirety. (alternately titled: ohhh the things you can make a 3-year old do for yogurt! ha!)

... we dressed out in hog gear every single saturday!

... the wild woman started dance!!! she's in love, y'all. and legit talented!

... sophie b took her first road trip to fayetteville! and subsequently danced on her first chair in jose's on dickson. i'd bet money it won't be the last. ha!

... i finally bought new lamps. (i'm sure no one else is excited by this ... but humor me.)

... we hung stuff on the walls in the playroom! only took us 2 years.

... i basically forgot halloween and scrounged up what we called a sunflower at the last minute - thanks mainly to my mom's large stash of tulle. definite mommy fail. but at least the girl loved it!

... the niece i remember picking up from pre-k (when she got suspended for threatening to cut one of the teachers with a knife ... truth.) is halfway through the FIFTH grade. and hilarious. and the cutest thing i've ever seen!

... the niece i remember playing barbies with is IN HIGH SCHOOL. and gorgeous. and smart. and a cheerleader. and dating a football player. eep!

... i dyed my hair. again. and apparently became obsessed with open-mouth self portraits. you're welcome, world.

... the wild woman and i started decorating for christmas the week after halloween.

... i stayed up til 2:30 on a school night decorating the christmas tree.

... my precious MC and i pulled off a fabulous mistletoe fair!!!!

... these three amigos became hell on wheels with our walkie talkies. wolf pack forever!

... my girl and i did this for a solid week after mistletoe was over.

... i finally found a pair of boots that fit my chubby calves!

... i can't for the life of me figure out what happened to my beloved razorback boys against lsu. suppose now all i've got to say is ROLL TIDE ROLL.

... the wild woman GREW UP. without my permission.

... it finally got chilly enough for sweats! wahoo!

... she and i have been inseparable.

... this kiddo has gotten more precious with each passing day.

... i have created a full-fledged carbon copy of myself. poor hubs.

... this girl has made me laugh every single day!

love & peanut butter fudge,

i shoulda seen it coming.

2011-07-05T17:25:00.000-05:00

so.

the day finally came.

after nearly a year of talking about it, dressing up for it, giggling about it at bedtime and finally buying new shoes for it, it arrived.

the first day of summer dance class was upon us!

the studio where my girl will start in the fall (also the same studio where i danced) offers a two week 'tumble tots' session during the summer. it's not meant to be as formal or technical as regular lessons, but i thought it would be a great way to introduce the wild woman to the studio, the teachers and the idea of being part of a group and following directions.

we bought a few cute new outfits and a pair of precious white keds for the occasion and got up extra early this morning to get ready.

we've been counting down the days since i signed her up in may and practically bounced out to the car this morning.

we sang our favorite carrie underwood song all the way there and belted out the last chorus just as i was turning into the parking lot.

and then a storm blew in.

and its name was sophie b.

by the time we got through the door, my girl had melted down into a MONSTER fit.

she didn't want to dance, she didn't want to meet ms. kathy and she didn't want to be a princess! (her words, not mine.)

i broke the cardinal dance school rule and walked into the studio in my street shoes hoping that seeing the other little girls having fun would motivate mine to retract her horns and claws and join in.

yah. not so much.

the screaming and screeching and crying and wall-climbing continued.

for 9 humiliating minutes.

she finally admitted it all looked like fun but still wanted NOTHING to do with it.

y'all wanna know why???????

'cuz it'll mess UP my PONYTAIL, mom! i CAN'T dance EVER AGAIN because my PONYTAIL will be YUCKY.

ohhh. emmm. geee.

amidst a whole new round of tears and snot (her, not me.) and sweat (me, not her.) i finally decided it was time to hang it up for today and that we'd just try again tomorrow. (the class was already half over anyway.)

so i've got us, our junk and what's left of my sanity headed for the exit when she instantly dries up the tears, cracks a grin, puts both sassy little hands on her hips and says ....

MOMMA! all you have to do is take out my ponytail! THEN i can DANCE like a PRINCESS!

ohhh. emmm. geee.

naturally, as soon as i remove the offending hairbow and rubber band, the kid bounds away from me and gets in line to crab walk like she's been doing it for a hundred years. then she spent the next half hour laughing and giggling and playing with pom poms and asking if she could come back tomorrow.

i, naturally, slunk out of the studio, plopped down on a chair in the waiting room and wished i had something a lot stronger than diet dr. pepper in my razorback tervis tumbler.

surely y'all understand why i don't have any photos to document the momentous occasion.

love & i promised her a new tutu and bubbles if tomorrow isn't a trainwreck,

i can't stop eating peaches.

2011-07-04T01:30:00.002-05:00

(more spacing janky-ness included within. i'm at a total loss. anyone know a trick i don't? geez!)

so the title of this post has absolutely zero to do with the content, but that doesn't make it any less true.

i adore fresh peaches and strawberries. i practically live on them during the summer ... and if i'm feeling particularly dangerous, i'll put 'em over a bowl of chocolate cheerios. major YUM.

but anyway.

we've been all kinds of busy the last week or two.

basically it's: pool, cartoons, pool, ice cream, pool, cake pops, pool, sonic, pool, mall, pool.

it's totally a tough life, but somebody's gotta do it.

in the three weeks i've been out of school, i've managed to cook FIVE real dinners, which as pathetic as it might sound, is actually a rather vast improvement for my sorry self. hubby is mucho impressed. (and don't even act a little bit surprised that i've cashed in on that approval by burning the dust off my trusty ol' gap card. ha!)

i've also tried to do lots of extra fun things with my precious wild woman that we don't ever have time (or for me ... energy) to do during the school year. one category of ~~insanity~~ activities that occupies a permanent spot atop that list is working together in the kitchen.

i'ma just keep it real for a sec, y'all - we all know the only thing i'm really good at in the kitchen is cleaning it. and pouring a diet dr. pepper. everything else is a total craps shoot. so adding an iron-willed, eye-rolling, smack-talking, 3-going-on-13 year old priss to the mix is (all but) guaranteed to end with one, or usually both, of us cussing and in tears.

however.

i'm beyond determined to be fun mommy this summer.

so. i was way past thrilled to see the dipped marshmallows pop up on jenna's blog a couple of weeks ago since it looked easy enough even for me and my significant lack of skillzz. (yep. totally went there. ha!)

(p.s. head over and sign up for jenna's commenting challenge!!! it starts today!)

my obsessively compulsive side took a back seat for this project and actually let the wild woman skewer the marshmallows all by herself. i don't know why it surprised me to find that she's just as particular as her mama - any rejects that accidentally got poked all the way through had to be eaten immediately as they weren't acceptable for further involvement in the process. duh.

we had a BLAST making these, and they were super yummy.

i think we're down to about a dozen left in the freezer (we made almost 40!), and we'll both be sad when they're gone. they (and the construction process!) were most definitely slacker mommy approved. yay!

that same night, since i figured sister girl would be distracted with the unlimited access to mass quantities of sugar, i snuck taggie into the washing machine.

for the first time in more than 5 months. (sick. nasty. gross. i know. i just keep telling myself that each new germ is only helping to bolster her immune system. gag me.)

i thought i'd gotten away with pulling a fast one.

until.

i found sweet thang with her ear pressed to the washer and asking in her most pitiful, whimpering voice, 'taaaaggggiiieeeee are you IN THERE?!??'

no amount of chocolate or caramel was diverting her attention once she realized what had happened.

so she camped out through rounds of wash, rinse, drain, spin and dry.

needless to say, my popularity took major hits that night. and for several nights to come. she still clutches taggie in fear every time i walk in the room.

i'm sure this will become yet another item on her talk to my therapist about all the ways my mom screwed me up before i hit kindergarten list. fo' sho'.

switching gears a little bit - have i talked to y'all since i started running? (i'm thinking so ... remember the whole working out or working people over thing? running shorts or prison orange? caught up? fantastic!)

apparently i'm too exercise stupid to even be able to run around in circles (err, ovals ...) without hurting myself.

(excuse the photo. i know feet are grody. especially mine. ick. necessary evil though.)

my left ankle has declared a mutiny.

that weird bone thingy that pokes out the side of my ankle has all but seceded from the rest of my foot and claimed its independence. that sucker HURTS. all. the. time.

i can walk fairly decently if i really concentrate, but any kind of turn or rotation while bearing weight on that foot is MURDER. and it's sore to the touch too.

i had it x-rayed, but of course that showed a whole lot of zilch. the doc thought maybe a small stress fracture? i'm trying to take it easy for a while in the hopes all will be well enough for me to get back to the track. otherwise, i'm afraid there will only be more injuries. to others. truth.

the lack of exercise went to my head last weekend, and i showed my severe lack of good sense by suggesting we take the wild woman to chuck e. cheese. on a sunday afternoon.

this sweet child o' mine has hit a growth spurt lately and is turning into such a kid. it's fun and sad all at the same time. (check out those long legs!) part of my motivation behind taking her to see the giant rat was to fend off some of the early onset mom guilt i was feeling about heading out of town the next morning.

my youngest sister is heading up to the hill this fall, so i took advantage of their trip to orientation to sneak in a quick visit to one of my favorite places in the world. (somebody please let me know if you ever figure out why on earth we decided to leave?!)

dad checked in as hannah's guest and got a nifty little alumni ribbon to go with his nametag. i totally wanted one too but couldn't really justify him having to spend another $50 to register me all in the name of a ribbon that cost less than a quarter.

so i just grabbed one off the table while they weren't looking.

and no. i'm not kidding. i gave that university 4 years of my life. the LEAST they can give me is a freakin' ribbon.

of course, having the fancy ribbons didn't mean we actually went to any of the orientation sessions. (who really goes to those anyway?!)

we dropped my sister's butt off with her obnoxious, overly-enthusiastic (no offense - i think they tell them to be that way!) group leader and got ourselves down to dickson - jose's to be exact - for a few fruity frozen treats.

i just love a good father-daughter bonding session.

especially when it involves mango, limes and tequila. truth.

we had dinner on the square at hugo's (thanks a bunch to sweet michelle for the tip!! we LOVED it!) with my fantastic roommate hogtrnr, her cutie boyfriend and her sweet neighbor. i was too busy stuffing my face with a mushroom swiss burger to document the occasion with photos - plus it was WAY dark in there. (it is my official statement that my two large mango margaritas had NOTHING to do with this oversight.)

the sister was finished with her stuff about 9:30, so we picked her up and headed the long way back to our hotel.

that view never gets old, y'all.

and neither do the memories of the countless hours i spent in the basement of the broyles center working in the training room.

we caught up with one of the former trainers who made the comment that my current work with small children isn't all that far removed from the way it was when i worked with athletes. ha!

that was a SPECIAL group - players, trainers and staff - that i doubt will ever be replicated. love 'em!!

now. y'all please prepare yourselves for what you're about to see.

seriously. it's no joke.

proceed with extreme caution....

umm, told ya. apparently i'm not quite as bad-A as i'd like to think.

two margaritas, my super comfy granny nightgown and a full night's sleep and i STILL looked like i'd been hit (repeatedly) by a truck carrying a full load of UGLY. ha!

took more than a little dust it to correct that kind of atrocity. dannnng.

fear not, though - i cleaned myself up significantly before heading out in public.

dad and i wandered around campus for a while and soon found ourselves back at the stadium and the little razorback museum inside the athletic complex.

the boot!

i still have ZERO love for lucky state. sorry. that's just one sec relative i'll never be able to get along with. they're like that trashy cousin who wears too much eyeliner and hairspray and shorts that are too tight and talks all the time about crap nobody cares about ... wait. was i talking about myself or someone else? never mind - don't answer that.

moving on.

this is one of the pictures mounted inside the case showing all the memorabilia from the hogs' trips to the orange bowl.

the most notable of which (against all odds - we KILLED oklahoma) took place in 1978 when a certain shumaker i know and love played starting center for our beloved razorbacks.

that's right, y'all - dad is famous!

or something like that.

see that dude laying on the ground like a turtle with only his head showing in the photo? yah. that's totally rcs. in all his glory.

when i questioned him about being face down on the turf, he assured me it was acceptable because - see that guy in the dark jersey falling down like he got hit by a bus? well he did. and that bus was rickey shu!

from there we left and found my (small yet still significant ... or so i think) claim to fame ... senior walk!

(don't ask me why it won't rotate - i haven't a clue.)

it wasn't long before it was time to head back home, and while i hated to leave the hill, i was definitely anxious to get back to my girl and her furry brothers. and their daddy - as long as i didn't come home to his nasty socks balled up on the bar next to the couch. (our current fight. GAG. boys are gross.) ... just kidding, honey! (sorta. pick UP your stuff, yo. much love - your sweet wife.)

the only part of the trip i didn't love was this.

it's a long 242 mile drive when you've got a couple of passengers sawing logs next to and behind you. and they tended to get a little narrow-minded when i jacked up the tunes, which is really the only way i can enjoy a road trip.

next time i'm gonna get brave and take the wild woman with me. gotta raise 'em right, y'all.

love & happy 4th!!!

you really have no idea.

2011-06-24T00:15:00.000-05:00

ohhh, blogger. not loving you or your spacing malfunctions at the moment. sorry, y'all! but this is good stuff ... power through. i promise it'll be worth it! :) xoxo ... j

...........................................

so i figured it out, y'all.

i finally found the root of my insanity.

once i started looking, it was pretty obvious.

believe it or not, none of the usual suspects (you know, the heinous amount of black eyeliner i love to slather on; the perfume bath i take every morning while waiting on my ddp at sonic; the ozone-choking assault of hairspray i routinely unleash on the environment; the obnoxiously large wads of pink bubble gum i'm always smacking; and the nutritionally obscene quantities of caffeine {specifically, diet dr. pepper} coursing through my veins at any given moment) were able to lay the claim to fame here.

basically, to save y'all the complicated, convoluted scientific lingo ... it comes down to this:

i come from crazy people.

(i'll wait while you process such deep information. ....... )

this startling realization really hit home for me last night while i was looking through some old photo albums at nana's.

umm, wow.

see fo' yo'self ...

this one is actually a new one, but it boasts just as much cray-cray as the rest.

my fantastic uncle don (daddy bob's oldest son) came through town for a quick visit, and it was SO wonderful to see him.

the last time we saw his sweet face was last summer when we lost daddy bob. it did us all a lot of good to have a happier visit this time around.

he took us to dinner, busted taters (read: pounded knuckles) with the girls and brought us a whole bunch of homegrown peaches ... yum!

for any of you locals, we had a fun dinner downtown at zapata's even though my husband and i looked like total slobs. (no make-up, workout clothes, sweaty hair - major SICK.)

as we were headed out to leave, don stopped the girls and told them to look down the block at the old railroad tracks and then went on to tell a neat story about how daddy bob used to bring all the kids to texarkana (they lived about half an hour away in hope at the time) to see the circus come to town.

i really doubt they retained all (or knowing our girls ... any) of the tidbits he passed on, but they loved sitting there listening to him talk about lions and tigers and elephants.

there were a couple of (rather trampy) women sucking down cigarettes a couple of benches down from the girls who thought don was the sexiest thing since bradley cooper (or gerard butler if you're thinking more my speed. ha!) and kept trying to butt themselves into the conversation. i (rather un-)politely let them know we were giving our girls a bit of family history. (read: shut the ---- up, hookers!)

check out the wild woman and her crossed legs. it cracks me up that she can LOOK so prim and proper and normal.

i doubt she's fooling anyone here, though. (and if she is, you must be late to the party, friend. ha!)

don is a complete carbon copy of his daddy. oh how i wish y'all could have heard my sweet daddy bob tell a tale.

nearing the end of the history lesson. neither of these girls could tell you what he said even if their juice cups depended on it. they sure had an absolute blast listening though.

but back to the part about my entire family being certifiably nuts.

what follows is but a snippet of the great treasures that lie within those albums. i've got big plans to scan all the photos and save digital versions so i'll have them (to use for blackmail) forever and ever and ever.

(be sure to ask me how that's going in about 5 years ...)

anyway.

i snapped photos (with my trusty phone) of some of my very favorites for you to see. a few of them are baby pictures of me that i thought some of my mommy friends might appreciate (especially the ones who share my love of a good hairbow!) and a few are glimpses into my crooked little family tree.

enjoy!

right before my senior prom. i like this one even though it was clear i wasn't nearly heavy-handed enough with the eyebrow wax!

cuddled up with my papaw (my mom's dad). i was the center of his universe until he was killed in a railcar accident when i was 14 months old. it still stings my heart that i missed out on really knowing him.

in other news - check out my HAIR!

anyone else notice a theme? mom says we did a lot of this. papaw was the superintendent of schools in saratoga (about 20 minutes from us) when i was a baby, but mom said he showed up at our house during school hours just about every day. he found any reason he could (paper clip shortages, back-ordered #2 pencils, dry cleaning disputes) to head over to texarkana and steal away a few minutes with us.

call me crazy(er!), but i see a little bit of the wild woman in this photo. as much as i love that she looks like her daddy, part of me secretly hopes that she starts resembling me a little more as she gets older.... sshhh - don't tell hubs!

i REALLY see sophie in this one. especially with the open mouth ... neither of us are physiologically capable of keeping ours closed. unless we're chewing - and even then it's a 50/50 shot.

i am living, breathing proof that not even big bows, white dresses or olan mills portrait sessions can ward off the crazy. see how normal i used to look?!

mom has this one blown up to almost the size of our flat screen tv - i guess she wanted a LARGE reminder of one of the 7 seconds we weren't beating the snot out of each other while we were growing up.

an unusually small bow for school pictures. apparently there are several years' worth where my head is cocked to one side 'cuz the bow was so heavy. i guess mom decided to play this one safe?

love the bow. love the collar. wishing i had both to re-create this photo with my wild woman.

must have been a heavy bow day! ha!

i realize how egocentric i seem with all these self-portraits, but i just can't get over the dresses and tights and bows and patent leather shoes. makes me feel like such a slacker mom that my kid wears hello kitty sundresses and rapunzel flip flops most days!

my very favorite. of all time. hands down. i WILL re-create this one with my girl before the summer is up. the shoes ... the sweater around the shoulders ... the little button-down dress shirt ... i die!

okay. i promise y'all i'm finished stroking my own ego. at least for now. thanks for letting me indulge myself a little bit.

so.

let's take a little trip down memory lane. like, to the '70s.

nana, papaw, my dad (with the boy version of farrah fawcett's famous 'do) and my mom (in the 27 yards of peach chiffon). just lovely!

rickey shu ... #52 in your program, #1 in your heart!

what a couple of hotties! (and if you look closely, i'm technically in this photo too. ha!) this MAY or may not have ended up on facebook today. tagged. i just couldn't help myself.

this single photo convinces me that i am not to blame for whatever mental malfunctions i may exhibit. clearly, i came by it honestly.

something tells me nana could put the smack down.

wanda june! the big hair is fantastic ... and the mini dress? what a babe! (and HOW did i not inherit those killer legs?!) i would totally wear that dress right this minute. y'all know you would too!

annnnd here it is. my favorite photo out of the whole dadgum stack. papaw and nana with their very best friend ms. alice. see, ms. alice and her hubby mr. george had lots and lots of little get-togethers at their house. i highly doubt i want to know what really happened at those get-togethers, but i'm absolutely sure i couldn't keep up with this crowd no matter how hard i tried.

love & i'll have what they're having,

high(light)s and lows. and a few laughs too.

2011-06-20T23:35:00.003-05:00

so i did something WAY out of my comfort zone.

along with my usual all-over dark color, i finally caved and let my sweet friend/hair magician add a few honey and caramel highlights to the mange (mop? mess?) atop my head.

it's a really subtle change, which you probably won't even notice in this all-too-classy salon bathroom photo. but i love it.

for a couple of hours after the appointment, i was a little worried it would come off looking more gray than highlighted, but then i decided i was just neurotic. (that's a frequent observation i make that applies to many {or more likely, all} areas of my little life. i know you're shocked right out of your socks to hear that.)

it's just enough change to make me feel a little bit sassy(er?!) but not enough that i walk around feeling like a zebra. (no offense if you prefer the piano key-inspired coif. just ain't my style.)

but back to my original story (i know i had it around here somewhere...) ... before trotting off to my hair appointment i had to drop my lovable, cuddlebug baby doll tom at the vet's office to get his teeth cleaned.

i know what you're thinking.

and you're right.

we all know my boy can't do anything the easy way.

ever, never, ever.

and this trip was no exception.

about halfway through waiting for the foil and dye to work their magic, my phone rang and our (devastatingly handsome) vet was on the other end.

fricking. fracking. frick.

normal people would assume the phone call was just to let me know he was awake from the anesthesia and would be ready to pick up that afternoon.

but not me.

dr. p knows me (and my somewhat {or severely, depending on how you look at it} splintered mental state) well enough that he knows not to call unless it's unavoidably necessary.

so it appears that while they were digging around in the gums under my boy's tongue they found a small growth that, while pretty small, was definitely not supposed to be there.

he removed the entire growth and as much of the surrounding tissue as he could to feel comfortable he got all of the cells, but we'll probably never be sure what exactly was growing in there.

there is an option of sending the tissue to a specialist in dallas who can tell us whether or not it's malignant and what its official, double-digit-syllabic name is, but dr. p and i both agreed pretty quickly that there's really no need for it.

if it's not malignant (which is what i pray daily), we'll just keep an eye on the area to make sure nothing comes back.

if it is malignant, we'll do everything we can from here to keep my boy as healthy and as comfortable as we possibly can.

the reality of the situation is that we wouldn't pursue chemo for my precious tom. i'm not sure he could physically handle it. i'm still convinced the rat poison left him a little (or a lot) worse for the wear internally. i could never, ever intentionally put him in a situation that would hurt him or allow him to suffer.

we were beyond lucky to get him back at all a couple of years ago, and i'm thankful for every day we wake up snuggled next to each other in the bed. (no judging. they've been in the bed for 8 1/2 years and won't be getting out any time soon.) the plan is just to keep an eye on him and hope nothing comes back.

knowing my little idiot (i totally say that with love, y'all.), he could have very well chewed up something with a rough edge (doc even said a piece of dog food could have been the culprit.) that left a nick in his gums and got infected.

i love that boy with all of my heart (and have the $400 vet receipt from this week to prove it!), but i do believe he'll turn my hair gray long before his sister.

my guy was pretty much doped out of his mind when i got him home that afternoon. doc said to be sure he didn't drive the car for a few days.

the only upside to his being so woozy was that he temporarily forgot how upset he was with me and let me love on him all night.

he wouldn't, however, get anywhere near his daddy. at. ALL.

see, the price tag for keeping our boy healthy has never fazed me a bit, but i'm sure you can just imagine how my hubby, otherwise known as scroogey mcscroogerson, reacted to the damage.

i knew he'd get over it before very long, but i warned him that his hissy fit would make tom feel like he was in trouble - and it did.

it's been 4 days since the whole fiasco went down, and it's still all mommy, all the time. oh well! maybe my other little idiot (again, totally said with love, y'all.) will learn to bite his tongue every once in a while!

now.

to back up just a little bit.

the night before tom's big appointment, the wild woman got wind of where her brother was headed the next morning and FLIPPED. HER. LID.

girlfriend went postal. screaming, crying, kicking, hollering, and snotting from one end of the house to the other.

'but mama, you caaaaaannnn't take tom to the doctor! he's not even 'frowing UP! he doesn't need to go if he's not 'frowing up!' (read: he's not throwing up. love it.)

in the midst of her meltdown, the girl walked in with her (fake) puppy and announced that he had fallen out of the chair and bumped his head. she also announced that he needed a hospital, some medicine and his toenails pierced.

always being one to appreciate a good show, i cooked up the bright idea to take the wild woman and her (fake) puppy to the vet with us. then dr. p could check out both pups!

it was a stroke of pure genius.

i was getting all giggly just thinking about the cute photos this little field trip would generate. the sweet girls at our vet's office always ask me about our girl, and i couldn't wait for them to get a front row seat to our kind of crazy!

i laid out my plan in my most animated mommy voice (jazz hands included for extra emphasis, of course) and held my breath while i waited for her (surely to be enthusiastic) response.

but instead of her squeals and giggles and jazz hands to match my own, i got the following.

with one sassy hand perched squarely on her hip and the other chunking her (fake) puppy down on the floor, she said in a totally serious voice, "umm NO mommy. it's just a TOY."

then she promptly turned on her cinderella princess shoe-clad heel and prissed right back to the playroom, where i can only assume she proceeded to crush someone else's dreams as well.

that little sophie-ism reminded me of a few others i want to write down before i totally forget (which will be in about 17 seconds if recent history is any indication) ...

her new favorite word is boomashicka. no idea where it came from or what it means. but we say it about 2034 times a day. no telling.

while munching on a chocolate-covered doughnut a few mornings ago, 'mommy. we don't eat PEOPLE. we eat FOOD.' ... thanks for the clarification, dear.

upon finding her favorite pajamas in the (taller than her) pile of clean clothes in my bedroom floor, 'mommy. i've told you a HUNDRED TIMES my 'jamas don't go in the floor. do you hear me, woman?!' ... i hear ya loud and clear, sister. now. do you hear the sound my spankin' spoon is gonna make on your behind?

when she walked in on me getting out of the shower, 'mommy! you have alot of booty!' ... thanks, friend. now go to your room. forever.

answering her daddy after he asked her if he needed to 'come over there' when she said something very not-nice at the dinner table, {throws her fork on the table} 'do you want ME to come over THERE?!' {complete with mad face and curled lip} ... nice try, dear. but you're on your own with that one.

after asking me if she could play on the stairs at mama shu's house and being told to stay away or risk a run-in with the spankin' spoon, 'it doesn't matter mama, 'cause it won't really hurt.' ... let's just see about that one, sister.

i guess my only hope is that whatever nut house i end up in during her teenage years subscribes to soap net so i can keep up with y&r. and that they have diet dr. pepper too. and twitter. and eyeliner.

love & thank Heaven for little girls,

well that was fun.

2011-06-19T21:45:00.000-05:00

...dear blogger - your spacing issues have driven me do drink. and now i'm too sleepy/tipsy to deal with it anymore. please @ your apologies to my dear readers. janky. ...

so.

as of 1:30 ~~this~~ last friday (so i may have started this post a week ago and then punked. shocker!) afternoon, school is out. finally, mercifully, didn't-think-it-was-ever-gonna-happen out.

i gave myself last weekend to soak up some sun, sip some frozen margaritas by the pool and sleep off the last nine weeks' worth of whiny children, curriculum workshops, and cafeteria duty. then since monday i've managed to clean house (next time i'm burning the sumbiatch to the ground and starting over. truth.), buy groceries (my first serious solo trip since it was cold enough to wear uggs - i had a good run!), cook a few legit dinners (thanks to my twitter peeps for hooking a sister up!), run a bajillion errands (and spend a bajillion dollars in the process), have a few fun lunches and spend a few (read: double digit) more hours by the pool.

ohhh sweet summertime, how i love thee.

i figured the treasure trove of great iphone photos i've managed to accrue lately was as good a way as any to kick off what i hope is an upswing in blog content. (same song, different verse. i know. i'm awful. y'all just ignore me. fo' real.)

found a few old photos. as in, old school polaroids. flipping fantastic.

this would be my mama shu and papa shu. and belvedere the dachshund, who left more of a legacy than most human members of our family. and their favorite granddaughter. (three guesses who the cutie could be. and the first two don't count!)

papa shu and yours truly at what i can only assume is my very first christmas. swoon.

blair and me in galveston. mama and papa shu took us for spring break one year. my second favorite trip ever. (the first is a tie between the summer we road tripped to vegas with mama and papa shu and the summers we spent in nana and daddy bob's condo in destin. it was a tough life back then, y'all!)

saw this driving around one day. i'ma say they be a little confuzzled. like duh.

my sweet dad played for the razorbacks when he was in college. (rickey shu - #52 in your program but #1 in your heart!) at some point the o-line was referred to as the clydesdales. obvi, this photo was a must. love me some rcs!

the wild woman came to field day at mommy's school. and when it was over, she read (sister girl was pretty close to the original ... it's our current bedtime favorite, so she has the majority of it memorized. the best part is her expressions. melts my heart.) green eggs and ham to the munchkins. beyond presh! (notice the crossed legs.)

so i caved and started doing couch 2 5k. and what's even more shocking is that i'm absolutely loving it. i figured out a few weeks ago that i was either going to start running or doing bodily harm to others. and since we all know (prison) orange isn't really my color, i laced up my hot pink shox and got down to business.

drove an hour to watch my oldest niece play softball. stayed until midnight. had a ball!! (pun totally intended. ha!)

clearly, the funnel cake (and subsequent sour punch straws) i ate for dinner was a sizable chunk of the fun.

my girl and i are logging some serious pool time. i just love how thrilled she looks to be hanging out with good ol' mom. (and an editorial note: i fought as hard as i could against the too-big princess swimsuit in favor of the cute pink rosette one she got in her easter basket, but i obviously lost.)

i'd like to kiss the genius behind puddle jumpers squarely on the mouth.

i'm raising a (ridiculously fair-skinned) little fish. and buying almost unimaginable quantities of spf 70.

...i somehow deleted the photo that was supposed to go here and can't get it back. just imagine a screenshot of my online checking account register with lots of entries from businesses in BROOKLYN...

we kicked off our memorial day holiday by finding out that some idiot in brooklyn, ny had stolen my debit card number to the tune of hundreds of dollars. electronics, pet supplies, shoes, clothes, and fast food fried chicken. (yah. you heard me.) thank the Lord for a bank with fraud protection!

and a quick question. what kind of num~~nuts~~skull steals a debit card and goes to frickin' kfc? twice?! we were clearly dealing with the creme de la creme of criminal society. whiskey. tango. foxtrot.

we spent that afternoon by the pool at my mom's. drinking leftover party punch. spiked with vodka. (just keepin' it real, y'all.) i was so distressed about the monetary theft situation that i didn't even care about the cup in which my slushy nerve pill was served. as long as that bad boy stayed full, i couldn't have cared less.

we got brave and took the two wild women to my youngest sister's (outdoor, inferno-esque) graduation a couple of weeks ago.

they did okay for the most part.

except for when they didn't.

i was quite thankful for the fireworks. they helped drown out at least some of the drama.

ignore my sweaty/puffy/flat-haired/stressed out self and focus instead on my precious mama shu. i'm not sure i can really put into words how i feel about her. i hope at least a tiny piece of that comes across here.

sisters. i'd like to pop them both in the mouth on quite frequent occasions, but i still love 'em.

i almost got a great shot of the grads tossing their caps. alllll-most. thanks, dude.

my girl and me on mom's birthday. someone please let her know it's time for her to STOP growing.

we both love us a good mad face.

she's much better at these than i am.

and this one is just downright disturbing. but so are we.

the wild woman and the birthday girl.

trying to convince pawpaw to let her drive the gator. (he did. duh. thank the Lord for wide open spaces!)

the girl loves her some grandparents. spoiled much, kid?

this came on the radio the other night. i don't actually have an anthem, but if i did, this would TOTALLY be it.

love & i ain't gotta set an alarm clock for two whole months (please don't hate me!!!),

hippity hop.

2011-04-24T22:50:00.002-05:00

happy easter, y'all!

what a day!

church, lunch with my family, tranquilizer darts (okay so maybe not really on that one, but a girl can wish!), naps on the couch, hiding easter eggs in the house 2948 times and a few almond joy & snickers eggs peppered in there for good measure.

in all my lameness (i totally punked this year and bought plastic eggs and stickers. never even gave a thought to dying eggs for real. and probably won't until the wild woman is old enough to figure out what she's missing.) i didn't even manage to snap a photo of sophie b's easter basket.

my girl woke up to a couple of cute new swimsuits (one of which is her very first bikini! sorry daddy, but i the easter bunny just had to do it.), a new big girl cup, some cute stickers (she is OBSESSED!), and an m&ms bunny.

we really made an effort this year to scale back on the amount of stuff involved with today. we've talked for a couple of weeks about what happened to Jesus and the sacrifices He made so that we can go to Heaven some day, and we wanted that to be the focal point of everything we celebrated.

of course, that conversation stirred up all kinds of thoughts of daddy bob in that sweet little head of hers ... so we talked about him and how he lives with Jesus and will be waiting for us.

i'd be lying if i didn't tell you that going to church was a little harder today than it's been in a while. it was exactly nine months ago that we lost our sweet guy. i can only imagine the kind of easter morning he witnessed on the streets of gold!

every year our church does easter lilies that you can buy in memory or in honor of people you love. then they line them along the front of the church easter morning and you can take them home after the service.

i bought two this year - one in memory of precious daddy bob and one in honor of our amazing nana. both were listed in the program as being from sophie & my niece kennedy. super sweet!

we were early enough (shocker! like totally!) that i had the chance to snap a few (blurry - sorry! she's wild and i'm not so good with the camera settings.) photos of my girl in her seriously beyond adorable dress from the laughing giraffe with some of the lilies.

y'all please tell me i'm crazy. i look at this and can TOTALLY see her at 16 posing like this with a bunch of friends at waffle house after a football game. mama can't take it!

i told her to look down and this is what i got. ha! at least it's a good shot of the fantastic hairbow my mom made her. :)

we went to lunch with my mom & stepdad, nana, blair & kennedy and mom bea (my stepdad's adorable mom - love her!) after church, and the experience was nothing less than what you would expect from two toddlers and their attitudes. for every one person there telling them to sit down, stop throwing food and stop shrieking about needing to go to the potty, there were four more telling them to just have fun (thus my wishful thinking for tranquilizers).

after we ~~finished~~ survived lunch my mom had the bright idea to attempt some cousin photos in the parking lot on what is probably one of the busiest lunch times of the year. winning!

after almost 5 hours of easter fun i didn't even attempt to solicit poses from the girls. i just started clicking as fast as my little canon would click while mom and nana kept them from getting run over.

i love love LOVE how much these girls love each other. they fight like a couple of cats one minute and console each other the next. it totally cracks me up that they can smack each other in the face and then ask each other what's the matter when they're both crying. ha!

sweet (for the moment anyway) little best friends ...

love & peter cottontail ain't got nothin' on me,

i ain't as good as i once was ...

2011-04-13T10:55:00.000-05:00

.... but (let's hope!) i'm as good once as i ever was. ... name that song, y'all!

(disclaimer: i haven't an earthly {or non-earthly, for that matter} clue as to why the spacing is so janky. unless it has to do with the double-digit number of days this post has been languishing in my drafts. oops. i've messed with it for almost 45 minutes, and i'm at a crossroads. it's either post it or delete it. so now, in true managerial fashion, i'm passing my problem on to you. hope something here makes you smile on this pretty day! holla!)

so i clearly am not nearly as good/organized/awe-inspiring as i thought i was.

and because i know it won't shock you, let me just go ahead and mention that the number of y&r episodes currently ~~cluttering up~~ waiting patiently in my horridly neglected dvr is more than my age.

(d.o.b. 8.9.83. do the math.)

anyhow.

my short-lived attempt at getting better with my big girl camera was just that ... blah. but i have some super-fun things to show you from my beloved phone.

surely there's something here to make you giggle!

i. can't. help. myself. oh, y'all. if you've been here before, you know the story of my obsession. and if you haven't, just use your imagination. at least these are seasonal though!

i hit the road a few (umm, almost 5 ... shame on me!) weeks ago for my very first solo trip outside my zip code since before i got preggers with the wild woman almost 4 years ago. kids, husbands, and dogs alike were left to their own devices for nearly 48 hours - mama needed OUT.

this was also the first time i've taken the 4runner on a for-real road trip. shades on, sunroof open, music way up, and a happy hour diet dr. pepper in the cup holder. i was a happy, happy girl for the entire 4-hour trip. (minus the fricking fracking chip in the windshield thanks to a fricking fracking rock from a fricking fracking truck. frick.)

if you don't immediately know where i was going just by looking at this photo, i'm not sure we can be friends anymore. (but since i'm feeling generous on this gorgeous wednesday, i'll give you a hint ... WOO PIG!!!!!)

that's right, kids. mama hit the road for fayetteville!! and a little mini-reunion with the world's greatest friend, roommate and bridesmaid EVER. she even had a cute new wine glass waiting for me when i got there! seriously LOVE that girl. she's seen me through some of the best (and worst) moments in the last 10 years and STILL speaks to me on a regular basis. which is HUGE.

we (along with two other awesome peeps) may or may not have used our pretty new stemware to drain six bottles of stella rosa in a little under two hours.

and then we may or may not have stayed up most of the night laughing and talking and staring in total thought-we-were-too-old-for-this-but-it-sure-is-fun disbelief at the empty bottles lined up on the counter.

i'd been in town less than 4 minutes when i decided i never wanted to come back. (except to pick up the wild woman, hubby, and the pups. or maybe i could have them fed-exed to me up there?!)

even my mangy, split-ended, flat-ironed-within-an-inch-of-its-limp-life hair minded its manners. i was totally sold.

oh my dear, dear hogtrnr (pronounced hog trainer). how i love thee! hogtrnr + jshu = truluv4everrrrrr.

and in case you're wondering about our freaking fantastic nicknames, i'll just tell you that in college we discovered we loved about 24155 of the same things ... one of them being personalized tags.

xo, hogtrnr! can't wait to come back!

it only took us 5 stops at 5 different razorback stores in 3 different zip codes (truth!), but we finally found a suitable hitch cover for my ride! and in true hogtrnr fashion, she shined the back window on my car while we were putting this bad boy on ... girlfriend just can't tolerate a dirty vehicle.

instead of doing more serious damage to the world's red wine population on saturday night, we had the bright idea to make our own sangria. in an aqua blue bucket. and then meticulously pick out the pulp with a tee-tiny mesh strainer 'cuz it made us want to gag. but otherwise, the stuff was surprisingly yummy!

the kitchen table games got so serious that big mama even had to bust out the first ponytail since before i had the wild woman. (puffy face + ponytaill = no no.)

i refuse to tell you which college-inspired oldie we were playing at the time, but i was TERRIBLE at it. dice just never have been my friends.

we moved on to dominoes at some point, and my luck mercifully started to turn around. i was first out for three or four rounds in a row ... probably due to beginner's luck. but y'all better believe i played it off like i was the greatest domino player since ... well ... never mind. ha!

and then i lost the last dozen or so games. frick.

as much fun as i had on the hill with my all-time best buddy, this mama was starting to miss my sweet (sassy!) wild woman and her daddy pretty badly by sunday morning.

my absence had made me quite unpopular with the pint-sized princess ... until i started handing out the presents. of course.

my little sweetie requested dog ears that morning 'cause dog ears are for big girls, mommy. and only big girls wear a hog on their shirt. right, mommy? 'cause you're REALLY big.

too true, sweet girl. too true.

i also snagged some new pink shades for the wild woman from baby gap ... which means now she's just like mommy when we're in the car - shades on, favorite drink in the cup holder, bubble gum smacking a mile a minute.

(a good friend once told me that a lady never chews gum ... hmmmmm. ... my response? i never professed myself to be a lady. ha!)

you may remember me telling you that almost immediately upon my return from faytown i fell victim to a miserable case of pneumonia ... and ringworm ... and an infected salivary gland (more on that coming soon). i'm shamelessly using those as a cop-out excuse for the miserable state of the playroom over pretty much the entire week of spring break.

and my bedroom.

(this shot was taken on wednesday ... i think. i got home sunday night. sick.)

i was feeling almost human again by friday of that week, so hubby and i headed out with a friend of his to shoot some guns.

(i SO wish this photo hadn't turned out so fuzzy ... it's one of my all-time favorites!)

i sent this to a few friends and my dad with the caption what does this do for your blood pressure?!

that cute little black number was the only thing i shot ... i was pretty intimidated by everythingelse. one of the shells kicked back and touched my face and i FREAKED for a second thinking i'd shot myself.

winner!

then my situation had headed south again. i woke up saturday morning with a large (think ping pong ball-sized ... seriously.) knot on the side of my neck.

it hurt to touch and became increasingly sore as the day went on ... my sister (she's a nurse) guessed that the infection from everything else had settled in the glands (or are they lymph nodes?! whatever.) in that area and that i'd probably be fine in a day or two.

ummm, no.

we took nana to sunday lunch after church, and i thought i was going to die on the spot. in the middle of bryce's. before i even got to eat my mac & cheese.

my only option was a walk-in clinic by our house ... where i had to wait FOREVER.

my biggest fear was that i'd have to get a shot.

and with the Lord as my witness, i WISH that had been the worst of it.

i started compulsively asking about the shot over and over (totally par for the course for me at the doctor. i don't stop asking until i'm in my car backing out of the parking lot. it's a sickness.) and then the dude (doctor) just started laughing.

he very obnoxiously popped on a latex glove and was still giggling (yes. he. was.) when he informed me that i might get a 'tad' uncomfortable while he put his hand in my mouth.

say wha?!

oh. yes. he. did.

apparently the knot wasn't housing an infection - if you remember from this post, it was a blocked salivary gland - you know, the kind whose treatment was to suck on something hard.

y'all forgive me for saying that two posts in a row ... i just couldn't help it. ha!

moving on!

any of y'all who have been around for more than five minutes are already well aware of my wild woman's obsession with all things dance and dance-related.

well.

we had the opportunity to take a friend's girls to dance a couple of weeks ago at the same studio where my girl will start in september.

i don't know who was more excited ... miss priss or me?!

she stood in the door with her cute little mouth just hanging open for almost half an hour. every now and then she'd turn around, eyes wide, and tell me in a half whisper/half yell .. 'MOMMY! it's BALLERINAS!!!!!!!!'

we totally can't wait.

i'll be spray painting 18 pairs of tap shoes in the backyard before i know it!

love & guess who's been EARLY to work for more than a month .... this girl!!!,

alive.

2011-03-20T21:35:00.002-05:00

so i'm alive y'all.

by the skin of my teeth.

which, if it's like everything else on my train-wreck self, will jump ship any second.

it all started when i got a cough.

then i went to fayetteville for the weekend to visit my too-fantastic-for-words college roommate (hiya, hogtrnr!!!!!) and acted like a total FOOL (major fun, major lapse in good judgment - would do it again in a HEARTBEAT).

(p.s. - full recap coming this week. mama's back on the blogging horse, kiddies. watch out!)

upon coming home, my immune system attacked me and i immediately started running a 104-degree fever. as in, less than an hour after i pulled in the driveway.

then my respiratory system went awol and tried to kill me.

then i thought i was better and skipped a day of my medicine. (if there was a 12-step program for being a nightmare of a patient, i would be the poster child.)

then the sickness from hey-ull reared its ugly head again and put me back on my arse with another 104-degree fever.

then i discovered a .... wait for it .... RINGWORM. in a spot no one should EVER discover such grossness. (just keepin' it real, y'all. i promise you can't catch it through the computer screen.)

then i woke up yesterday with a cluster of ulcers under my tongue and two huge swollen knots on the sides of my neck.

then i thought i was dying.

then i caved and went to the doctor, my mind wholly consumed with all the ways i could avoid a shot. (hellloooooo, ringworm!)

then the doc informed me that the golf ball on the side of my neck has nothing to do with the respiratory distress from earlier in the week - it's actually a blocked salivary gland.

(basically - it's going to hurt. it's going to have to go away on its own. it's going to last 'hours, days or weeks' according to the doc. read: it's going to majorly suck. sorry, mom.)

THEN he told me the treatment plan for sialadenitis ... AND I QUOTE:

"you really need to suck on something hard to make those glands produce."

ohhhhhh. emmmmm. geeeeeee.

before you choke on whatever was in your mouths when you read that sentence, let me just share that i have not enlightened my main man with those words of wisdom this fine evening.

i just couldn't deal with that tonight. ha!

naturally, i went to target for $2 worth of lemon drops and peppermints .... and came out with nearly $200 in clothes, hair stuff, and cute sharpies for school.

please don't act surprised. we all know you're not.

so. to recap.

my respiratory system hates me. my skin hates me. my neck and glands hate me. i spent too much money at target.

i can't wait to see what's next.

love & it's back to reality - blahhhhh,

don't PANIC.

2011-03-08T21:15:00.002-06:00

happy ~~monday~~ tuesday, y'all!

(i totally started this post yesterday and then punked. oops.)

hope your weekends were off the chain (does that make me sound cool?!), pretty girls ... 'cause mine was fan-freaking-tastic.

i kicked it off by being ridiculously early to work on friday morning. i even took a picture of the clock when i got in my car because i knew nobody would believe me! i showed it around school all day like some kind of trophy.

(and so you know, i was early every single day last week. and i managed to stop at sonic every single day last week. i also freaked out everybody i work with every single day last week. apparently my being fashionably late is something to be counted on much like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west and every season of real housewives becoming more trashy than the last. one of my good buddies {hi, s!} even said she wasn't sure we could be friends anymore now that we didn't have anything in common. ha!)

yes, y'all. that would be the time in the a.m. thankyouverymuch.

in the interest of full disclosure, i feel like i should tell you that my random-onset punctuality wasn't my only claim to fame at school last week.

as i was trying to do a good deed and give our too-awesome-for-words receptionist a break to freshen up her coffee and have a few minutes away from her desk, i managed to strike fear and panic in the hearts of the entire office staff while trying to unlock the front door for a parent.

(the button that opens the door is mounted under the desk ... totally fancy!)

being the common-sense-challenged lefty that i am, i naturally dominate to the left side of things - so when i looked under the desktop and saw a button on the left, i (very wrongly) assumed it was for the door.

it never occurred to me to look at the other side to see there was a second button and then ponder which one was which.

i smiled my biggest, trust-me-i'm-a-pro-at-this smile and waved at the mom to come in while i pressed the button.

except nothing happened.

i laid on the button for several seconds before letting go --- and still nothing.

hmmm.

i got up and went to open the door, laughing all the way about the silly thing not opening. i had no sooner popped open the door when a handful of very agitated-looking co-workers burst through the office door into the foyer looking very, well, panicked.

everyone started talking at the same time wanting to know if we were okay and what the emergency was. one friend {hi, d!} was even coming out of her jacket and earrings, getting ready to save the day.

say wha?!

by this time, all the blood had drained from my face (but i was still cherry red .. ha!), and big, salty, embarrassed tears were starting to form. the poor mom was totally shell-shocked and barely managed a nervous laugh in my direction.

as i'm sure you've already figured out, the button i chose (and held for several very long seconds) was very clearly not the door lock - it was instead the silent panic alarm installed to allow the person at the desk to call for help if a dangerous situation were ever to arise.

i left the area in tears and was mortified for the rest of the day - i called the front office at least a handful of times to make sure they weren't mad at me. i'm pretty sure the only thing that could have made it worse was if the police had shown up.

y'all.

i hit the door as soon as the clock ticked down that afternoon and prayed to all that was good and holy that my infamy would die out before the next day.

ummm, yah. right.

i walked in bright and early the next morning to find this little beauty taped to my box ....

and this one was taped to the FRONT DESK for all to see.

i later found a third installment taped to the filing cabinet in the front office. i rounded up the first two pretty quickly, and from what i hear, the last one made its appearance after that.

the culprit was our beloved coach {hi, t!} ... he was so proud of himself. ha!

i'm pretty sure there's still at least one panic button roaming around somewhere on campus ... and crazy as it sounds, the whole thing has made me feel so included. they wouldn't possibly harass me so mercilessly if they didn't love me, right?!

these last few photos aren't anything too particularly special ... just a few glimpses into my sweet sunday afternoon.

any guesses, y'all? (if you know me at all, it'll be a cinch.)

i love all things leopard print ... except for my ride. the poor 4runner was in pretty terrible shape - nothing like a drive through the car wash with the music so loud it vibrates the windows!

and then there's my dirty little secret.

i may or may not have slipped these babies in the house without volunteering from whence they originated.

a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do (to protect her many addictions).

love & stay tuned tomorrow for my reaction to coach and his bevvy of panic buttons,

shades on. sunroof open. music up.

2011-02-28T22:30:00.001-06:00

so anybody else downloaded the hipstamatic app for iphone?

love it, like major. totally makes my otherwise-pathetic phone photos look like something at least blog-worthy.

score.

anyhow.

i really wish i had something share-worthy for you tonight but i'm totally fried, save for the lime green, mile-long-and-mounting to-do list staring at me from my otherwise-cute giraffe print day planner.

(anybody else on adjective overload?! forgive me - it's our language arts focus this week. i'm a walking, talking, noun-describing machine. --- oops. did it again. ignore me, y'all. my sanity has left the building.)

knowing that the last big push to spring break (9 more school days. dear Lord, please see us through. {read: please let me not run out of bubble gum to smack or sonic peppermints to crack instead of being smart-a with the children.} amen.) would be a total killer (truth!), i took the opportunity this weekend to soak up a little me time.

hubby had to work the whole time, and while i hate it for him, i'd be lying if i didn't say i enjoyed a few hours here and there to do whatever. i. wanted.

the next few photos pretty much sum it up.

shades on. sunroof open. music up.

i didn't realize how much i needed to decompress until i got the chance to do it.

please don't misunderstand me - i cherish the sweet man, wild little woman and two four-legged children that are my world, but ignoring my own mental health doesn't do any of us any favors.

anybody remember that old adage if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy? too true, y'all. too true.

i got my toes did (yes, i say it that way in real life too. judge away.) for the first time since september (no judging there - it's too pathetic.), drank more diet dr. pepper than can possibly be healthy, and spent a little time wandering around target. heaven.

my most treasured find of the weekend was new eyeliner. trashy or not, i can't get enough of black eyeliner. just thick and smudged enough to attract a little attention, but not thick enough to start attracting dollar bills.

sorry, y'all. gotta keep it real.

and with that little nugget, i believe i'll leave you and head to bed before midnight for the first time since i can remember.

i'll also leave you with this hipstamatic-ed photo of one of the paintings behind our bed - i thought it was fun.

love & there's 3 minutes of your life you'll never get back,

worth the marital risk: the laughing giraffe.

2011-02-25T09:25:00.000-06:00

Y'ALL.

so i've done something you have to hear about. 'cause Lord knows i'm not ready to tell hubby. there's no sense in inviting trouble to the party any earlier than absolutely necessary. (read: i'm keeping my trap shut 'til he checks the mail {or our bank statement} and finds the evidence.)

like any good girl mommy, i started dreaming about easter outfits not long after christmas was over.

i looked at a couple of places in town but wasn't particularly impressed - nothing seemed quite special enough. blah.

i'd looked on etsy and found a couple of cute options ... sweet pillowcase dresses with satin ribbons and even a pattern for a cute outfit that nana said she'd be willing to attempt. but then the idea of ordering fabric, measuring the wild woman and having to endure the hellish experience of multiple fittings to get everything just right got pretty overwhelming. never mind how sticky the situation would have gotten if nana put in all that work and then i didn't love it. i get twitchy just thinking about it.

so.

i sat down during my conference period on tuesday to write lesson plans (which are still sneering at me from the corner of my desk - UNdone.) but naturally ended up perusing etsy 'for just a sec.'

i actually wasn't even looking for myself - my partner teacher mentioned she had never heard of etsy (ohh. emm. gee. are you living under a rock, sister?!) and wanted to know how to look for personalized birthday goodies for her sweet baby boy. i showed her the keywords i use to search (in this case: easter dress 5t {ordering it big enough so we can hopefully get a couple of years' worth of wear out of it.}) and how to narrow down the results to hone in on what you're really looking for.

and then, when i wasn't even really looking for it, i found the most adorable dress i've ever seen. times 3.

the shop is the laughing giraffe, and the fantastically talented creator is the too-sweet linda (she answered my constant barrage of questions and never batted an eye!), who does all of the designing and sewing herself. her shop is FULL of precious monogrammed clothes - for girls, boys & adults too! - and other personalized gifts and pretties that are indescribably irresistible.

i did my best to narrow down the choices for the wild woman's easter ensemble but quickly found myself hitting a wall. there was no way to choose.

so i didn't.

i ordered 3 dresses. at the same time. and i never even flinched.

before you see them, allow me to lay out my entire palette of rationalization. (i worked hard on this and y'all are my dress rehearsal before i have to take the stage in front of hubs when i get busted!)

1. the prices are shockingly reasonable for being handmade AND monogrammed.

2. all 3 are size 5t and can be worn for a good long while - AND 2 of the 3 are adjustable and can even be worn as shirts when they're too short to be dresses.

3. i didn't buy her an easter dress last year because we re-wore the one from the year before. so really, that means i only bought 1 extra dress instead of 2. you know, if you make one of them retroactive to count for last year.

thoughts? observations? tips for improvement?

i doubt i'll ever convince hubby with any of these, but with any luck he'll at least get tired of me talking and drop it just so i'll shush.

my ultimate goal is to dodge the conversation until he's locked in a black ops death match and wired on sweet tea. a girl can dream, huh?
but back to the dresses. i can't get enough. and the coke money in my wallet says you can't either!

...all of the images you're about to see are taken directly from the laughing giraffe with express permission from the shop owner...

the molly. this one will be her easter dress ... i'm pairing it with the white ruffly petticoat pants she wore under last year's dress and a pretty white cardigan if the weather is cool. i'm thinking a high ponytail with a GIANT bow to finish it off. total swoon!

the mia. the only way i can think to describe this one is perfect. i love the knots and that it can be worn for a long time. i was torn between this one and another one i'll show you later, but like lots of my twitter friends said, i think the fun combo of colors and pattern just scream wild woman.

the poppy. this one was more for me than it was for my girl - i am pretty much obsessed with this fabric and these colors. it's another one that she can wear a couple of different ways, and i'm so excited about getting good wear out of some of her monogrammed pretties. (it makes me SO sad to retire anything monogrammed.) i'm also thinking this one could stretch into fall with some cute jeans and a long sleeve shirt underneath.

as much as i hated to stop my shopping spree at 3, i figured it was best to exercise at least a small degree of self control. (3 dresses instead of 13. baby steps, folks. baby steps.)

here are a few of the others that i hated to leave behind (at least for round 1 - there's always memorial day to think about!) ...

the violet. there are quite a few color combinations for this dress. the ruffled collar melts me. you have GOT to go check them out. totally presh. like wow.

the meredith. this is the one i was so torn about. i ended up going with the mia - but i adore how classic this one is. i'm a total sucker for seersucker, and i'm not totally sure i won't end up with this one too at some point.

the sweet pea. Y'ALL. i can't get over this one. if an unhealthy percentage of her closet weren't already pink and brown, this one definitely would've ended up in the cart too. ohmygoodnessgracious.

the charlotte. the sash. i die.

the elle. heavens to betsy. help me, rhonda.

the cooper. a seersucker jon-jon?!? almost enough to make me want another bambino right this second. not quite - but almost. there are several variations of this one too - just another reason to visit the laughing giraffe!

i told you she made gorgeous things for adults! a little more success on the weight watchers front (and back, for that matter) and this hot little number will be mine. no doubt.

who doesn't love a seersucker tie??? loooove.

monogrammed prissy pants. i better stay far, far away lest the cuteness sucks me into a bout of baby fever.

she even monograms sippy cups!

have y'all ever SEEN such cuteness?!

and in related news, have y'all ever seen a grown woman literally skip to the mailbox?

do yourselves a favor and visit the laughing giraffe. i promise you'll love the pretties, and i promise you'll love linda.

(fine print: this isn't a compensated review in any way, shape or form. i simply found the laughing giraffe and loved it so much that i asked linda if i could blog about her fantastic talents. thanks, linda!)

love & the Lord knew i was meant to be a girl mama,

out of the mouths of babes. and a(nother) sad obsession.

2011-02-23T20:35:00.000-06:00

so there isn't much to report 'round these parts this week.

it's pretty much school, work, rita's, wash, rinse, repeat.

the highlight of our recent days was the wild woman's haircut yesterday afternoon.

(don't worry - it was just a trim. which is exactly what i told my mother all 7 times she checked with me to be sure i wasn't going have the girl's head shaved or something else equally tragic.)

i snapped this with my phone and sent it to her daddy with a caption that read she's so big!!

and she is.

there have been a handful of times lately that i've stopped in my tracks and just sat in awe of how grown up she is. and consequently, how grown up that mouth is too.

since i'm sure we could all use a good wednesday chuckle, i figured i'd share a few of her most recent declarations.......

addressing her daddy while we were eating dinner and having the usual how-was-your-day conversation ... daddy. you DO NOT speak to my mother! you just eat your food and be QUI-ETTT. did you hear me?

while making herself red in the face and working hard to accomplish some potty-related business in the bathroom at target (gross!) this afternoon ... oh no. my face is blowin' up!

from her perch in the back seat while i'm navigating 5 o'clock traffic (and cussing under my breath) ... you just gotta hold that circle and move the other cars outta the way so you can go. drive hard, mommy!

as she was pulling at the collar of my sweatshirt and plunging one ice cold little paw down the front of it ... MOTHER. i just need to look at your bumps!

in an attempt to avoid bedtime yet again ... mommy, if that big monkey tries to bite me, you gotta spank him on his bottom. don't spank him on his butt, 'cause we don't say butt. we say bottom. so you just gotta spank his bottom. OH and mommy! we don't say ass either. night night!

standing in front of the full-length mirror in the bathroom just after getting out of the bathtub ... i just need to do my wiggle dance while i'm naked (pronounced 'nekkid'). that's how you're 'posed to do it, mama! ... says who, kid?! jenna jameson?! i think not!

when she realized that i had in fact removed the previously chewed wad of gum she was saving for later in the fridge of her barbie dream house ... awww crap, mom.

and my personal favorite - when i started coughing the other night for whatever oddball reason ... uh-uh mama! you don't frow up anymore. and neither does daddy. 'cause when you frowed up and daddy frowed up and i had to go to nana's house 'cause i didn't like the frow up. so you feel better. you don't feel bad. you're not gonna frow up. understand?

yes, darling. i understand.

poor kid. our post-christmas battle with the stomach bug seems to have scarred her for life. so much as a hiccup from either of us and the wild woman loses her cheerios. big time.

and speaking of frow up (how'd ya like that for a segue?! gag.), i caved and bought enough of these babies last night to make me sick until at least halloween. maybe even new year's.

i tried to talk myself out of them before they ever hit the stores, but resistance was futile. i was in the check-out line with a basketful within minutes of the first sighting on facebook.

cadbury: 1 . will power: 0

errrr, actually, it should read more like cadbury: 36 . will power: 0.

i should probably have at least a slight twinge of guilt over this severe lapse in judgment, but i most definitely don't. i only let myself have 1 a day, and when easter is over, so is my obsession.

(i looked it up last night and each egg is 4 points, which is actually lower than i had guessed. easily doable if i cut out the skinny lattes i managed to get myself hooked on - and that's really not a big deal since i've found i don't' love them as much as the weather is getting warmer. yessss! ... gotta love a little early-morning rationalization.)

and don't get me on my soapbox about the mini-eggs or the caramel or the chocolate versions. there is ONE and ONLY one cadbury egg. the original. the granddaddy. the one true incarnation of a perfect springtime confection.

as far as i'm concerned, the others may as well be lumped into the same pitiful category with new coke and that miserable attempt Gap made at changing their classic logo last year.

sad.

love & this morning when i pushed the button at sonic the guy just came on and said i know,

a broom full of chili.

2011-02-17T11:45:00.001-06:00

so our valentine date was beyond lovely. it was beyond simple too, which for me contributed a large chunk of the loveliness.

hubby was decked out in his favorite powder blue polo, those dark jeans that make my palms all sweaty (just keepin' it real) and his beloved leather flip flops. i opted for my favorite taupe gap turtleneck, a long teal cardigan, jeans and leopard print ballet flats that i practically stole from the gap outlet last summer ($2.99. seriously.). i include this tidbit so you understand just how simple i mean.

we're not fancy, dress up-y people by any stretch of the imagination. if he can't wear jeans, my hubby's probably not going. he does have a few nice pairs of slacks and a couple of good suits (and ties too!) for special occasions, but they definitely aren't part of his regular rotation.

back to our date though ... we left for dinner about 5:30 in hopes of beating most of the crowds and actually managed to avoid any kind of wait at the restaurant. (we got there at just the right time - a line had formed out the door before we even had our drinks. score!)

our dinner destination was a new mongolian grill here in town, and we both loved it. you get a bowl and then go through a line to choose everything you want - proteins, veggies, seasonings and sauce and then hand it to one of the guys behind the grill to cook. at that point you also choose a starch - steamed or fried rice, noodles, tortillas, etc.

the first time was a little intimidating for a girl who likes to find something she likes at a place and then order the same thing every time she goes. i grabbed whatever i thought looked good and totally guessed on the seasonings and sauce and just hoped it would all work together.

oh. my. YUM.

i couldn't tell you what all ended up in that bowl if i tried, but i know i'm still thinking about it more than 48 hours later. hubby was equally smitten with his concoction, and we already have plans to go back this weekend with some friends. my tummy is super excited, but i'm sure the weight watchers app on my phone is ...... not.

i waived the white flag about three quarters of the way through my bowl, but my go-for-the-gold husband polished his off with only minimal abdominal or esophageal rebellion. then he had the nerve to order some kind of molten chocolate cake. (which was only so-so ... i can spot a frozen dessert at a hundred paces. but. it was still chocolate, and it would have been a pity to waste it.) that i somehow ate at least (read: definitely more) than half of. the fact that i was even physiologically able to ingest so much food left me with the only explanation that really makes sense:

there must be some kind of second stomach/tank/receptacle area in the body that is reserved only for chocolate.

and mine must be uncharacteristically large.

we enjoyed a blissfully low-key supper, one free of the standard half dozen trips to the restroom, flying salt and pepper shakers and a knife-obsessed three year old.

as we waddled back out the car we kicked around the idea of seeing a movie but quickly decided neither of us would be able to stay awake that long. we opted instead for a quick trip to the mall. (please don't be jealous of our high profile evening on the town. i know you must be positively green with envy.)

you may remember that i had gifted hubby with two valentines already: a dumb xbox game and a dumb xbox headset. both of which he adored.

he, however, had yet to purchase anything for moi. which was totally, swear-on-a-stack-of-diet-dr.-peppers fine with me. beyond a new bottle of perfume (which i have zero shame in buying for myself), i'm pretty content. but when we walked into dillard's to find a massive shoe sale i certainly didn't hesitate when he suggested i look around a little.

i walked out with a cute pair of metallic gold flats with big buckles on the toes for 70% less than they were originally priced. and with a secret intent to go back tomorrow when i can more fully investigate the situation. alone.

we made a final sashay through the gap (nothing terribly exciting to report there - except maybe for the extra % off of girls' sale items. another situation that i'll be fact-finding tomorrow. will keep you posted.) and decided to head on home. (read: i stuffed myself stupid and wanted out of those jeans. immediately.)

hubby took the long way back to the house and we enjoyed a little quiet time and got a little mushy reminiscing about all of our valentines past. (this was our 10th one together.) total dorks.

our little date barely lasted two hours, but it was long enough to remind me of all the reasons i love that man of mine so much. we got home, got comfortable and were sound asleep by 10. (well, one of us was asleep by 10. the other one was up until after 1 playing black ops.)

hubby didn't have to work the next day, which meant i got about an extra half hour of sleep. i drug myself up with just enough time to get ready and allow for a stop at sonic on my way to school.

on my way through the kitchen to let the boys out for their morning stroll i decided some leftover turkey chili sounded good for lunch and grabbed the (nearly full) casserole dish out of the fridge. i put it on the counter and tried to take off the lid, but nothing budged. .... so i pulled on it a little harder and still no dice.

the tragedy that befell me immediately following that moment can only be attributed to the disastrous combination of my early-morning deficit in fine motor skills and my early-morning propensity to instant rage at the drop of a hat - or in this case, the drop ... er, shattercrashexplosion ... of a ceramic casserole full of once delicious, but now totally disgusting, chili.

the third time i yanked on the lid, i managed to sling the entire thing frisbee-style across my kitchen. in hindsight, i probably had time to catch it before it ricocheted off the laundry room door and exploded all over the floor, but instead i just stood there in shock.

i don't' think i moved a muscle for at least a minute, maybe longer. everything was covered: the floor, the rug, the white cabinets (there was even chili inside some of them that i didn't find until today. sick.), the microwave (which is a good 5 feet off the ground in its little cabinet - just wanted to give you an idea of the breadth of the splatter), the top of the stove, the oven door, the door to the laundry room, the front of the washing machine (which was at least 7 or 8 feet from the point of impact), the side and front of the fridge, my entire right leg and both socks. (thanks be to Him that i wore socks the night before. chili between my bare toes before dawn would surely have done me in.)

the boys were still in the backyard and thankfully weren't able to track the goo from one end of the house to the other. (again, thanks be to Him.) i squished my way to the laundry room and stripped off my now soaked-through pants and socks. take a moment before we move on to enjoy that mental picture if you will - me with my greasy, dust-it-matted hair, bleary eyes, still wearing my retainer, and a ratty (and probably previously stained) razorback sweatshirt pulled down as far as the rapidly deteriorating threads would allow to cover my now pants-less lower half.

i was absolutely stunning.

i checked the clock, and by this time i had zero cushion in my schedule - in fact, i was about 17 seconds away from being late. i knew i didn't have time to clean up, get dressed and get to work.

so, i did the only thing i could think to do at the moment short of lighting the place on fire .... i woke up my poor husband on his only day off this week and begged him to clean up the mess. i tried to whisper and only poked him slightly, but the pungent combination of retainer-enhanced morning breath and cold chili startled the poor fella.

after he had a second to sit up and process the carnage all around him (not the least of which being my appearance), that sweet man got out of bed, kissed my forehead (probably the only spot that didn't smell or wasn't covered in congealed meat), told me to get dressed and then spent the next 45 minutes wiping and scooping and scouring and sweeping and mopping. and he took out all the trash. and he plugged in the scentsy. all without a single complaint or nasty comment muttered under his breath.

i peeked in the kitchen to check on him when i got out of the shower, and at that single moment, as he was sweeping another broomful of chili into the dust pan, i realized i'd never loved him more than i did right then.

forget the flowers, forget the chocolate, forget the bottles of perfume (not really - i don't want to live a life without brighton.) ... that kind of mr. clean-inspired chivalry is what romance is all about.

then he came in the bathroom while i was fighting with my hair (read: teasing it so hard i left indentations in my scalp), laid a $5 on the vanity and told me to make sure i stopped at sonic on my way to work.

God bless him. yet again.

it almost makes me hate black ops just a little bit less. but not quite.

i can only hope each one of you pretty girls is lucky enough to find someone like this someday.

love & i've gone a whole week without perfume,

iValentine.

2011-02-14T16:15:00.000-06:00

happy valentine, y'all!

i hope this day is finding you all warm and cozy ... whether it be on the outside - thanks to gorgeous sun and 70 degree weather like we are enjoying - or on the inside - thanks to your sweetheart or sweet treats or the sweet sound the cork makes when you dislodge it from the wine bottle.

i spent much of my day with the children in valentine class party hades. i'm sorry. i know this may knock me down a few notches in your eyes, (probably ain't the first time, and most definitely ain't gonna be the last, i'm sure...) but i'm the teacher who doesn't love class parties.

and when i say i don't love them, i really mean i would rather have something waxed than to participate.

maybe it's sorting and passing out 22 sets of 22 addressed valentines. or dividing 22 bags of candy among 22 lunch sacks when i should be teaching a math lesson. or opening 22 juice packs and 22 little debbies and 22 bags of chips and 22 iced cookies and putting it all on 22 plates. and then cleaning up 22 piles of crumbs and 22 sticky desks caked with cookie icing and exploded juice.

but alas, such is the life of a kindergarten teacher.

i always manage to put on a happy face (the kids deserve a good time even if all i want is to just want to kick back in my rolly chair and eat cheesecake bites i found in the lounge), break out the hot pink sharpies and get after it - calmly and controlled, of course. but only for 30 minutes. we follow the 2:00-2:30 party rule very strictly.

in my other life (the one as a mom and wife and lover of all things sparkly) though, i adore the day of the pink puffy heart.

love the pink and red, love the sparkle, love the aisles and aisles of pretty pretties, love the cute polka-dotted dishes, love the holiday candy, love the excuse to leave a cute surprise for my sweet friends, love knowing my perfume bottle won't stay empty for long. (brighton perfume is my love language. like totally.) especially love the opportunity to have a little themed fun with my favorite little wild woman.

which is exactly what we did this weekend.

i don't have pictures from saturday because we spent the vast majority of it laying around in our pj's reading books ... p-dub's black heels for mama and the berenstain bears' valentine party for sophie b.

yesterday, however, was a different story. we were up and at 'em pretty early. sadly, though, we didn't make it to church. sweet tom had a pretty sour tummy and it worried me to leave him alone. (part of me seriously thinks his run-in with rat poison a couple of summers ago weakened his insides so that even little things are a lot harder on him than they should be....)

we got dressed (i use the term loosely - sweats and mascara for mom, ballerina pj's and a tutu for priss) and headed to lunch at mama shu's house. (loooooove sunday lunches at her house. xoxo, gloria. you're the greatest.) tacos and chocolate pie - don't get much better than that.

from there we hit up sonic happy hour for an extra large diet dr. pepper (which we shared - no haters, please.), drove through the car wash and then rode around with the sunroof open while my sweet girl snoozed in the backseat. perfection.

we got home with a few good hours of warm sunshine left and made the most of it. barbie jeep driving, baseball playing, cupcake baking, valentine card decorating, chocolate eating and all kinds of other fun.

i thought it might be fun to document our afternoon adventures with my phone (read: i was too lazy to drag out the big camera) and post them here.

enjoy!

the sweetest tutu-wearing baseball player ever. maybe she'll start a trend?!

my first encounter with funfetti. i'm hooked.

my sweet helper stirred in the bits of candy.

i went in for a taste but stopped myself before she saw ... don't want her trying to copy. eek!

anybody else ever noticed how much stickier funfetti batter is? or am i just a klutz? it was like dealing with marshmallow cream.

and then the cupcakes got HUGE!

i adore looking at iced cupcakes.

they managed to turn out pretty even despite my lack of culinary sense!

that smile. i die.

not bad for a $2 decoration. cute!

i don't know who stashed the dark chocolate dove hearts all over my house, but i totally don't appreciate it.

gotta love the cute frame that's been sitting there for a month sans photo. maybe in time for next year?!

again with the chocolate. this madness has to stop!

she picked them out all by herself.

it sure was a shame that the accompanying tattoos somehow ended up in the trash.... awwww shucks!

it was quite an unfortunate moment when she realized that she had to give some of these away.

making up a few little sweet treats for my sweet school friends.

she chose and decorated a valentine for daddy.

how precious are these?! LOVE target holiday goodies.

we're rita's favorite.

like, totally.

not bad for an $8 bundle of flowers i tied up myself. LOVE how homemade they look.

the card i gave hubby last night with his gift ...

i continue to amaze myself with my lack of good sense - an xbox headset for him to talk to all the other dorks he plays with.

the card i got for him to open today ...

i added an extra caption ... which is pretty much all the time. ha!

silverlicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!

valentine goodies for the wild woman.

and this morning ... my sad little valentine.

mommy said no to her makeup jewelry - i had nightmares about purple glitter lip gloss all over this precious outfit - and so she sulked all the way to rita's.

love & a fancy, official, even though the restaurants are overcrowded we're going anyway, date night!!!!!

10 things i said or did this week in kindergarten.

2011-02-11T21:50:00.001-06:00

1. rejoiced to the Lord Almighty when we woke up to a snow day on wednesday. hallelujah to the highest!

2. sent half a pigtail home in a lunch sack after its owner hacked it off with a pair of fiskars ' just to see if they were cutty.'

3. sat back and listened to my biggest struggler read an entire story. unassisted. and then we both literally danced a jig across the alphabet carpet. and i may or may not have promised him a skittle for every correct word. (i did send them home in a baggie though .... no WAY was he ingesting that much sugar and staying with me. ha!)

4. please stop eating the pencils. they're sharp! you know if you keep eating them, it's REALLY going to hurt when you have to go potty later!

5. two words: folder. buckets. got 'em wrong. uhhhh-gain. it was quite an unfortunate moment.

6. i'm sorry, dear. 'thug' isn't a very appropriate choice for what you want to be when you grow up. try again. ..... nope. 'homeboy' won't work either.

7. busted 3 of my most trustworthy (or so i thought) kids for stealing from me. for weeks. and it was the good stuff - reese's cups, mini snickers, skittles, blow pops, and lifesavers. we figured out they were hiding in the bathroom between the kindergarten rooms instead of going all the way through when i sent them over to wait for the bus. they waited until i left with the car riders and then went back in to load up on the goods before they went to the other class. THEN sometimes they would ask to go to the restroom before the bus arrived and go BACK in my room to steal some MORE. it broke my heart. and infuriated me. i pulled out the big guns - no field trips, no activity period until i say so, and no more treats from me. ever. i called each of their parents and made the kiddos confess on speaker phone. it was DEFINITELY not a bright shiny day for that little trio. ugh.

8. unless you're getting up to bring me a diet dr. pepper, do NOT get out of that chair. keep your MEAT in the SEAT.

9. showed my butt. literally. when i bent over to fish some valentine foam stickers out of the cabinet, my half-size-too-big jeans temporarily failed me. the children are most assuredly scarred for life.

10. lost my cheerios when i had to explain to the children who the jetsons are. SERIOUSLY?!?!? this generation really is headed down the tubes. we're in trouble, folks. serious trouble.

happy weekend, y'all!

xoxo,

three-peat.

2011-02-09T22:00:00.000-06:00

so here we are. again.

at home for a snow day. for the third time this year. which is totally unheard of in my entire life.

i've done some recent soul-searching and determined that i LOVE snow days ... especially when i hear that we're probably getting a waiver from the state so that the extra days don't have to be made up at the end of the school year.

if that's the case, bring on the blizzard!

anyhow - i used today to take back control of this house. and the laundry. and make chili for supper. and not shower. (i did brush my teeth though - even i have standards, y'all.) and pore over amortization schedules thinking about what it's going to take to get us where we need to be to start thinking about the house we want to build in a few years. and catch up on some y&r. (3 weeks behind isn't the worst it's ever been, but it's definitely enough to bug me.)

there's nothing fantastically spectacular to report this evening, but lest i fall back into the blogging black hole i was in for nearly 17 months, i needed to post something at least remotely readable.

i'm currently snuggled in my favorite chair under the guise of writing lesson plans and prepping a fractions game for the children tomorrow since it appears we will be at school (i did just get an e-mail from the principal that we can wear jeans & sweatshirts ... sweeeet!) ... and yet, here i am.

here are a few of the thought bubbles floating around my head at the moment:

1. i'm perpetually perplexed by the playroom.

love the paint, love the curtains, love the new shelves & tv. mint green minky dot chair is being reupholstered in a distressed leather. considering maybe an iron daybed or fold-out loveseat to go in there so it will have some potential as sleeping arrangements for anybody who needs to stay over.

i'm LOST as to what to put on the walls. and does it need some kind of nightstand/side table in the corner where the UGLY dora couch/princess chair sits with a lamp and a book basket? and does that black lamp work? does it need something bigger/more dramatic? does it need two lamps instead of the sketch book on the other side of the tv? do i need pills?

help.

(p.s. - i know the kitchen is ugly. but she is obsessed. definitely not a battle i'm picking.)

2. i am a glutton for punishment.

for further explanation, please see hubby's valentine, otherwise entered as exhibit a:

clearly, i don't have sense enough to come in out of the rain.

3. power struggles are my life.

the wild woman has yet to master the concept of picking her battles. (read: she chooses every. single. one.)

here we are in the line to check out at best buy last night. we had just left target - where she scored a new ariel princess barbie (a reward for being sweet to dr. green at her checkup and a reparation for the horrific shot she had to endure after i promised her there would be none.), a new set of princess stickers and silverlicious - the newest installment in the pinkalicious series - and yet she was sitting down, arms and legs crossed, refusing to budge because i wouldn't buy her a pack of gum.

i suspect i will need either pharmaceutical intervention or a padded room (or both.) to survive the teenage years. or maybe just to survive kindergarten knowing this little munchkin.

the extent of her communication with me for the rest of the evening was as follows: yep, nope, yep, yep, who cares.

something tells me she'll make a fantastic wife someday.

4. productivity will be way down for the next several days.

i assume no explanation is necessary for this one, kids.

5. if you have to wonder what makes this photo exciting, we just can't be friends anymore.

but in case you need the remedial course: new sharpies. on clearance. please consider this a one-time tutorial.

and there ya have it.

happy snow day to all and to all a good night!

love & i would like to burn hubby's copy of black ops,

a casserole.

2011-02-06T11:10:00.002-06:00

before you read this one, be sure to click back a post and read about the stylish blogger award my sweet friend ashley sent my way. xoxo!
...............................................................................................

so i hope nobody got their hopes up and thought this was a cooking post or anything wild and crazy like that.

i think we all know i ain't one to be doin' no cookin'.

unless it's tacos. or chili. or takeout from lee's china. (i put it on my real dishes and call it cooking. no judging.)

anyhow.

i figure this post is a lot like a casserole. you take a whole bunch of different stuff, mix it all up, pour gobs of cheese on top and hope it tastes good.

there's quite a variety of things i need to cover this morning, and i hope y'all are up for it.

my absence this week wasn't intentional - there wasn't a whole lot of blogging fodder to go around, and for whatever reason i had trouble keeping my eyes open past 9:30 each night.

it most likely had something to do with working my first full week since thanksgiving.

endurance is clearly not one of my gifts. i tend to file that one in the same category as cooking.

but back to the agenda ... let's get started, shall we?

the first part of the week rocked along fairly calmly. until wednesday. a precious friend got some devastating news, and it absolutely crushed me. the story isn't really mine to share (i may at some point depending on how she feels about it ... but it wasn't the appropriate time to approach the subject.), but PLEASE PLEASE pray for H. i promise He will know who you're talking about.

sophie originally had her 3-year check-up scheduled that afternoon (yes. a month late. i'm sure you're shocked right out of your socks.), but i cancelled it when i saw a staff meeting was going to make us almost half an hour late.

the cancellation wasn't a big deal in and of itself, but no appointment meant no celebratory visit to chick-fil-a as a reward for being a big girl and not biting sweet dr. green. (hey ashley - i totally poached your idea. hope you don't mind! they say imitation is the best form of flattery. xoxo pretty girl!)

i'm sure you can imagine how pleasant it was to break the news to the wild woman that she'd be eating pb&j at home instead of waffle fries and ranch at chick-fil-a. but after hearing the news that we heard that day, i just wasn't up for it. i wanted to take her home, snuggle her in my bed and not leave for, well, ever.

so we got home only to find that my main man tom tom was acting even more weird than normal. there had been a few little things this week that weren't quite right, and it all kind of clicked together that night. being that he is prone to life-threatening illness and other serious health problems, i'm pretty hyper-sensitive when it comes to even the slightest oddity in his case.

he'd had some suspicious tummy troubles, a handful of accidents in the house and a few dry heaving spells over the span of a few days, and it hit me all of a sudden when he didn't want anything to eat that night.

i called the emergency vet number and was relieved when a sweet doctor (who i just happen to be in junior league with - so i totally didn't feel bad about bothering her at home ... i know her well enough to apologize for wasting her time.) called me back a few minutes later.

i explained my concerns to her and she told me it could either be nothing - or it could be something.

ummm, yah. so i kind of figured that much.

we left it at me calling my vet the next morning and getting him checked out. which i did. duh. i didn't even have to say my name. the exchange pretty much went like this ...

receptionist: dr. oubre's office. this is ------. can i help you?

me: hi ------, this is -

receptionist: hi mrs. douglas. i know who it is. would you like to speak to a doctor or are you already on your way?

me: oh. hi! sorry. i'm already on my way.

receptionist: ok. we'll see you and tom in just a minute. and mrs. douglas?

me: yes?

receptionist: calm down.

me: oh, i'm okay. i'm not freaking out.

receptionist: yes ma'am. but i'm sure you will be by the time you get here. i promise we're going to take good care of your baby. we always do.

me: nervous laughter and hangs up. starts brainstorming what kind of sweet treat i can deliver this afternoon. (i've already done cookie cakes and boxes of fresh doughnuts.)

of course the sweet girl was right. i was completely freaking out by the time i got there. i walked in, she pushed the consent form in front of me to sign, grabbed tom out of my arms and basically pushed me out the door with promises to call me as soon as they knew anything.

i'd been back at school less than an hour when i got a call from the doctor. he said he was worried about the welfare of the children in my room while i was so worried about my baby. sad, but true. ha!

anyway - two hundred and seventy seven!!!!! dollars later, we knew tom wasn't diabetic or in liver/kidney failure, didn't have cancer or heartworms and most likely had a urinary tract infection (and all the painful junk that comes along with it - ouch!!!).

i headed to pick up the wild woman before we went to get her brother from the vet and tried to hurry her out the door at rita's by explaining where we had to go. as soon as she figured out that tom was at the doctor and that he was sick, she fell out in the floor crying. huge tears. wailing. beyond upset that something was wrong with one of her boys.

try as i might, i couldn't convince her that tom was just fine and that he was coming home with us. she cried the entire drive to the vet that my boy is LOST! my tom is sick and he's LOST at the vet and we CAN'T FIND him because he's LOST!

we pulled up and i was going to let her sit in the car while i ran in to get the pup dog, but she informed me quite emphatically that the exchange was most definitely not going down like that.

so.

in we went. with her still crying and fussing about her boy being lost. (and a little side note: you know you're in the vet's office too much when the girls at the front desk call your kid by name and comment on how much she's grown and how much more she's talking.) while they were getting our meds ready to go i told the girls i must be raising a kiddo who's even worse than her mama and then went on to tell them the story of her monster meltdown upon hearing about her brother being sick.

y'all.

i thought they were going to flip OUT. not only did they laugh, but they both started hollering for everyone from the back to come up and hear the story. naturally, they prefaced it with y'all get in here! there's NO WAY you're gonna believe this! O.M.G!!!

i used to think they probably kept my picture posted somewhere in the back with some kind of warning label or some kind of notation on my file written in a secret code that everyone there would see and know how NUTS i am. now i'm certain.

it took less than five minutes of us being home and my boy cleaning out the food bowl, going out for a tinkle and then curling up in my lap to convince me he was back to his old self. i've decided mother's intuition applies to four-legged children just the same as it does to the two-legged kind.

after i woke up yesterday morning to the somewhat surprise snowfall (we were only supposed to get less than an inch or so and it wasn't supposed to stick but then we ended up with anywhere from 4-6 inches over here) i was so glad i took my man to the doc the day before. can y'all imagine how miserable he would've been being snowed in with something so icky going on?! poor sweet pea!

he may or may not have snacked his way through an entire package of turkey pepperoni today. everybody needs a little comfort food now and then, right??

and speaking of the snow ... blech.

i was for real shocked to wake up to a blanket of the white junk friday morning. i went to bed the night before listening to the news talking about closures in shreveport for friday and was SO thankful we weren't getting more.

(we've already used both snow days, remember? mama don't wanna be going to school 'til july, kids. not cool!)

i woke up about 5 to let the pups out to tinkle and was rolling back over to savor my last half hour of sleep when i heard my favorite morning news guy (ed from channel 3, anyone?!) say something about my school district.

NO. you'vegottabekiddingme. say it ain't so, ed!

sure enough, i checked the district website and found it to be true. no school. more snow. dang dang dang!!!

i was way too hacked off about losing a day of our already too-short summer break to go to sleep. so i did the only thing that made sense. i woke hubby up and drug him to the window to look at the snow while i stomped around in a bad mood. and then i called my mama.

i finally yanked myself out of bed about 9:45 and made it all the way to the couch before i fell out again. i had zero productive accomplishments yesterday. unless you count how much i ate. and then i was most definitely an overachiever. frick.

if you recall, the wild woman didn't get to go out and play in the last round of snow because she was just getting rid of the flu.

so we bundled up (two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two shirts, two jackets and one very thick pair of mittens) and headed out to the backyard with a ridiculously excited little munchkin.

more than anything i was super pumped to put my girl's super cute hat to good use!

i asked for a happy face and got these. who knows what this goofball was thinking about?!

if you haven't been to see kristy and her precious hats, you're definitely missing out. go see her! now!

y'all don't get me wrong - we had tons o' fun playing in the fluffy stuff, but there was just something totally depressing about my favorite lawn chairs being covered in loads of snow. kind of makes it seem like spring is NEVER going to get here.

mama, it's COLD!

re-thinking her decision. not quite so sure this was a great idea!

swinging was definitely more fun with snow on the ground.

after a turn on the swings the wild woman got brave and wanted to attempt her slide. this next series is definitely my favorite from the day!

snow booty!

looks like some of the cold stuff started to soak through those fleece pants. poor girl!

the frozen booty was pretty much the last straw for my girl - she decided pretty quick after that that our snow day was d-o-n-e.

fine by me, baby!

we sloshed inside to warm up, and as usual, my little fashionista insisted on choosing her own duds. i assisted only with clipping in the bow. she picked out each piece carefully and then got herself dressed with pretty much no help.

love the color coordination. i've always thought monochromatic ensembles were super classy, and it makes this mama happy that my girl and i share such good taste.

at this particular moment she was making herself some caw-fee and frying up some barbie shoes for a tasty appetizer.

the culinary commotion in the play room got eerily quiet a few minutes later (anybody with little people in the house knows silence is a bad bad baaaaad thing.) and i walked in to find this.

my two babies all curled up in their respective snuggle spots (the big chair is being reupholstered - as much as i loved the mint green minky dot, it could only survive so many sippy cups, dora snacks, and bags of cheetohs.) taking a nap.

tom discovered that barbie chair a year or so ago and staked his claim to it on the spot. it's the perfect size for him to curl up into a ball and snooze to his little heart's content.

i'm sure you couldn't help but notice the sad state of the playroom in that last photo. it's rough, y'all. i'm still trying to gather the emotional strength i'll need to clean it up.

but rather than do something productive like putting clean sheets on the bed or rescuing the playroom from its state of emergency or folding the 6 loads of clothes i washed yesterday, i made these.

and by made, of course i mean that i broke them apart and set them on the cookie sheets and then put them in the oven.

(a minor programming note: the number of warm cookies i ate mere seconds after this photo was snapped isn't important to the outcome of this post, so that information has not been included here.)

the last photo i have for you is probably the one that puts the biggest smile on my face. check it, y'all.

that's my laundry basket.

and it's empty.

word.

(forget that it only stayed that way for approximately 7 minutes. the point is that it was empty. and i have proof.)

love & a snapped marathon,

stylish blogger award - thanks ashley!

2011-02-06T09:15:00.001-06:00

so my gorgeous friend ashley gifted my little ol' blog with a stylish blogger award this week.

i've said it before and i'll say it again ... i think the new look around here is beyond incredible. the famous jess fixed up my little corner of the internet into something i'm absolutely obsessed with.

diamond doll design has also done some recent makeover work for a couple of friends - my bestie in the big d, candace and super precious momma-to-be amy.

jess is currently offering a valentine special, so if you're in the market for a new 'do, now would for sure be the perfect time.

and back to sweet ashley. she and i went to high school together, and now she is the mom of four precious sugar plums - all 4 and under. her oldest sweet girl is almost exactly a year older than the wild woman and her adorable triplets turned 2 in september. if you haven't already, please do yourself a favor and start reading her fabulous blog.

great style abound over there - from her ideas for her (beautiful!) home to the fantastic fetes she pulls off for her munchkins to the great project ideas she posts ... i promise you won't be disappointed!

thanks again for the nod ashley!

(she also tagged the lovely katie from modern day fam. be sure to check her out too if you're not already a regular!)

so from what i understand the rules of the game are this:

1. thank and link back to the person who awarded you
2. share 7 things about yourself
3. award to 10 great bloggers
4. contact those bloggers and tell them about the award

okay. ummm, 7 things.

1. i'm a worrier. i worry about everything and everyone. and if i don't have anything to worry about, i worry about that. like i'm missing something. it causes lots of (totally unnecessary) anxiety on my part, and i know i need to get a handle on it. it's not a good trait to possess, especially combined with my #2.

2. i obsess. about everything. it's an even more troublesome trait than #1 and i haven't a clue how to stop it. i'm not trying to be funny in the least when i say it's probably taking years off my life. i really hope someone i know chooses to someday become a psychologist or psychiatrist and uses me as a case study. it oughta be a great read.

3. it gags me to walk across the floor in my house and it feel gritty under my feet. which means i spend approximately 79% of my life sweeping, mopping or swiffering.

4. i'm a pro at giving the silent treatment. a total shocker, i'm sure.

5. much like what katie said, there is SO much i want to say but don't. some of it is pretty harmless, and some of it isn't. either way, though, this really isn't the place for it. a) because it's public and could easily be found by the wrong person and b) because it's a little (or a lot) more than i'm willing to bare for all to see. (figuratively speaking, of course. NOBODY wants me to bare it all in the literal sense. there wouldn't be enough retinal transplants to go around!)

6. when i'm all by myself in the car, i like to turn the music up so loud that it almost hurts my ears. and it's not always the kind of music you'd expect to see from a kindergarten-teaching, suv-driving, carseat-toting toddler mom. i can't tell you how many times i've gotten funny looks at a red light.

7. the more i think about it, the more i'm convinced that i'm content with having one child. it kind of shocks me to say it, but i really feel like our family can be complete as is. that's not to say that i won't wake up one day with a different attitude or that i would be disappointed if the Lord has other plans for us, but right now the idea of another baby just isn't on the table for us. i get asked constantly when we're planning to go for #2, and you might be shocked at some of the responses i get when i give them our answer. some people laugh, some people shake their heads and walk away, and some people like to tell me what a disservice we're doing to the wild woman by making her grow up all alone. i've always fancied myself as a people-pleaser, but this is just one of those times that we'll all have to agree to disagree. having another babe just to please everyone else is definitely not the reason to add to our family.

and there you have it.

7 things you may or may not have already known (or even wanted to know for that matter) about yours truly.

i hate to be a spoil-sport here, but i'm leaving this one open to anyone who wants to play. after giving it all morning to start, it's become clear to me that this house isn't going to clean itself.

blech.

love & i could care less about the super bowl,

we shall see.

2011-01-31T23:05:00.002-06:00

so i have sworn up and down until as recently as last week that i was not going to take the wild woman out of her crib until it became an issue.

she sleeps like a rock and has never expressed any interest in getting out of it.

she's been able to climb in for more than a year, but for whatever reason, climbing out has never occurred to her.

(and now i'm quite sure i've jinxed myself by saying that out loud. watch her scale the wall tonight.)

but then the weather went and got all spring-y for a couple of days and it threw me into early-onset spring cleaning/house updating/decorating-finishing fever.

in less than 5 minutes i sat down and penned a to-do list that probably couldn't be accomplished in less than 5 thousand bucks.

for example: crown moulding in the living room & bedrooms, new carpet throughout (hallway & bedrooms), paint & re-roof the shed in the backyard (partly because it's ugly and partly because with the addition of an extension cord and a window unit it would make a great place to banish the hubby when needed), panel the garage walls, loveseat or daybed for the playroom (remind me to ask you about that later!), repaint the shutters, new storm doors for front and back, repaint the back of the front door, new windows for the entire house, take up the nasty cinder block 'patio' and replace it with a proper flagstone version, new patio furniture, etc .... and that's just part of the first page. (there are 3 total.)

i'll pause for a second while you pray for my husband. i'm sure he appreciates it.

and fyi ... not even i am so deluded to think i'll actually ever accomplish everything on the list. it's just a running tab of the things i would like to improve around the old homefront.

and consequently, things that will help us SELL the old homefront when the time comes.

(let's take a second to be brutally honest here... i LOVE my cute little house, but 1300 square feet does not a dream home make. it's a perfect first home for us, but one day when the time is right, i'm hoping to have a little more room to spread myself {and my overstuffed closets} out.)

anyhow.

the wild woman currently has this crib ....

and this dresser ....

i liked both pieces well enough when i ordered them but fell in love when i saw them together in person ... and as a bonus, they've held up surprisingly well.

the finish still looks as new as the day we bought it all, and i love the dark wood against her bright green walls.

i wasn't cool enough to be in the loop about monogrammed crib bedding back in the day, but i did adore the sweet little set we ended up ordering ....

i ended up being pretty sad though because her bumper only stayed in the bed until she was a couple of months old. a certain nurse at our doctor's office convinced me that she'd smother herself on it, and i promptly yanked it out that afternoon. (naturally, i've since learned that most people leave the bumpers in anyway ... go figure.)

part of me wishes i had just done a simple pale pink crib sheet and crib skirt. i still love her bedding, but i think that simplicity would have been gorgeous too.

here are a few fuzzy iphone photos to give you an idea of what her stuff looks like in her room ....

(please pardon the 9,000 stuffed animals currently residing in her bed. the kid has issues.)

i haven't put much effort into her room since we moved in because i knew it wouldn't be too terribly long until we veered away from the nursery feel to more of a big girl vibe.

slowly but surely, i'm inching myself in that direction.

i've pretty much decided it's time to make the switch to a big girl bed and figure that will be the catalyst that sets the whole project in motion.

since storage space is kind of an issue (read: hubby pitches a fit every time something new takes up residence in the garage. he threatens that i'm going to come home one day and it'll all be gone. then i remind him that i have the only key to the storage building housing the multiple thousands of dollars' worth of ~~use~~ priceless sports memorabilia crap, and he shuts up pretty quick.), i really think our best bet is selling the baby furniture and bedding before we take the plunge and buy the new stuff.

the idea of another baby is pretty much off the table at this moment (i'd have called you CRAZY if you told me a few years ago that i'd find myself content with just one munchkin ... but i am. and i refuse to have another one 'just because it's what people do.'), and in the event of a surprise, selling the current furniture makes my wish to do a complete nursery one-eighty all the more feasible.

the first thing to go will be her bedding ... it's definitely not something i'll use again - even with another girl.

her dresser is entirely too small for what she needs at this point, and it makes my eye twitch to think about furniture that doesn't match.

so. it's gotta go. and i was all set on posting it on craigslist until i saw the reaction i kept getting from everybody who heard about my plan ...

better be careful selling that baby bed. don't you know what happens when you do that?!?

umm, no. what?!

you have another one!

crap.

to hear them tell it, getting rid of the furniture was as good as seeing two pink lines pop up on a tinkle stick.

i've decided to take my chances though and will be listing everything as soon as i get finished with school tomorrow.

and then will come the fun part ....

shopping!

i've got a general idea of what i want in her new room, and the photos below are my favorites so far.

(this photo is of a full size bed, but hers will be a twin.)

i am in LOVE with the off-white finish. i think it will be beyond sweet against the pear-green walls with her distressed pink armoire and her huge ballerina canvas .

i don't know if i've ever shown you pictures of her curtains, but they're the softest, prettiest off-white linen sheers with dark bronze grommets at the top.

i'm planning on framing the ballerina canvas in a big, chunky gold frame and then finding a similar one to frame a mirror to hang either above the chest or on the skinny wall between her bedroom door and closet doors above the rack with her backpack and collection of monogrammed totes and overnight bags. (it's a sickness, y'all.)

a couple of big pretty lamps will fit in there somehow as well.

i've got a few ideas for her bedding but haven't been able to find any of them incarnated in any of the options i've seen online. i've got a while to plan and am willing to be pretty patient on that front, so i'm sure the perfect option will present itself. (or else i'll just get impatient and have it made. either option works for me.)

i know i want a lot of subtlety (please don't be shocked.) and a lot of neutral colors. whites, creams, champagnes and maybe a hint or two of color thrown in with monogrammed pillows or a cute rug.

we really don't have a timetable for this little project (it's on page 2 of the list), but i'll be sure to keep you updated. (i.e. i'll be back to beg you to make all kinds of decisions for me. we all know how incapable i am when left to my own devices, right?!)

and as far as the get-rid-of-the-crib-and-become-spontaneously-pregnant theory, i guess only time will tell.

we shall see, dear friends. we shall see.

love & x-box was invented by the devil,

in her element. (and a winner!)

2011-01-30T22:40:00.001-06:00

so my girl has taken a HUGE interest lately in accessorizing herself.

much like her mama, the wild woman opts to abandon the whole less is more philosophy and instead prefers to be dripping with embellishments.

friday night, she donned the following accouterments atop her beloved ballerina outfit ....

pinkalicious crown, sunglasses, peace sign shell necklace, pink bracelet, purple/blue bracelet, ariel bracelet, and a jasmine barbie as her sidekick.

love.

this sweet little number brought one thought to mind: girls rule & boys drool!

and i really didn't think the friday night frock could be improved upon ....

until she came into my bedroom saturday morning.

i died and went to girl-mommy heaven.

these are the days i have waited for.

pink and bows and jewelry and barbies and ballerina obsessions and high-heel dress-up shoes and tutus and tubes of lip smackers hidden all over the house.

life really doesn't get much better than this.

i sat in the floor for almost half an hour after these few seconds just in awe of how blessed i am to be her mom.

and marveling at how perfectly the Lord really does work .... He knew exactly what i needed and exactly what the desires of my heart were.

and i still can't get over the fact that those prayers were answered so perfectly.

i honestly don't even feel worthy .... of this life, of this sweet girl entrusted to me, or of His never-ending, always-forgiving love .... and yet all three have been bestowed on me - a yucky ol' sinner.

what an amazing God we serve.

..... and speaking of things working out just perfectly.

i drew a winner for the giveaway tonight.

and i promise on a stack of cases of diet dr. pepper that i had NO idea about her little secret until i clicked over to her blog just to double-check how to tag it for the link.

a regular-size congrats to the gorgeous melissa for winning the giveaway, and a HUGE congrats to her for the big news !!!!

(e-mail me at theyoungandtheprecious{at}gmail{dot}com with your gift card choices and i'll get them mailed asap!)

i seriously cannot stop smiling when i think of her!

.... and speaking of smiling.

the other gorgeous melissa in my life has some fantastic news of her own!! congrats to you too, pretty girl!

it has occurred to me that there must be something in the water.

which means i'll be drinking only diet dr. pepper and wine until the coast is clear.

(but really, it's not like that's any different than a typical day anyway.)

love & bedtime,

10 things i said or did this week in kindergarten: the sequel.

2011-01-27T21:15:00.000-06:00

so it's last call, y'all! tomorrow at 6 pm (central) is the deadline to enter my favorite giveaway to date !!! winner to be announced sometime this weekend. good luck!
...............................................................................

1. i don't care if your mama said i was stupid. when you are at school, you WILL mind me. whether you like it or not.

2. fished a silly band out of a kid's NOSE. i guess he thought i wouldn't take it away if he put it there?! i'd hate to see what his next hiding place of choice will be. gag.

3. broke out a rousing chorus of pants on the ground, pants on the ground, don't come to school with ya' pants on the ground after one of the children ignored my repeated warnings to tighten 'em up. i then proceeded to install a commercial-grade zip tie through his back two belt loops. he may be wearing those pants for the next five years.

4. reacted to a nasty note from a parent by drawing a giant hot pink smiley face on top of it and sent the folder right back home.

5. we don't eat boogers. ... an oldie but a goodie! don't guess that one's ever going away. blech.

6. reached down to tie shoes and got a handful of slobber. chewing on shoelaces = mrs. douglas is DONE. for good. y'all better tuck those bad boys in! sick nasty.

7. no, ma'am. the ONLY bottom i wipe is sophie's. you are 6 years old. work. it. out.

8. we wash our hands in the sink. NOT the toilet. ... seriously. couldn't make this stuff up if i tried.

9. asked my principal if i could spend my classroom budget money on an mri of the children and their brains. i want to know just what it is they hear when i talk. Lord knows it ain't what i'm really saying!

10. if you poop on my carpet, i am calling your mother!

oh. em. gee.

i really wish i could tell y'all ALL about what really happened this week, but i'm too afraid somebody in the real world would find it and take a chunk out of my arse. as such, this g-rated version will have to do for now.

trying not to have an anxiety attack 'cause the house is dirty, the car is dirty, the kid is dirty & my favorite jeans have a busted seam right in the crotch,

it truly is a sickness.

2011-01-25T23:40:00.000-06:00

first and foremost ... don't forget to enter my super cool giveaway !!!

(you have until friday to enter ... winner to be announced this weekend. good luck!)

.........................................

so before i get into the real sickness, i have a little something else to tell you that makes me sick.

my most beloved purse of all time is all of a sudden falling apart on me.

the stitching has come undone on the inside pocket, which means my lip gloss and burt's bees fall straight to the bottom. every time. clearly, i'm a ticking time bomb on the roads until this issue is resolved.

the leather loops on the side (where the longest strap attaches) are flaking apart and have totally worn down to almost nothing. not a function problem yet, but definitely disheartening to look at.

the little luggage tag (or whatever you're supposed to call it) has disappeared because its little beaded chain thingy broke apart while i was walking to my car the other day. it just so happens that was my favorite feature. and now it's gone. not even discovering snow white's crown buried in the playroom carpet (she's been the only princess barbie without a tiara since new year's and it's SERIOUSLY been bothering me. like, lost sleep kind of bothering. no lie.) was enough to right the ship after that one.

it's not like i can't still use the bag (of course i do. i love it!), but it bothers the heck out of me. my last coach had some troubles too (it was the carly bag ... the fabric started to fray), and the store gladly took it back almost 2 years later and let me pick out anything i fancied in exchange.

i'm pretty sure they'll do the same thing this time, but i would hate to let go of this one. i'm so attached!

ugh. first the rug ... then the bag. for serious - if so much as a cupholder malfunctions on the 4runner this week, i'll need to be committed.

but i digress .... i really popped in tonight to show you something that i should in all likelihood be very, very ashamed of. (or very, very proud of depending how you look at it ...)

i slipped into target this afternoon just for spaghetti and sauce.

i rationalized stopping there instead of super 1 by convincing myself that nothing but pure evil resides in the grocery store during the week.

spaghetti and sauce turns into 78 bags' worth of canned peaches and grated cheese. and doritos.

i figured that at least my 78 target bags would be filled with cute pink heart-shaped muffin pans or hot pink sharpie pens. (sharpie - if you're listening ... a pack of JUST hot pink would sell like hotcakes this time of year! or any other time too, i'm sure. and go ahead and mix up the markers with the ultra fine point ... dy-NO-mite!)

but. so help me, today that would NOT be the case.

i really was just going to grab spaghetti and sauce and be done with it. with my pride and checkbook intact to boot.

but then i saw these.

and i figured that just a couple of pretties would be okay. especially if they included a polka dot trench coat for the wild woman.

come ON, man. there's no way you could've passed it up either. and you're totally lying if you say you could.

so i grabbed the jacket and dress and patted myself on the back all the way up to the food aisles.

i kept thinking i'm doing it! i'm REALLY doing it! i'm going to walk out of target for LESS than a hundred bucks. heck - i'll be under fifty today! GO ME!!!

and then. somehow. someway. somewhere. the wheels came off the bus.

$130 later, i don't even know what to say. i'm so ashamed.

in case you can't tell, allow me to bare my soul (and my shame) for all to see:

black long-sleeve tee, navy striped pullover, grey yoga pants & charcoal slacks for mom. say nothing.

pale blue dress & leggings set and polka dot trench coat for the wild woman. her clothing budget would make a kardashian jealous!

6 plastic buckets for the classroom. total sucker for organizational cuteness (needed or not!) and they were only a buck!

peanuts & curious george coloring books for the wild woman to watercolor. much better options than my antique barnwood table.

ariel spelling book for the wild woman. because she wouldn't stop screaming that i BIT her when i tried to put it back. i SO didn't pick that battle today!

sheet of valentine foam stickers for the wild woman. a target tradition. stickers. every. time. smooches to the dollar spot.

clifford dvd (on sale for $5!) for the wild woman. best wishes to the dillweeds at net.flix who had the audacity to take all the clifford movies off the instant play list. BOO HISS.

fun dip valentines for the children. definitely NOT one of those teachers who hand make personal valentines. a pouch o' sugar with an edible stick works just fine for me!

swiffer dust & shine, citrus scent. house ain't clean without it. period.

hangers. surely you know why. i have a problem.

valentine funfetti cake mix & icing. duh.

spaghetti sauce. bertolli tomato basil. thought i'd get a little fancy ... umm, G-ROSS. overly chunky and under-seasoned in my humble non-cooking opinion. i'll just stick to prego, thankyouverymuch.

multi-grain spaghetti. not bad, but not great. maybe the wrong kind?

double box of honey nut cheerios. YUM. duh.

flavor variety milkbones. so they'll chew on something OTHER than my ottoman. or the barbies.

low-sugar oatmeal variety pack. lunch for the next six weeks!

disney princess chocolates. another battle i chose not to choose.

goldfish. duh.

it truly is a sickness.

love & there are no words,

you scratch my back & i'll scratch yours.

2011-01-23T23:15:00.004-06:00

so when we moved into our house one of my most favorite new pretties was the gorgeous giraffe print rug we bought for the living room.

it's way more beautiful in person, and the white is really more of a cream color. in my humble opinion, it is pretty much perfect with our gold-y walls (pale cowslip for any of you paint color aficionados out there), and i couldn't have been happier with the way it looks in the room.

(i'm well aware that i'm not an interior designer, and i've never made any such claim. i like what i like, and that's all. at the moment, what i like happens to include lots of color and print. if it doesn't suit you, that's just fine and dandy. it totally won't hurt my feelings.)

next week will mark 18 months since we've been in the house (and 18 months since we've had the giraffe), and while i still love the rug as much as i did the first time i saw it, it's already driving me freaking batty.

or maybe i should rephrase that ... the DIRT is driving me freaking batty. for sure.

allow me to break it down for you mathematically:

cream-colored area rug + 8 paws + 6 feet = xanax.

i've had it steam cleaned once (and have already booked an appointment for round 2), and while the treatment helped, it didn't totally take away all of the yucky spots. there aren't any stains or discolored patches, but there are definitely places where you can already see some pretty significant wear (i.e. it's turning grey).

i know that in the grand scheme of life, a couple of dirty spots on an area rug do not a crisis make, but it still bothers me. a LOT more than it should.

in the interest of my own mental health i looked around a little bit to see if i could find anything else that made my heart go pitter-pat like the giraffe.

and this is what i found.

i LOVE the colors and think they'd be pretty with the existing vibe in our living room. the circles are actually raised from the rest of the rug, which i also like.

the current rug is 6 x 9, and i like its proportion in the room. the only trouble with this one is that it's available as either 5 1/2 x 7 1/2 or 8 x 11. i definitely don't want to go any smaller, and i'm wondering if going bigger would cause any problems.

the width would probably be a good thing, but the length issue gives me a little bit of pause. there's room for it ... but will it look out of proportion???

silly as it sounds, getting rid of the giraffe rug would probably make me pretty sad. i really, really like it - it just gets on my nerves. (which is not unlike my precious husband.) and i'm still not sold on the idea of a new one ... but the dirt and dinge are turning me into (more of) a spaz.

(something tells me i've gotta be a psychology thesis paper just waiting to happen. anybody need to study a freak? i'm definitely available.)

since we all know 'codependent' is my middle name, y'all please weigh in and tell me what to do. the chances of me making a decision on my own are highly unlikely. and even if i did, i'd change my mind 800 times before i could place the order.

i'm pretty sure i'll be hosting a baby shower at the house in early march, so if i opt for the new rug i definitely want to have it here by then. (and if we keep the current one, it'll definitely need another round or two of steam cleaning.)

guidance is much appreciated. we all know i need ALL the help i can get!

i should totally be in the bed by now, but i want to make good on a promise to you before i head that way (and plus, i'm SO lazy when it comes to getting ready for bed. i'll cat nap in the chair half the night just because i don't want to haul my sorry self to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. sad.) .....

a while back i mentioned a brand new giveaway when the ol' blog hit 100 followers.

when i logged in tonight, that was the first thing i saw! yay!!!

thank y'all SO much for being such an incredible community of support and encouragement. i wish we could all just sit around in our pj's every day and blog. working is highly overrated.

(i say this partly {err, mostly} in anticipation of my first full week with the children since before christmas. actually, my last 5-day work week was the week after thanksgiving. i missed a day in each of the last two weeks before the break because of my mom's neck surgery, and then teacher workdays, snow days, and a holiday have shortened every week since we came back. which means now i've just worked myself into an instant state of depression. fan-freaking-tastic. i suppose that's what i get for thinking. blech.)

anyhow - in an effort to give back a little of the love you give me, let's get to the goods!

i love you.

i love gift cards.

and i love all of these places.

up for grabs are two $10 gift cards to be chosen by the winner from the four choices above.

(there will be 1 winner, and that person may choose the two gift cards he or she would love the most. or ... get 'em both from the same place. totally up to you!)

and for the fine print ....

since this is a giveaway to celebrate 100 followers, you must be a follower to be eligible to win.

to enter, leave a comment on this post telling me which rug i should choose for the living room. (but if you are hopelessly torn, just hate them both or can't otherwise make a decision between the two, any old comment will do.)

entries will be accepted until friday, and the winner will be announced either friday night or sometime saturday. (or possibly even sometime sunday if the children take the kind of toll on me that i fear they will ....)

good luck and thanks again!

love ya more than my luggage,

10 things i said or did this week in kindergarten.

2011-01-20T22:28:00.000-06:00

1. young lady, take that tooth OUT of your ear and put it back IN the baggie!

2. kept a straight face when a student came up with the word whore as a rhyme for door.

3. calmed the room with a single arched eyebrow when a would-be jokester added an extra phoneme while sounding out sit.

4. threatened to take away recess until 5th grade if i didn't get 5 minutes of quiet.

5. chased half my class down the hall when they went the wrong way during a fire drill while a fireman watched the whole thing (and DIED laughing).

6. proceeded to loudly correct the children outside while people in the yard across the street stood watching.

7. we do NOT pass gas on someone's paper just because they took the pencil you were using earlier. ALL of the pencils belong to ME, and now that one is ruined!

8. embarrassed the snot out of myself (and prayed that no one heard me and went home and tattled!) when i got tongue-tied while asking a student to bring me everything from the Folder Buckets ... i'll spare you the gory details, but i'm sure you can figure it out.

9. did my best to give a truthful answer when asked where poop comes from.

10. hi, mrs. xxxxx. i just wanted to let you know that xxxx swallowed her tooth a few minutes ago. first she put it in her ear, but i corrected her and asked her to put it back in the baggie. then she said she was trying to put it back where it belongs and swallowed it when she accidentally hiccuped. i did some checking, and from what i can gather she should be just fine. but you might want to check with her pediatrician just to be safe.

..... and with that, i'm out. happy friday eve, y'all!

xoxo,

some things. (alternately titled: how sharpies saved me from the funny farm.)

2011-01-18T23:42:00.001-06:00

so i had the kind of day today that made two things abundantly clear:

1. you win some, you lose some.

the children won today. hands down. after we sounded out pat for the fiftieth time and then someone gave me ned when i asked what the word was, i gave up. put the books away, start the quiet game, mrs. douglas needs a little time out. seriously. for my sanity. and their protection. sheesh.

i wish i'd had a piece of coal to squeeze .... i coulda turned that bad boy into one heckuva diamond.

2. i am so DONE with today that i can't even remember what my #2 was.

y'all. i'm packing this terriblehorriblenogoodverybad day up and returning it to sender. after a little reflection ... i think what hacks me off the most is that i wasted a perfectly good outfit. and jewelry.

my new gold knot necklace? crying. freaking. shame.

ugh.

anyhow.

after the ned incident set my compulsive eye twitch to full blast, i called hubby (7 times in a row until he answered) and had this exact conversation:

him: where's the fire?

me: why can't i be a stay at home mom?

him: why can't you stop spending money?

me: {click.}

at that point, i dug deep in my (don't laugh) inner well of emotional strength and fortitude and found a way to carry on with the day.

..... i played with sharpies and valentine decorations.

{my happy place. and yes - i totally lock these in the cabinet when i have a sub. ha!}

any teacher will tell you that there are just some days when the wheels come off the bus. and when it happens, you have two choices: 1) keep dragging it out of them (and make everyone, especially yourself, miserable in the process) and call the material 'covered' even though it's crystal clear that NO ONE learned ANYTHING or 2) cut your losses, switch gears and try it again another day.

today was without question an option 2 kind of day.

so i set up some independent centers (creating patterns with attribute blocks, making sight words with playdough, tracing numbers using gel bags and comparing quantities using base-5 mats if you're interested) and let the kids do their thing while i did mine.

and we all left no worse for the wear.

i'll get up tomorrow and get back to our game plan, but today it was either me or that dang story. we weren't both gonna make it out of there alive.

at this moment i'm snuggled in my chair with a couple of these ...

and a GIANT one of these...

it seems caffeine will have to suffice tonight since i have yet to replenish my wine stash after the night i emptied two three-quarters-full bottles in one quarter of football. during the game which we will not speak of. blech.

and look! no coaster! i'm truly a woman on the edge.

you'd really die if you knew i let the sun set on the pile of wadded-up clothes on the corner of my bed. during my early morning bout of never mind if i can't even wedge my hand into the closet because it's so full, i totally have NOTHING to wear!, i may or may not have tried on 9 different options before going back to the first one.

and since i was already 14 minutes late i had no time to hang them up. which means i spent approximately 78% of my day worrying about the pile of rejects cluttering up the bed.

and yet .... they're still there. i'm not even sure why - unabashed rebellion? too lazy to care? ran out of hangers because i hit up the 40% off sale at the gap yesterday?

i guess there's really no way to know.

.................................................................................

so ... in totally unrelated news, i need an opinion.

let's say there was this one (really, really expensive) thing i've been wanting for a really, really long time.

like, since college.

like, long enough to know it's not just a fad that will pass in a couple of months.

i almost don't even want to say it out loud.

it's something i've been mulling over actually buying since not long after the wild woman was born.

hubby is fine with it (or at least he was after i pointed out the flat screen that most definitely rivaled the purchase i'm considering), but i just haven't been able to pull the trigger.

for whatever reason, i almost feel guilty. maybe it's the money, the excess, the non-necessity of it that gives me pause.

but i haven't let go of it either.

for the last several months, i've been tucking away extra cash here and there ... nothing from our joint account ... just funds from things like birthdays, unexpected school bonus checks and cash from a few little projects i've completed for a couple of people.

i'm almost to the number i'd need to bring home the bag i've been drooling over for years.

but who knows if i'll ever go through with it.

i keep waffling. i'm sure you're all shocked right out of your socks.

advice is much appreciated. i'll definitely keep you posted ...

love & hoping to be the windshield tomorrow instead of the bug,

winners!!! (and a little bit of housekeeping.)

2011-01-17T18:49:00.002-06:00

thank you SO much to everyone who entered the warm & fuzzies giveaway! i hope to do more of these with my super-cool designer friend kristy in the future. i can't get enough of her ... or her hats!

so without further ado.

big time, major congrats goes to ....

jenni!!!!!!!

and ashley!!!!!!!

all you pretty girls need to do is e-mail me at theyoungandtheprecious{at}gmail{dot}com and we'll get started on your PRECIOUS hats! yay!!!

i've already got the itch to do another giveaway, and i've been trying all day to come up with a reason.

hmmmmm.

how about reaching 100 followers???

sounds like a plan to me! :)

i've got a couple of ideas for prizes, but i'll keep those under wraps until it's time.

....................................

now. as for the housekeeping.

i'm still gushing over the new design thanks to jessica and her fantastic talents. which means i'm still coming up with new things i want to add to the ol' blog.

(poor jessica! i'm probably the world's worst client. she's probably about ready to design a personalized restraining order at this point. oops. if only she weren't so GOOD at what she does! ha!)

anyhow - the next undertaking will be an overhaul of my blogroll. i need to add all the new blogs i've been following and am planning to categorize it.

the overhaul will also include me going back to find any of your fantastic blogs that i've been missing.

which brings me to this ... if you've been reading here but don't think i've seen your awesome blog, pretty pretty please leave me a shout-out to let me know about it.

and if you don't see your pretty face (er ... blog?!) on the blogroll and you want to, let me know that too!

thanks again for turning this little outlet into something so special. y'all have no idea how much joy it brings me!

xoxo,

clothes hangers & jean jackets. (alternately titled: blogging without substance 101)

2011-01-14T15:15:00.006-06:00

so this post began as an homage to denim jackets and my incredible love for them (whether or not they are still in style is irrelevant - i will wear mine forever. period.) but has somehow brought out a story about my girl and her emerging obsessive compulsiveness. i'm just choosing to go with it. bear with me, y'all.

i'm sure it won't come as a surprise that i am a total freak when it comes to hangers facing the right (or wrong .. gag!) direction.

sophie has watched me fix many an errant hanger in her little lifetime but has never taken any interest in the process that i've been able to notice.

until last night.

i brought some things to her room that needed to be hung up in her closet and put those away while she helped me pick up the 593 pairs of dress-up shoes she has been gifted with since her birthday.

i got her clothes out for today and hung them on the knobs of her dresser drawer in the hopes of shaving enough time off of our morning routine to allow for a starbucks stop on my way to school. (success!)

we finished up with pajamas, brushing teeth and bedtime snuggles and then attempted to actually get her to go to sleep. (it's a coin toss - some nights she rolls over and is dreaming before we can get out of the room, and others she finds any avenue possible - potty, drink, something hurts, all-out screaming - to avoid going to bed.)

i almost had her covered up and contented to go down without a fight when she started screaming that it's broken! it's broken! i GOTTA fix it, mommy!!!

say what? what in the world are you talking about, kid?!

MOMMY. my HANGS (read: hangers) are BRO-KENNNNNNN.

and then it hit me.

the hangers on her knobs were facing opposite directions.

wondering if i was really witnessing her first ocd-induced anxiety attack (my compulsive eye twitch and i are so proud!), i got her out of bed and told her to go fix whatever it was that was wrong.

sure enough, my little wild woman walked straight over to her dresser, flipped one hanger so that it matched its counterpart and then proceeded to take the jacket off the hanger and flip it around also so it was still facing forward.

and all was right with the world.

i couldn't stop laughing at how much the kid reminded me of myself (lose sleep over hanger orientation? been there, done that!), and hubs literally threw in the towel he was holding and walked away (all the while mumbling i give up, i give up, i give up.).

anyway ... all of this (totally unrelated randomness) to say that i hope my girl grows up to appreciate the greatness that is a jean jacket. santa brought s her very first gap jacket for christmas, and i decided today was the day to break it out. (which clearly excited me more than it should.)

much to my delight, she LOVED it! she called it her special jacket, which is the descriptor she applies to all of her most beloved possessions.

and of course, i grabbed my phone so as not to miss this momentous occasion. enjoy!

(disclaimer: i took these with my phone this morning. we were sleepy, we were in a hurry, and neither one of us were in particularly fantastic moods. but i think you get the idea. precious is precious, no matter how blurry! ha!)

{not. interested.}

{totally ignoring ol' mom.}

{probably the most accurate morning photo of her ever taken!}

{sweet smile! never mind that it cost me a piece of gum.}

i dare you to look at that face and not smile on this dreary january friday.

not. gonna. happen.

love & hubby needs a xanax,

the obligatory snow post & a role reversal.

2011-01-13T00:30:00.002-06:00

don't forget!!! you have until friday to enter my warm & fuzzy giveaway! winners will be drawn saturday. good luck!!!
.......................................................................................

so, yeah, we got some snow.

and, no, it wasn't my favorite thing ever.

those giant ice spears hanging off the eaves of the house just waiting to impale me or one of the dogs every time the back door shut?

not so much my favorites either.

(i'll thank you to ignore the nasty, faded patio umbrella. it was passed down from my dad when he moved, and i've just been trying to wait an acceptable amount of time before trashing it so that i don't look like an ingrate. fo' real. i have a feeling tomorrow's the day! gee, dad, i guess the weight of all the snow just ripped the fabric?! what a shame!)

the white stuff was fun to watch while it fell, and it was even still semi-amusing the next day while we were all bundled up in the house and enjoying what we hoped would be a solitary snow day.

but then it kept coming.

and then all the slush on the roads froze to solid ice before the end of the day, and they decided to cancel school for a second day.

now don't get me wrong ... i most definitely enjoyed spending 3 straight days in my pajamas and eating toy story mac & cheese with the wild woman.

but in the back of my head, all i could think about was how we would be losing our 3-day weekends in may to make it up.

and lemme just tell all you non-teachers a little something .... i'm a whooooole lot sicker of the children in may than i am in january.

and now instead of breaking up that last month with a few fridays off, i'll be dragging myself to school and trying to come up with some way not to be bitter about it.

the really icky part to think about, though, is what will happen should we get anymore snow this school year ....

see, districts 'round these parts usually only build 2 bad weather days into the calendar. follow me for a sec ...

1. we get 2 bad weather days a year.
2. we've already used 2 bad weather days this year.
3. any additional bad weather days will have to be tacked onto the END of the YEAR.
4. as in, JUNE.
5. blah.

anyhow.

i'll never turn down the opportunity to spend more time with my girl, and that's exactly what i got to do for 3 whole days.

and the snow days kept me from having to burn any of my leave while the wild woman had the flu.

........ ohhhhhh.

about that.

i feel compelled to disclose that by sundown on sunday, all 3 of the other kids at rita's were struck with the flu. both strains, as a matter of fact. they dropped like flies. and it's all our fault.

i've racked my brain to try and figure out where we managed to pick up the superbug, and i've come up with zilch. probably one of the public floors she's been obsessed with laying on lately when we go to stores. (gag.)

but back to our snow days.

{another one of the giant ice grenades waiting to crack one of the dogs in the skull.}

my youngest sister came over pretty early sunday morning and ended up staying with us sunday night and monday.

her car was literally frozen to my driveway.

blech.

boo me if you must, but i just don't get all that excited about snow.

love, love, love to watch it fall ... but then i want it to disappear. immediately. without taking my long spring weekends with it!

the other yucky part about the snow was that my girl couldn't get out to experience it.

even though she felt better by sunday and monday, mean ol' mama just wouldn't risk a relapse.

i'm a little ashamed to admit that while my sweetie napped away her fever on sunday afternoon, her daddy, hannah & myself staged an epic snowball fight in the backyard. (i think one of my nostrils is still numb. or frozen? sick.)

we totally felt guilty having all that fun while we knew she couldn't, but at least we were decent enough to do it while she was sleeping. ha!

instead of freezing our tushies off and battling the constant in-out-in-out-in-out-in-out whims of toddlerdom, priss and i donned our comfiest (i'm totally making that a word!) pajamas and settled in for a nice day of painting.

or rather, she painted and i catered to her every whim and whimper.

i've created a total monster, y'all. and i LOVE it.

i also LOVE the way she literally scratches her head while she thinks.

promise it's not lice. just a little creativity!

she was very deliberate with her color selections and was adamant that i not assist, or even suggest, in any way, shape or form.

oh, wild woman. i may as well be looking in a mirror.

good luck, hubs. you're gonna need it!
.........................................................................

so. about a role reversal.

it's clearly no secret that i don't have a problem with spending money.

clothes (especially for my girl), shoes (same goes), purses, JEWELRY, house pretties, cars (y'all remember that time i bought a car without telling my hubby?! ha!) ... you name it.

i shopped my little heart out during the holidays, and i'm almost surprised my poor little debit card survived the abuse i heaped upon it.

i told myself (like i always do) that i'd reign it in a little bit after all the holly jolly days wound down, and i've been disturbingly good at it!

i'm normally a huge fan of getting up early the day after christmas and heading out in search of all the good deals to be had ....

and i had big plans for this year UNTIL my man and i were both stopped (almost) dead in our tracks by a nasty stomach bug. blech.

somehow, i guess going cold turkey like that was actually good for my habit. i really haven't had the urge to do any kind of shopping since then. in fact, last night was my first venture into target (except for the pharmacy run last week) since december 22!

i figured hubs would be thrilled.

until i realized what had really happened.

exhibit a:

it's no secret that the playroom, in its former state, was a deep dark abyss of doom and despair.

i knew it needed some updating, and my post-holiday organizing binge kicked that idea into overdrive.

i decided i was D.O.N.E. with the baskets. over. finished. forever. amen.

shelves were the obvious answer, and i really didn't see the point in cleaning out old toys/putting out new toys until i had them in place.

but knowing what kind of destruction awaited me when i sat down to balance the checkbook (ouch!), i was content to wait a while before tackling that project.

my man, however, had gotten enough.

the day after we came back to life from the attack of the killer stomach bug, he proposed that we get out for a few minutes of fresh air.

and fresh air we got.

all the way to target for new shelves and sams for a new 32" flat screen. for the 3-year old.

and with DIET DR. PEPPER as my witness, NONE of it was my idea.

once we found the shelves (which i definitely agree were a needed purchase), my beloved decided it was time to get rid of the old school (but totally reliable ... i think that thing will last forever!) tv (purchased almost 12 years ago before his freshman year of college) too.

we were just going to 'look for a good deal' at sams. and we actually found a 19" that was a great deal.

but he decided that would be too small for our toddler.

(i've since come to the conclusion that my darling husband was thinking of a little more than just how great shrek would look in HD ... guess who's moved his xbox 360 back there so he can 'keep it out of my way' in the living room?! well played, dude. and totally fine by me - now i can watch my y&r in peace!)

i'm pretty sure i know grown men who would be jealous of this set-up ... barbies and all!

and to summarize: ALL his idea. NONE of my idea.

(but i definitely didn't protest. that would've just been wrong.)

moving on.

now i present to you exhibit b:

a couple of weeks ago, i casually mentioned to my hubby that my computer had slowed down quite a bit.

he lovingly reminded me that it was probably due to the 10,000+ pictures i have saved on it.

we briefly talked about buying a new laptop but quickly decided (we were only 2 days out from the great playroom spending spree of 2010) to wait a while before making a move.

it wasn't mentioned again until tonight, when i made another casual comment.

i'm responsible for entering all the ticket sales for mistletoe fair into the junior league website, and i've been dreading it for weeks because of how slow the computer moves.

so anyway - we ate dinner and went about getting settled in for a nice evening of trash tv when he announced out of nowhere that he needed to run to the store.

claiming that it was a (bogus) run for ice cream, he grabbed his keys and was out the door.

45 minutes later, he walked in with this.

oh, hubs.

what a sweetie you are!

although i did have to wonder for a minute whether this gesture was rooted in major generosity or major guilt ... ha!

he says it's been something he's been mulling over for 'a while' and that he'd just been waiting for the right time.

which i'm guessing came today when he sold my current laptop without me even knowing!

silly boy.

and again to summarize: ALL his idea. NONE of my idea. again.

the finance major in me can't help but flinch when i think of the money that's been spent around here recently. eek!

it's all good though - he promises me he'll reign it in a little bit too.

(talk about something i'd never hear myself saying?! are we in the twilight zone, y'all?!)

and the number keypad on this thing alone is enough to make it worth it!

on that note, i gotta get to bed. otherwise i'll work myself into a money-spending freak-out, and that won't be good for anybody. ha!

love & who'd've thunk it?!?

christmas cheer.

2011-01-11T23:35:00.001-06:00

definitely don't forget to enter my warm & fuzzy giveaway!

(entries will be cut off on friday & winners drawn sometime on saturday ... good luck!)
..........................................................

so.

christmas came and went too quickly as usual.

we had all kinds of fun and really soaked up all the time we had together.

too many sweet treats, too many lattes (for mommy, at least ... one day i had 2 in 2 hours. still a little surprised i didn't twist off into space after that.), and too many presents .... but i suppose that's all part of the fun, especially with a little person running around.

here are some snapshots from our break ... i really don't have any great gotta-tell-you stories - or at least, not any i could share here without being excommunicated from my family -- but after all the shi-ott that went down, i'm not completely convinced that would be a bad thing -- ahem - anyhow.

hope you enjoy these ... i get all warm and toasty on the inside just looking at them!

{heading to her last day of the year at ms. rita's - in her nightgown.}

{this face. i'm powerless. and i don't even care.}

{and then she cops an attitude. and i'm still powerless. don't even feign surprise.}

{mama's idea of 'making' cookies for santa.}

{i never posted pictures of my christmas decorations, but this was hands down my favorite thing in the house - a basket FULL of christmas cards from this year and years past. LOVE.}

{mama shu's christmas tree. i could curl up and live under there. forever.}

{all i wanted was a good photo of my girl in front of the tree.}

{and all she wanted was the tube full of reese's bells.}

{things got so tense that gloria had to step in. do you even need to ask which way it went?! ... in case you're stumped, just check out the chocolate clutched between the girl's talons.}

{ahhh ... christmas eve day baking with mom.}

{mama could've used a shot of something a lot stronger than a skinny caramel vanilla latte. for sure.}

{she managed to get her flour onto the parchment paper - AFTER she ever so purposefully sprinkled the first four handfuls all over the tile.}

{a direct quote as she looked down at her handiwork: "oh my GOODness! this mess is HORR-uhh-ble. you need to clean it up, mommy!"}

{red velvet cake balls. umm, yeah. after this is pretty much the point at which the wheels came off the bus.}

{rolling out our dough.}

{good job, wild woman!}

{she took her job very seriously.}

{the dough needed a little more flour. such a pro!}

{cookie cutters!}

{pretty sure they didn't look anything close to this when they came out of the oven. my guess is the dough was still too thick and they just expanded into infinity.}

{yes, i did. no, i don't want to hear about it.}

{reindeer food!}

{oats, red glitter & silver glitter. so fun!}

{proud of her hard work!}

{i had the icing all ready to go when she announced that we would not be using it. apparently, the 'sing' was 'yuck for santa.' fine by me, kid!}

{christmas eve at my mom's ... even in a (blinged out!) neckbrace, jules still throws a heckuva party! the big people got to kick off the evening by choosing a scratch-off ticket! too bad nobody won more than $12 though.}

{oh, jesse. how i wish i had drawn your name for secret santa. then maybe i could've gotten you a proper shirt. tsk tsk tsk.}

{somebody couldn't wait to open presents!}

{the most still i could get these munchkins to sit before the madness began.}

{it's a cowboy hat! or as she called it ... a 'cow-bow-weeeeeee'!}

{my stepdad jimmy (on the right) and his best friend john fletcher (in the nasty pullover) with their joint gift .... a game of tiddliwinks! hah!}

{my cute stepsister jennifer and her CUTE boyfriend lee - who actually became her fiancee on christmas day and then her HUBBY on new year's! yay!!!}

{the wild woman was available to help anyone who needed assistance with unwrapping their gifts.}

{getting ready to head out and scatter our reindeer food. SO excited about santa's impending arrival!}

{someone wanted to scatter it one blasted spoonful at a time.}

{i tried to extol the benefits of a more 'efficient' method, but she really wasn't interested.}

{she's quite methodical, very deliberate, and already showing signs of being just as type a as her mother. a little control freak in the making!}

{it was certainly a shame when i 'accidentally' turned the bowl upside down and shook it as hard as i could.}

{when it was time to fix santa's plate, priss decided she didn't even want the sprinkles. she had it on good authority from the north pole that santa only wanted plain cookies this year. in related news, i'm STILL sweeping up red, white and green sprinkles. ugh.}

{my girl and i after we got all the goodies ready to go.}

{but MOOOOOOM, santa don't want all his cookies! i 'pposed to eat the rest!}

{so i forgot the carrots this year. and my girl was ticked. it took us an extra 35 minutes to get her in bed because she was worried the reindeer would get mad and take all her presents back ... or worse, give them to kennedy!}

{a few last photos in front of the tree before night-night.}

{mom, do you think santa will take my boots? i don't want him to take my boots.}

{don't let the reindeer take them eee-der. they're not reindeer boots, they're SOPHIE boots!}

{mommy, can i go to bed now? please?}

{so santa got so sleepy this year that he forgot to take pictures of all the loot. this spread - dream house, barbie cruise ship, fur real puppy dog, hello kitty alarm clock - was in the living room, and there were board games - candy land, hi ho cherry-o, memory, chutes & ladders, don't spill the beans & don't break the ice, and maximus & flynn rider (from tangled) in her bedroom under her little tree. i'm REALLY upset santa forgot a picture of her stocking ... angelina ballerina, ballerina pj's, ballet slippers, cute headbands, m&ms and a tube of different flavors of lip smackers ... perfect!}

{the only photo soph & kennedy got still enough for at christmas lunch. they were too busy trying to knock each other's teeth out.}

i hope you enjoyed these peeks into our holly jolly christmas.

i certainly enjoyed re-living them ... and getting the christmas post monkey off my back! ha!

love & ho ho ho!!!

more better.

2011-01-09T21:30:00.003-06:00

prologue: stick this one out 'till the end! there may be a little something sweet in it for you if you do!

so the other day i told y'all about the wild woman's new obsession with ballet and her nightly performances featuring the nerve-stomping singing dog she got for christmas.

these photos are, in the words of my girl, way more better than the ones i took with my phone, and the whole production is way too precious not to be recorded in all its adorable glory.

if i had to guess where she learned all her moves (some of them are pretty close to real ballet steps!), my first venture would be the endless hours of angelina ballerina she's been watching in her playroom.

i know i've said this before - but if there was ever a child born to be a ballerina, i've got her. i can't wait to see her in her real tutu and tights this fall!!!!

watch out, ms. kathy ... the wild woman is headed your way!

and i've got to warn you ... every now and then she gets a little narrow-minded about being told what to do.

but those spells don't usually last very long.

and then she's back to her lovely little self.

as long as she's getting her way, that is.

i just hope she can handle the change in music selection.

see? the stupid dog flaps its stupid ears while singing its stupid song! if she wasn't obsessed i'd light the stupid thing on fire.

but who am i to take away her source of inspiration??

........................................................................

so.

i also told y'all a few days ago about the precious hats my cutie friend kristy is making now.

she's started a brand new blog, all warm & fuzzy, to showcase her designs and has posted some seriously sweet things over there.

when she and the girls came to town for our 1/1/11 meet-up, she brought the most adorable owl hat for sophie b.

seriously.

could it be any cuter?!

i think not.

i've been wanting to show it to y'all since we got it but had yet to snap some photos of my girl wearing it.

bless her little heart, she was a good sport for the camera even with a raging case of the flu.

the munchkin may or may not be asleep in her bed wearing her new hat as we speak. and who could blame her?!

don't think i haven't tried to stuff my big gourd head into it ... somehow, though, the cute factor just didn't translate.

but i'm willing to bet that you (or some of your little people!) could rock one of these much better than i can.

sooooo, how's about we find that out?!

it has come to my attention that i'm currently sitting at 96 followers, which is incredible. i'm consistently floored that 96 whole people find me interesting enough to check in on what i have to say.

ridiculous. (in a good way!)

the leo in me adores the attention, and the blogger in me has been looking for a reason to host a new giveaway!

in honor of the new year, in honor of my gooooorgeous new blog design (yay jessica!!!!!) & officially becoming theyoungandtheprecious.com, and in honor of how much i appreciate each and every one of you, i'm giving away 2 precious hats from kristy & all warm and fuzzy.

won't that be fun!?!

i'm normally a just-leave-a-comment-to-be-entered kind of girl, but this one is going to work a little differently.

since i'm giving away 2 prizes, getting entered will involve 2 steps this time:

1. leave a comment on this post with your favorite y&r character (if you don't love y&r, any old comment will do. but i'm not sure we'll be able to be friends after this point. {kidding!!})

2. become a follower of all warm and fuzzy.

everyone will only be eligible for one entry each, but i'll do two random drawings to determine the winners.

you'll have until friday to enter, and i'll draw the winners sometime on saturday.

good luck, y'all!

love & NO school tomorrow!!!!!!

one FLU over the cuckoo's nest.

2011-01-08T21:50:00.002-06:00

so i just wanted to let y'all know that if you plan on coming to visit us in the next 7 to 14 days, you may want to pick up one of those cute yellow haz-mat ensembles.

... see, when i picked the wild woman up from rita's on thursday, she felt a bit warm to the touch.

and by 7:30 that night, she was practically glowing red from the fever. her whole body was hot, and sweet thing could barely open her eyes.

at one point her temp topped the 104 mark.

i snuggled her in my bed all night because her whole little body shook and shook and shook. she asked to go tinkle several times but never did - as soon as i set her on the potty she'd start crying that it hurt to try.

i called the pedi's office as soon as i got to school yesterday morning {i only got dressed and went in because i figured there was no way we'd get in before 2 or 3 o'clock since it's a) flu season and b) the only children's clinic currently operating in town} and was shocked when they could see us at 8:45.

seriously?! as in, like, less than an hour?! YES!

i think i might have gotten myself in a little bit of hot water by asking to leave so soon after i got there (oops. but i'm sure we all can agree that we are mamas first and teachers/accountants/coaches/account managers/veterinarians/nurses/lawyers second.) ... but i'm lucky enough to have a fantastic principal who puts up with me and my tendency to pull stunts like that.

there were a handful of kids waiting in the well waiting room and a few other under-the-weather munchkins waiting in the sick room, and i remember thinking again how surprised i was that we got in so quickly.

i checked us in at the desk and figured i had plenty of time to get the wild woman checked out and tucked back in at home before i had to be back at school.

but like so much else around here, the easy way just wasn't in the cards for us that morning.

the receptionist looked at me like i had 3 heads when i gave her s's name and date of birth.

receptionist: mrs. douglas, aren't you a bit early?

me: huh?

receptionist: well, ma'am, when you called this morning you asked for an appointment on TUESDAY.

me: huh?

receptionist: yes. see? right here on my screen - it says you called this morning about your daughter having a high fever, chills and a congested chest and asked for an appointment on TUESDAY.

me: why on EARTH would i call you TODAY with a VERY SICK child and ask not to be seen for FOUR DAYS?!?

receptionist: well, ma'am, i don't really know. i do remember thinking that was a bit odd when i added it to the schedule.

me: {choking back fiery venom by this point} well, HONEY, i'm sure you can take one look at that baby and clearly see what bad shape she's in. we'll just wait to see the doctor.

receptionist: oh, sure! i'll be happy to add you as a walk-in. just know it could be several hours before we get a chance to work you in.

me: {stalks off to the waiting room. can't possibly respond for fear we'll be removed from the premises before s gets any medical attention.}

the ONLY thing i can figure is that the mensa member who took my phone call mistook my asking to be seen TODAY for asking to be seen on TUESDAY.

seriously. you work in healthcare and don't see anything off-kilter about my wanting to wait four days to bring in my child who is running a hundred and four fever.

sounds like a future hospital administrator to me!

so we plopped ourselves down on one of the plastic couches and waited. and waited. and waited. and waited.

we enjoyed the illustrious distinction yesterday morning of being the sickest kid in the room, which meant all the other sickies and their parents gathered tightly into the corner and all huddled around the hand sanitizer while they kept their kids as far away from sophie (and anything she touched/breathed on/looked at) as they possibly could.

i got edgier and edgier as the minutes ticked by - my hall pass was quickly expiring and we didn't seem any closer to an exam room than we were a half hour ago.

finally, as the last few seconds of my conference period were ticking away (i was supposed to have been back at school by that point), i went against every mama bone in my body and left hubs and the wild woman waiting for the doc while i cried the entire drive back to my campus.

i know her daddy was completely capable of handling her for the visit, but it did nothing short of rip my heart out that i wasn't there to hold her while they checked her out. and had i known ahead of time that bloodwork was in our future, i'd have called in on the spot.

i'm assuming the 7 texts i sent with different things he needed to remember were a little much for husby's brain to compute ... my phone rang at one point and doc himself was on the other end. i relayed all of my concerns and observations and then hung up and cried. again.

they checked her ears, nose, throat and chest, ran labs, tested for a uti, and swabbed her nose for the flu.

and the winner is .....................................

the flu. blech.

cue another crying spell for mama.

we were told to expect the high fever to continue for another couple of days but that as long as she stayed well-hydrated we should be fine.

she's taking tamiflu, bactrim and alternating tylenol and motrin every two hours for fever.

just to be on the safe side, they also called in a dose of tamiflu for mommy and daddy.

she didn't eat a single bite of anything yesterday, but i figure that's pretty normal.

i kept reminding her every couple of minutes to take a drink, soph. take a drink for mommy so you don't have to go back to the doctor. and at one point she looked at me and said (and i quote ...) ugh, mommy. that's ALL you say!

so nice to know not even the flu can strip her of her attitude!

i started getting worried last night that she hadn't had more than a sip or two to drink all day, and she'd only made one trip to the potty since she got up that morning.

dehydration can get really dangerous really fast, and with my girl already being a tad bit on the smaller side, i decided to take her back to see doc this morning. (thank goodness it was his weekend for the after-hours clinic!)

it had been just over 24 hours since her last real drink and her last tinkle, so i'd tried to prepare myself for the possibility of her being sent to the hospital.

the circles under her eyes had improved from a nasty black to a more attractive shade of eggplant, but my baby was still a very sick little girl.

i was hoping the doctor would just laugh at me and send us home, but i was willing to risk that as opposed to her getting so dehydrated that she got into the danger zone like she did this summer.

he said his first instinct was to admit her but actually ended up letting us come back home (with strict instructions to drink, drink, drink and potty at least twice in the next 12 hours) because of how much improvement he saw from yesterday to today.

i don't know why it never occurred to me before, but doc suggested giving her liquids just like we do her meds - pry her mouth open and shoot it down her throat with a syringe if she just absolutely refuses to drink.

as much as i hate making her so upset, that's exactly what we've been doing every 15 or 20 minutes. all dadgum day long. (definitely not a big deal though when you compare it to having to watch them shove a needle in her tiny little arm for an i.v.!)

we've stayed really quiet today and are planning to do the same tomorrow. i'm not letting her go back to rita's until she's fever-free for at least 24 hours ... it sure would be a shame if she and i had to stay at home in our jamas on monday ....

that is, unless we're all at home in our jamas and snowed in like the weather forecast says we might be.

and finally ... i feel compelled to tell y'all before i go just how guilty i've felt the last couple of days over all this flu business ....

the wild woman had an appointment to get her 3-year check-up and flu shot on december 27th, but i decided to move it at the last minute and rescheduled it for this coming week.

it was the day after d & i had been so sick with the tummy bug, and to be blunt, i really didn't have the (intestinal) strength to get up, dressed and out of the house just to fight her at the doctor's office for an hour and a half.

that's gotta be a #momfail if i've ever heard one.

frick.

anyway - i'm off to commence with our wwe-style medicine-giving cage match.

it oughta be a good one. she's gotten a little feisty now that she's getting some of her strength back - and i've got the teeth marks to prove it!

love & clorox wipes,

twelve-twenty three.

2011-01-06T22:30:00.004-06:00

happy birthday to you,

happy birthday sophie blair,

happy birthday to you!

three years ago, on december 23, 2007, at 12:32 a.m. the most beautiful creature i've ever met took her first sweet little breath.

and until i take my last breath, nothing in this world will be more important to me than she is.

mommy loves you, my little wild woman. happy, happy, happy birthday!

love & she'll always be my baby,

jill

babies gone wild.

2011-01-06T15:55:00.001-06:00

so there's really not that much that i just flat out refuse to speak of here on the ol' blog, but anything that relates to the (terribly fuzzy, taken on my iphone) picture below will NOT be mentioned here in any way, shape or form.

ever.

the atrocities and events relating to that dark day in history will henceforth be referred to as that which we do not speak of.

i will enforce this policy swiftly and severely. please don't make me prove it.

and yes. i took my wine into the bathroom to take a picture. seriously classy - that's just how i roll.

now. onto the real reason for today's post.

i got to rita's about 5 yesterday to pick up the wild woman and knew something wasn't quite right when they both met me at the door.

s was okay when i walked in but started crying the second she saw me ... which at first made me think she was in mega-trouble. (there's no shame in that girl's game - she ~~, like like her mother,~~ is uber-quick to turn on the waterworks if she thinks it will help her case {or her hind end, depending on the circumstances}).

but then the first thing rita said to me was i'm so sorry, i'm so sorry and i knew something else had gone down.

in between bursts of tears and burying her face in her taggie, the best rundown i got from my girl went something along the lines of kennedy BITE me on my FACE 'cause she is MEAN and HURT me 'cause she is MEAN and i hit her with my taggie 'cause she is MEAN and i not be her best friend 'cause she is MEAN.

rita's version was a little sketchier with the details ... it seems the poor gal had to sneak into the bathroom to try to tinkle in private while the girls were watching a cartoon and baby m was taking a nap in the crib.

in her own words (i totally couldn't make it up if i tried!) ... as soon as my tushy hit the seat i heard the girls start screaming like a couple of cats. but i couldn't get up because, you know, i just HAD to go. and i was kind of at the point that i couldn't cut it off even if i wanted to. so by the time i got back in they-uh {there, for those of you who don't speak drawl}, poor little sophie was already crying and kennedy was hiding in the dining room.

all of these photos were taken more than an hour after they got into it ... and the marks on her cheek could most definitely have been bite marks ... or it could've been just a couple of good wallops to the face.

it was still whelped up and puffy around and under her eye by the time she went to bed last night, but all that's left today are the scratches and red marks.

i was worried for a while it would turn into a black eye ... poor kid looked pitiful!

she's definitely a trooper though ... not even a beating about her head and shoulders was enough to dissuade her from putting on her nightly ballet performance when we got home.

{sorry again for the photo quality - or lack thereof. they didn't look this yucky on my phone. but it's too precious not to share!}

my mom gave sophie b these precious ballerina 'jamas for christmas, and just like the ballet slippers santa left in her stocking, my girl has been obsessed ever since.

she starts stripping the moment we hit the door every day and heads straight for her 'costume.' then she rips her current bow out (hair and all .. ack!) and demands (but ever so sweetly!) for me to put in her pank {pink, again for those of you lacking a working knowledge of the drawl} one.

and as if all of this pinky preciousness wasn't enough, the girl has added a new element of adorable to her repertoire.

my dad and kelli gave her one of those annoying stuffed singing dogs for christmas (you push the button and it's ears start flapping up and down while it sings no less than six verses of do your ears hang low in a tone that makes you want to drink. heavily.), and she loves to put on a show with the crooning canine as her accompaniment.

she sets him up on the couch, starts the music and then proceeds to twirl, turn, dip and sway all over the living room.

i die from the cuteness. each and every time. i'm total putty in the kid's hands as soon as she takes a bow.

what's that, darling? you want chocolate chips for supper with a side of sweet tea? of course! here ... play with mommy's jewelry while i get it ready! then we'll go to target and mommy will buy you three of everything.

help me, rhonda.

(i'll really be toast if she's still doing the routine at 16. don't worry about breaking curfew, sweetie. mommy isn't mad that you took out the mailbox with the new car. i wasn't too keen on the color anyhow! sheesh.)

if there was ever a child born to take ballet lessons, i've got her. and we have the when can i take dance, mommy? conversation multiple times a day.

i kept telling her she could take next year when she's bigger ... thinking that would pacify her until she forgot about it for a while.

uhhh, yeah.

no dice.

the first thing she said after she blew out the candles in her birthday pancakes?

i can take ballet now, mommy! i free (read: three) and i bigger!!!!!!!!

that day i was able to put her off a little longer by reminding her that it wasn't 'next year' just yet.

and then new year's day rolled around.

i'm sure i don't even need to tell you how unpleasant that little chat was.

Lord help me. a 3 year old who can reason her way through an argument with me and never break a sweat.

either she's really smart ... or i'm really not.

totally 50/50 on that one, y'all.

love & a HUGE shout-out to the RIDICULOUSLY talented jessica and her mad design skills for the gorgeous new digs 'round these parts!!!!!!

seriously. check out diamond doll designs RIGHT NOW.

(p.s. a more proper post on the re-design is coming. but i couldn't possibly post without giving her credit right this second!!!!)

xoxo ...

jill

warm fuzzies from all warm & fuzzy!

2011-01-04T14:50:00.004-06:00

so i mentioned last night that my fun friend kristy is doing a giveaway on her brand spankin' new all warm & fuzzy website showcasing some of her fab, fun, fantastic fuzzy finds!

the sweet girl made the cutest owl hat EVER for the wild woman, and i'm a little bit (or a lot!) ashamed that i still don't have a photo to show you. (remind me to update this post with one later, okay?!)

pretty, pretty please head on over to all warm and fuzzy to enter her giveaway. you'll never forgive yourself if you don't!

i'm not entering (on purpose) just so y'all can have a better shot at winning!

the way i see it ... there are a few things in life worth paying full price for, and these precious hats just happen to be one of them! (along with diet dr. pepper, dark chocolate, a grande skinny caramel vanilla latte, and anything i have to pay for in order to avoid black friday shopping.)

good luck, peeps!

xoxo.

jill

priorities.

2011-01-03T22:35:00.002-06:00

so.

happy birthday, sophie b!

merry christmas, y'all!

happy new year, everybody!

ummm ....

clearly, there are several big events i have yet to post (shocking, right?!) ... but i couldn't resist showing y'all what i got to do this weekend before moving on with the business of catching up.

i have long read (and loved!!!) the blogs of sarah, candace and kristy and have always thought we'd be great friends if we weren't separated by a few hundred miles in each direction.

then we all started talking pretty frequently on twitter last year ... and after our very first random-yet-cohesive, great-minds-tweet-alike kind of conversation, i knew we were fated to be real, lifelong, call-each-other-if-we-need-help-burying-a-body friends. (i'm only kidding about the last part, girls. unless you-know-who keeps up with the you-know-what and i have to take matters into my own hands. ha! kidding. again. promise.)

anyhow.

the four of us have talked for-ev-ah about getting together, and about a month ago we finally nailed down a date that worked for everyone.

operation 1.1.11 was set in motion!

since my house is pretty much smack dab in the middle of all of us, the girls were awesome enough to agree to drive here (which meant they had to be up, dressed and on the road before i ever rolled my sorry self out of bed! eek! sorry, girls!!! you're the best!) for the big reunion.

candace made it here first, so she and i headed out on a starbucks and car wash run before kristy & sarah arrived at the house.

(kristy lives halfway between sarah and me, so they made the last leg of the drive together. {umm, candace - any guesses as to ~~what~~ who they talked about?!? ha!})

we spent our first couple of hours together chatting away in my living room while the dogs crawled all over candace's fantastic new boots and the wild woman regaled us with stories of her most recent trip to the potty and how many times she'd tooted that morning.

(sorry, y'all. just keepin' it real.)

we managed to stop talking long enough to decide to go to lunch - where we were promptly placed in the most out of the way, way-back corner booth in the whole place. sarah joked that the hostess must have known how much talking we had to do!

after lunch i took the girls to do just about the only semi-interesting thing i could come up with on a new year's saturday afternoon ...

we headed downtown for the quintessential two feet in two cities, two counties and two states photo op!

i kept watching for someone we could flag down to take a picture of all four of us, but we missed the police officer driving by and were too scared to approach any of the model citizens entering or leaving the arrow bar across the street.

we rounded out our afternoon with a little trip to coldstone (do NOT believe them when they say it was my idea! ha!) and a few more minutes of visiting before i had to bail on them to deal with some family 'business'.

i'm afraid i have no explanations or excuses for what my hair is doing in the photo you're about to see. i do, however, have an apology.

obviously, when i thought i said a few long layers ... it must have come out please give me a shag up to my eyeballs.

my uh-mazing hairstylist fixed it in about 3 minutes and made it look incredible ... i spent 30 minutes and had to settle for this when candace knocked on the door.

i also have no answer as to why i look like their mother instead of the fourth amigo.

and the extra 3 rolls of cheek you see on my face? gotta be the camera. sheesh.

seriously, though.

spending a little quality girl time with these precious ladies did me more good than any shoe sale known to man!

we hadn't even said goodbye before we started planning our next get-together.

(dallas. march. calendar checks are due to me tomorrow! don't forget!)

i've been praying for so long for real, true friendships ... and i finally found them!

.... on the internet of all places - fantastic!

nevermind one of the girlies did a google search on me before the meet-up to prove to her husband i was really a teacher and not some dirty old man waiting for her to fall into a trap. ha!

(i think all the men were a little bit skeptical ... and as i sit here watching the craigslist killer on lifetime, i can totally see where they were coming from! thankfully though, the most dangerous thing about our little date was my driving.)

thanks for a ridiculously fun afternoon, girlies. and thanks again to the awesome kristy for the wild woman's super cool owl hat! pictures to come soon!!!

y'all check out her new blog showcasing the fabulous custom hats she's begun creating!!!!!!

as for yours truly, i'm off to bed. the children will be back bright and early tomorrow morning, and i'm going to need every ounce of energy i can summon to keep from collapsing at noon.

blech.

love & a new day planner,

jill

7 days.

2010-12-16T22:50:00.002-06:00

so.

7 days, y'all.

7 days until my baby turns 3.

i'm floored.

it is UNreal to me that time has passed so quickly.

i miss those days. a lot.

but then i look at this face ...

and i can't imagine her being anything other than this size either.

i love these big cheesy grins that have become her norm lately. that little round face is almost too much for this mama's heart to take!

i wish i could take credit for the joy you see in these photos, but it most definitely belongs to someone else ...

our incredibly sweet, too-good-to-be-true-wish-they-didn't-live-so-blasted-far-away friends sarah and ava sent this precious tinkerbell (pronounced by the wild woman as tinker-bay-ell ... ms. rita's southern twang has most definitely rubbed off!) dress to the wild woman for her birthday!

their thoughtfulness and generosity brought big tears to my eyes ... sweet sarah is always sending a treat to the wild woman (or me!) or a sweet card just to lift my spirits.

i'm so excited to know this sweet family but so bummed there's a 3 hour drive between us and all of the lucy & ethel kind of fun i just know we'd have all the time.

what's really ridiculous about the whole thing is that she and i went to the same college at the same time and were in many of the same classes without ever realizing it. hellloooo, terrible timing!

and if you're not reading sarah's blog, i feel really sorry for you. like the kind of sorry i feel for people who don't watch soap operas or drink diet dr. pepper.

thanks again, pretty girls! the wild woman LOVES her dress!

so much, in fact, that last friday i even let her wear it to ms. rita's.

but before i dropped her off, we made a pit stop at starbucks so i could load up on caffeine and coffee cake to pass around the waiting room while mom was in surgery.

(jules is doing wonderfully, by the way! she's not quite back to her old self yet, but she's well on her way to a full recovery ... until the next surgery. thanks so much for the sweet words and prayers last week ... we felt them for sure!)

the drive-through was backed up halfway to the interstate, so we headed inside to order. while we were waiting in line, a sweet lady came up to us to tell sophie b how precious she looked.

the exchange went a little something (read: exactly, word-for-embarrassing-word!) like this:

sweet lady: oh my, you are precious!

wild woman: i wearin' my tinker-bay-ell dress!

sweet lady: i see that. but i think you are tinkerbell!

wild woman: NO! (pointing her chubby finger in the lady's face) i NOT tinker-bay-ell! THIS. (gesturing violently to the picture of tinkerbell on the shoulder of her dress) IS. TINKER-BAY-ELL! i am SOPHIE!!

sweet lady: (laughs uncomfortably. says nothing. grabs her coffee and quickly walks away - probably grumbling all the while about the sad state of society and its youth.)

me: (avoids the obvious stares from everyone else in the building. pays for coffee as fast as humanly possible and drops a $5 in the tip jar like it will actually help the situation. laughs hysterically and way too loud just to keep from crying out of sheer humiliation. vows right then and there to only drive through from now until eternity.)

i've said it before, and i'll say it again. i am a fantastic mother.

anyway.

here are a few fun photos that are totally typical of the season and of sophie b ...

napping (hallelujah!) in her pinkalicious tutu and christmas nightgown ... which, incidentally, is exactly what she wore to rita's yesterday. i rock.

in front of nana's christmas tree with her cute grinch shirt and the toy she ripped from kennedy's grip a few seconds before this photo was taken. her grin may or may not be a direct result of kennedy's kicking and screaming fit.

her reaction to my request for her to "show me your grinch and say cheese!" ... pretty sure this is a glimpse into my life 10 years from now. i tried to catch the eye rolling, but alas, she's already too quick for me.

a rare moment of cousinly love (sans hitting, kicking, scratching, biting, pinching or yelling!)

these two love each other so much ... fights and all! and i kind of think they're starting to favor each other - do y'all see it??

and then it was back to business as usual.

we told them to tell each other night-night and this is what ensued.

i'm calling this one a draw. there were no detached ponytails or teeth marks present for us to declare a winner!

so i have one more photo to show you.

and it's quite possibly my most favorite photo of the wild woman for the whole year.

i told y'all a while back that we were going shopping for toys to donate to the marines and their toys for tots program ....

well. we were out monday night doing some christmas shopping and gave priss a chance to make her selections - including a cabbage patch newborn and chutes & ladders. (love those!)

as we were leaving tj maxx to head down to old navy, i spotted some cash on the ground - $49 to be exact.

we waited for almost an hour (from inside old navy, of course. no need to freeze while trying to do a good deed!) but never saw anyone come by looking for it.

of course it occurred to us to turn the money in to one of the stores or even the police, but in both of those situations we couldn't be sure it would ever find its way back to the rightful owner. (or if it would end up in someone else's pocket!)

we knew we weren't keeping it and finally decided to donate it to our church as an anonymous offering.

until.

i remembered where we were going the next day ...

perfect.

when the wild woman bounded out of the car to 'share' her toys with 'the guys,' we also gave them the money and explained that if we couldn't return it to the original owner, supporting this awesome effort for local kiddos was a great runner-up.

i was so proud of my girl - save for her initial chorus of i can't! i can't! when she caught a first glimpse of the (rather large) men coming out to greet us, she was a total pro!

she chatted and shared and laughed and hugged and posed without a single protest.

(i suppose that weakness for a man in uniform must be genetic ... goodness knows her mama suffers from the same affliction! never mind those boys are probably a good 5 or 7 years younger than me and both called me ma'am more than once ...)

it's safe to say that 5 minutes was the most special, heartwarming time we've had so far this christmas season.

we just might have to make another visit this weekend ... it's been on my heart that we didn't give enough. i can't wait!

i really hope that amidst all the cookie-eating, gift-wrapping, and elf-watching that you can do something to put a smile on someone else's face ... what a great time to pay it forward!

love & christmas cheer,

happy december, y'all!

2010-12-07T14:40:00.002-06:00

so.

(two posts in two days?! who am i??)

i totally adore this time of year.

the lights, the merriment, the hair on my arms standing up every time i walk into target (oh wait - that's all year! ha!), the caramel brulee lattes from starbucks that i've just somehow discovered, the coziness in our cute little house when it's all decorated for christmas and even the busyness that comes with the season.

we kicked off our december with hubby's birthday on friday (happy 32nd, honey!!! i promise not to tell anybody how old you are!) and spent the rest of our weekend eating (yay saltgrass!), shopping (yay gap outlet!) and hanging out with family (yay sunday lunch at mama shu's!).

sophie b and i wrapped up our sunday with the awe-inspiring christmas concert at the church where i grew up ... (we're talking flying angels and real live baby goats in the sanctuary, y'all. uh-mazing.)

when you combine all that fun with the lovely fact that both my dishwasher and laundry baskets are currently empty, it was pretty much a perfect weekend.

which is good. 'cause i have a feeling next weekend won't be quite as stellar.

my sweet mama goes in friday morning for some pretty serious neck surgery. we're all on edge but doing our best to think happy thoughts and turn the worry and anxiety over to Jesus. i know without a doubt He will carry all of us through this!

prayers will most definitely be appreciated as we get ready for her big day ... please and thank you!

the part about all of this that's really yucky is that all of this is only half of her battle - there are actually two surgeries in her future. :(

to fix everything in one shot, she'd have to be under anesthesia for 9 hours or more ... and the doc just isn't comfortable with that. (like, duh ... neither are we!)

so. she'll have surgery #1 on friday, stay in the hospital 6 days or so, go home to rest & recuperate and then repeat the whole thing 6 weeks later.

blah.

i've already put in to take the day off on friday so i can be there with her. (it ain't like i'd be coherent enough to work anyway ... i'll be lucky if i don't have to be knocked out too!)

in related news ... i'm currently in the market for prozac, valium, or even a couple of horse tranquilizers. (i kid, i kid .... sort of.)

anyway.

i've been meaning to show y'all what arrived at our house the day before thanksgiving ....

way back this summer, i ordered a couple of fun things for the wild woman from the amazing and incredible amanda of bibs & cribs fame.

y'all.

i'm a little embarrassed to put these lame-ish photos out there as a representation of her jaw-dropping, beautiful work.

i attempted to capture them in the best light, but it was nighttime and i was trying to avoid the flash, so this is the best there is.

but let me tell you, they are so so SO much more gorgeous-er in person!

isn't this the most fantastic ballerina you've ever seen?!

it think it's only fitting since we've recently become obsessed with ballet.

we practice it morning, noon and night ... and sweet pea won't even be old enough to start classes until september!

the colors are incredible ... i can't wait to see what it looks like in a big gold frame on the wall.

we're getting ready to re-work some of the wild woman's room (think less pink & brown and more brown, gold & antique white. there will still be some punches of color here and there - her distressed pink armoire, this canvas, and some fun fabrics nana's working on for me. can't wait!) and this beauty will be the centerpiece for the new look.

the chocolate brown tutu ... i die, y'all. die.

the pear green ballet shoes are almost too much precious for me to handle ... i wish y'all could be in her room to see it all together ... major chill bump factor!

giant bling on the toes? most definitely!!

i really don't think i can put into words how much i love this. i just smile every time i walk into her room and see it!

the best part is that the cute little ballerina didn't come alone ....

she brought another tutu!

again, y'all ... there's no way for photos to do justice to the colors and the preciousness of it all.

i couldn't seem to catch the bow holder in any kind of flattering light no matter what i tried ... it still looks way too blown out?!

the colors are so soft and subtle and will be so perfect in my sweetie's (subtle!) ballerina room. (i.e. nothing too theme-y or matchy-matchy ... just lots of glam details and soft touches. i wish i could describe it better, but at this point it's only in my head. i have some more etsy searching to do before i'll have a more concrete rough draft.)

call me crazy, but i'm planning to hang it on her door ... that way it'll be the first thing people see when they walk in.

and ... for whatever reason, it bothers me for her bedroom door to be empty?? i tried a memo board up there with pictures and bible verses stuck in it, but it wasn't quite what i was going for.

i ordered this little pretty with that purpose in mind, so i can't wait to see if it works like i hope it will. (in the event it looks weird - which i totally know it won't - i've got another spot in her room that will work for sure.)

thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to the insanely talented amanda for all of your hard work! we are in love!!

p.s. ... ms. amanda just delivered baby #2 - a precious baby boy! congrats!!!- before thanksgiving. from what i read on her blog, she's taking some time off from the business to adjust to life with two young kiddos (she also has a precious little girl close to sophie's age). just be sure to keep checking her website to see when she reopens for new orders.
................................................................

so my little wild woman and i made sure to take the time during the break to write our letter to santa ...

i haven't the foggiest clue where the pink clock came from, but you can bet your boots i'm looking for one!

and speaking of ~~hubby~~ santa ...

i have a bone to pick.

the ~~ups man~~ elves have been hard at work ~~delivering~~ making toys around here, and the only task delegated to ~~hubby~~ santa has been to keep them well concealed.

uhhh, anybody else see a problem here?

umm, dear?

when i said get one of those big black trash bags and cover up the box, i meant get one of those BIG black trash bags and COVER up the box.

it's a good thing my girl is prone to ignore me when i ask her to get something out of the garage.
...........................

so this next part doesn't really belong with the rest of this post, but it's too cute not to show you!

i went on kind of a bender last weekend ordering personalized shirts for the wild woman.

there was her cute birthday shirt (check out this post if you missed it.) ....

and then there were these -

{image courtesy of ebay seller mtanial}

clearly, this one will say sophie and not sadie. :)

{image courtesy of ebay seller mtanial}

i couldn't resist this one ... the initial is too precious!

{image courtesy of etsy seller the trendy butterfly}

this one is probably my very, very favorite! if you looked closely, you may have noticed it in our skateport photos from yesterday.

it was SO precious with black leggings, silver metallic boots, a black ruffly cardigan and giant white hairbows!!

if that ensemble came in my size, i can't be sure i would pass it up ... bows and all!

and with that little jewel of a mental picture filed away, i figure it's time for this mama to do something productive today.

...but right quick (anybody else say that alot?!) i figured i'd show you a few behind the scenes-esque photos from last night.

i know y'all are used to seeing shots of my sweet pea all dolled up ...

but.

i couldn't resist the temptation to show you what she looks like the other 97% of the time -

this last one is actually my favorite ... and definitely the most accurate!

happy tuesday, y'all!

love & diet dr. pepper,

j

a little iphone fun.

2010-12-06T11:55:00.001-06:00

so.

yours truly is pretty wiped today.

we had such an incredible weekend that i just couldn't make myself let go of it and go to bed last night.

i have a bigger & better post coming soon (like, today!) about all the fun things we did, but i couldn't resist showing you these sweet shots from my phone.

they're all from our last-minute trip to shreveport (or rather, skateport as the wild woman referred to it) on saturday.

sophie be kept telling us that 'i wanna ride it mama! i wanna ride the skateport, daddy!' ... funny girl. :)

i hope these make you smile this morning ... they definitely perked me up!

waiting to eat at saltgrass - yum!

i wish y'all could have seen her face when she realized that packet of equal was open! too funny!

who needs a spoon? sweet thing used her fries to scoop out the mac & cheese. (carb-loading, anyone?)

mama: sophie, what does the water look like??

the wild woman: duh, mama. like water!

(thanks ever so much, hubs, for teaching my sugar plum to say duh.)

'wook, mom! that's a big GIANT christmas tree! i wanna hug it!'

so she did. :)

and finally. her most favorite thing of the day: coke machines! we had to stop at every.SINGLE.one we saw.
'wowwww, daddy. LOOK at all those COKES!'

gotta love the world through the eyes of a child.

mama's favorite moments of the day (besides raiding the gap outlet with hubby's blessing!!) came on the ride home .....

as we were cranking up mariah's santa claus is comin' to town in the car to head home ... 'i just love christmas time, mommy. it makes me happy.'

and in response to mommy's (leading) questions about who we should be thankful for during this season and whose birthday we celebrate on christmas ... 'i wuv baby Jesus, mommy. but it not his birthday. it MY birthday. he have a birthday next monday.'

and finally, as we were driving through starbucks (for mama) and dairy queen (for daddy & sweet girl) ... i was telling hubby to order just a small chocolate sundae for the princess and didn't really think she was paying attention to me when i heard, 'oh WOW, daddy! thank you for my chocowate monday. i just WUV chocowate mondays!'

naturally, we've been talking about chocolate mondays ever since.

love & a skinny vanilla caramel latte,

jill

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