I guess one wasn't enough

We now have 2 dogs. Ian thought Jack needed a friend. I had been thinking the same thing but I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure if we were ready to be a 2-dog family and, we were still adjusting to having Jack. Some friends from church have a litter of puppies that they've been trying to find homes for for a few weeks now. After several name suggestions----Rex, Shrek, Max, and Chomp----we landed on Ace(Zack's idea).

What a cute face! This is after our long walk. Poor little guy was pooped.


I took this one just a few minutes ago. Ace and Todd are passed out in the rocking chair. I wish I could take a nap. I'm wiped out after that walk too!

Worms!!!!

I found this on an LDS mom group and had to share.

~Miranda~

A minister decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon. Four worms were placed into four separate jars. The first worm was put into a container of alcohol. The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke. The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup. The fourth worm was put into a container of good clean soil. At the conclusion of the sermon, the Minister reported the following results:

The first worm in alcohol - Dead
The second worm in cigarette smoke - Dead
Third worm in chocolate syrup - Dead
Fourth worm in good clean soil - Alive

So the Minister asked the congregation - What did you learn from this demonstration?

Maxine was sitting in the back, quickly raised her hand and said, 'As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!'

Splat Mats

I didn't know what a splat mat was until I came across the idea a few days ago on a homeschooling site. I'm sure we've all used one in our lifetime but I never knew what they were called. Sure, we could call them activity mats or even place mats. They all have the same principal in mind. But I just love the name SPLAT MAT. It's fun! And it's more fun to make them instead of loading up four children in the van and traipsing out in the cold to wreak havoc on Walmart to buy these things that I can make for way cheap at home, I think. Once I finish laminating them (only 1 left to do) we'll use them during art time to protect the table from the ravages of glue, paint, and other unknown (but non-toxic) substances that may come our way.

Zack's handy work. He chose Marvel comic stickers and paint.
He REALLY liked the paint. :o)

Miss Lauren's--ok, mommy did this one but she helped by sticking her finger in the paint. And she picked out the kitten and puppy. Ok, I did that one too.

Matt's---it has trains and big yellow do-hickies. He's the only one who'd let me take his picture with his mat. Just kidding. If I'd let Lauren hold hers she would have tried to eat it. And the other two were busy somewhere else.

Todd's---I'm very impressed with his. Check out the detail. He didn't want paint, just stickers and markers, but I love how he put the whole scene together. He even trimmed the oxygen tank and flashlight stickers to make them look like they're sitting in the boat. There's also 'light' coming from the flashlight so the scuba diver can see the fish he's trying to take a picture of. Cool. :o) (BTW, that's Matt's finger at the top of the picture. He tried to put his head in the shot but I told him to move it so he stuck his finger in instead. Goofy child.)

And check out his name. How creative!

A Riddle

What do you get when you find this?
(This is a diaper that was once attached to 'the girl'.)

And this?
(Here is 'the girl' but in an effort to keep this PG,
no nudes allowed.)

You get this.

I know it appears to possibly be water since she's holding a water bottle, but trust me, it's not. And I just recovered these chairs a couple of months ago. Thank goodness I love my kids more than my dining room chairs. (singing---'my life is a gift, my life has a plan, my life has a purpose' . . . . )

Our Valentine's Day

Ok, since everyone else posted about their Valentine's Day, I'll post about mine, but I don't have pictures. Bad mommy, I know.

I was struggling with what to do for the kids because I usually at least make or buy cards and give them some little candy treat. Charity gave me a great idea of making a big breakfast and decorating the table the way Aunt Carolyn did for them when they were younger. I thought it was a really good idea but I didn't think I could pull it off because one, I had very limited funds and two, I've been dealing with a UTI for several days and felt yucky so I certainly didn't feel up for making a big production. I settled on waffles and sausage for breakfast but I didn't have any trimmings . . . or so I thought.

After Todd made me feel like the worst mom in the world by asking what their Valentine's treat was(and I'm thinking I didn't have anything for them), I remembered I had a large piece of red fabric that just happened to be big enough for my table. Then I remembered I had some heart confetti left over from when I'd put some in a card for Ian when he was out at sea(many moons ago!). I threw the fabric on the table and sprinkled the confetti down the middle and around each plate. We ended up with waffles topped with chocolate chips and/or bananas and sausage. The kids loved it and enjoyed reading the little heart confetti while they ate. After breakfast dad gave them each a chocolate heart and a Smarties. I think we pulled off a nice Valentine's Day for them.


And last, but not least, which probably should've been first but I'm going in chronological order here . . . It was also Ian's 35th birthday. Sorry, honey, I HAD to put that on here. (I know, pay back won't be pretty.)

We had steak, baked potato, salad, and key lime pie for his birthday cake. Ok, so we're a little unconventional. But it was a great meal.

Happy Birthday, sugar muffin!!!! LOL! I've never called him that. I just want to see what reaction I get when he reads this. ;o)

Installing a Husband

I found this on another blog and thought it was hilarious. I hope you get a kick out of it, too.

~Miranda~

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate.



DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.

If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1.

Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0; program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck Babe!

Tech Support

So it's not a growth spurt

It's mono. Yep, Todd has mono. I was hoping it wasn't but, at least we finally know what's going on with him. His sore throat is gone, thankfully, and he has perked up a bit, but he's still sleeping a lot. He slept half the morning away today and he fell asleep two different times yesterday. Poor guy. He seems more irritable and moody than usual and has been that way for a while. I'm hoping it's just from him not feeling well. If it's not and this is an introduction to pre-teen/teen years, go ahead and reserve me a bed in a mental hospital because I can't take much more of it. Especially with little miss princess hitting terrible 2's early. Chocolate? Anyone?