Little Sneak

I was cleaning in the guests bathroom this morning when Katie told me she wanted the bathroom door closed.  When I asked her why, she said because she didn't want me to hear the sounds she was making.  "What is she up to?" I thought.  I let her close the door, but I opened it slightly to she her pushing her little red table out of her bedroom.  She then proceeded down the hall, through the living and dining room, across the kitchen to the pantry.  She still didn't realize that I was silently following her, so she opened the pantry door, positioned the table, climbed on top and was just reaching for something when I said, "Hey!!"  She jumped out of her skin.  When I inquired what she was doing, she said she wanted cookies for breakfast.  What has me a little concerned is that she knows that cookies for breakfast is a no-no, yet the little sneak still went for them and did advance preparations so she won't get caught.  Rather conniving don't you think? 

New Dos

Katie and I had our first ever Momma and Daughter Day at the Hair Salon.  Back in March Katie cut her hair and it had finally grew long enough for her to have a professional fix-it haircut.  I also got my do cut, similar to what I had before, but shorter and more stacked in the back.  Here's Rick's Thursday picture of us with our new dos.

After we got our hair cut, we had several other errands to run one of which was a stop at Wal-Mart.  In Wal-Mart we were at the back of the store when Katie said, "Momma what is this door for?"  Just as the last word came out of her mouth, she push on the lever and opened the fire exit.  All of sudden alarms went off.  The manager and two other employees came running--they thought they had a break in.  Katie was mortified.  I made her apologize to the store manager and he graciously accepted her apology.  Man, we are marked women in that Wal-Mart.  I bet when they see us come through the door they go, "Oh great.  Just what we need."  I found humor in the situation when Katie refused to go back to that part of the store.  We'll never shop in the craft department again.

Marty Mouse Had A House

Our mailbox is the standard, black, rectangular kind and is across the road from our property. On Farm Roads in Texas having all mailboxes on one side is common. Anyway, one day last week I checked the mail and found a little mouse sitting in the mailbox. Apparently Marty Mouse found himself a ready-built house. I'm not a big mouse fan, but he was clearly more frightened of me than I was of him for he cowered in the back corner. I quickly yanked the mail out and then left the door open so he could exit if he chose. As for how he got in there, he climbed the mailbox's steel post and wiggled through a little hole on the bottom of the mailbox. When Rick checked the mailbox later that day, the mouse was gone. Marty is a well-mannered mouse because he even closed the door. Fast forward to today. I stopped to check the mail when we were on our way out to Kindermusik. Son-of-a-gun, Marty Mouse was home. This time he was sitting on top of the mail. I needed my mail and figured the mouse would head for his cowering corner when he saw a giant hand coming at him. Over the weekend Marty Mouse gained the courage of a lion because when I tried to gently pull the mail to the front of the box, he ran with it to the front, came to a screeching halt at the edge and properly freaked me out. At this point Katie was out of the car and very fascinated with the mouse. She informed me that Marty Mouse was cute and she liked him. (Weird kid.) Anyhoodles, my next plan was to bang on the side of the mailbox in hopes that he would say, "The heck with this. I'll find a new mouse house" and scurry out the hole. Didn't work. He retreated to the back corner. As I said, Katie and I were on our way to Kindermusik and I didn't want to be late, so I went back to plan #1; scare him with a gigantic hand coming at him. Well, it didn't work the first time, so why did I think it would work the second? As I slowly moved my hand into the mailbox, he made a mad dash for the front and my hand. I pulled back just in time to see him do a swan dive out of the mailbox, land safely and scamper off into the grass. Did I go "Eek!!" You bet your sweet patootie I did. I also said "ugh" and "oh oh oh oh oh." and ran a few feet from the mailbox. And you know what Katie did? NOT A THING! No scream or "eek" or sprint from the mailbox. How humbling it is to have a 3 year old child who is braver than me. As a side note, I took a wet wipe and shoved it into Marty Mouse's entrance hole. Tomorrow I will use something more permanent to cover the hole then Marty Mouse will no longer have a house.

Cutting The Grass

Oh, so much to do, so much to do. The list of what doesn't need to be clean is far shorter than what needs to be clean.  You know, kids have dirty, sticky, little fingers. Everywhere that I look I see Katie fingerprints----the windows, fireplace glass, dining room table, refrigerator. I don't recall it being this bad before. Either she is touching a whole lot more or her fingers are dirty all of the time.

On to the real reason for this post, Rick's Tuesday picture.

 "What is Katie doing?" you say.  Why, she's cutting the grass with scissors.  (Calm down, I kept an eagle eye on her so she won't cut her hair.)

Red River and MOPS Walk and Carnival

I had a minor catastrophe this morning.  I went into the pantry to get a zip-loc baggie.  I picked up a quart of wood stain that was blocking the baggies and two boxes of baggies began to tumble.  In my attempt to catch the boxes, I dropped the wood stain.  Even though it was a brand new can, the lid popped off as if it wasn't tamped on properly.  My first words were, "Oh sh**!" even though Katie was in ear shot.  Of course, Katie reprimanded me for using a bad word, which kind of irritated me as I stood in a puddle of red mahogany stain.  My second reaction was to just stare at the mess and consider crying.  I didn't know where to start until I realized that my socks were drenched.  Peeling off my socks seemed like a good starting point unless I wanted brown feet for a few days.  I also ditched my minimally splattered white robe (that teaches me to still be in my jammies at 10:30 in the morning) and grabbed a jumbo roll of paper towel.  Much to my dismay, Katie began with the in depth questions (yeah, right) and keen insight.  "Momma, look what you did!  You're going to get a spanking.  Momma why did you do that?  Momma why are you wiping it up?"  I think she got a distinct pleasure in my messy accident.  For once she wasn't to blame, but perfect mommy was!!  Her inquiries and statements really got on my nerves.  I was already not in the best mood, so I had to bite my tongue in order not to respond to her with cutting sarcasm.  In addition I think she got distinct pleasure from my messing up.

The boxes of baggies that started this mess--of course it's not my fault!--were face down in the puddle, as well as two oven mitts.  The baggies and oven mitts were not salvageable.  After going through two rolls of paper towels, I finally had the river of red mahogany soaked up.  However, I was left with a reddish stain on the floor, as well as on the pale yellow walls.  I dumped full strength Mr. Clean All-Purpose Cleaner on the floor and it just erased the stain away, thank goodness.  Since Mr. Clean did such a great job on the floor, I decided to try it on my feet and legs and it worked there also.  It didn't burn or irritate my skin.  So, if you ever find yourself in a predicament like I did this morning, use Mr. Clean All-Purpose Cleaner.  I did not use Mr. Clean on my robe, but used my Shout! stain spray.  I have had good luck with that previously and hopefully it won't let me down.  Anyhoodles, that was my morning.  How was yours?

On to less stressful things.  Saturday was the Great Moms Walk and Carnival that my MOPS group held to raise funds.  Because of the rain, we had to hold the event in the church's gym, which worked out great.  For the first time, Katie decided to try the bounce houses and she loved, loved, loved them.  She played all of the carnival games and she got to pick a prize for each one that she completed.  Being able to choose her prize tickled her to no end.  As a reminder, I am still collecting donations for Highland MOPS.  If you would like to donate--it is tax deductible--please click on the First Giving widget to the right.  Anyway, below are few pictures from Saturday morning.

Katie watching the Balloon Man make her a giraffe.  Is it just me or does Katie look skeptical with those little arms crossed?  The little red headed girl next to Katie was such a sweetheart.  She really liked Katie and she made sure she was in the bounce houses when Katie was.

Pretending to be Daphne.  Katie loves Scooby Doo, so she was pretty excited to see this board.  The little guy in the front is real, not part of the painting!

Katie playing a carnival game where she had to get the little plastic rings into the buckets.  We had about twenty ACU (Abilene Christian University) students volunteer to run the games for us.  This guy found Katie hilarious and kept on laughing at her because with each toss of the ring, Katie kept getting closer and closer to the buckets.  Notice where the red starting line is.

Pitiful Tears

This morning Katie told me that she wanted to get married.  Usually when she says this, I remind her that she has to go to college first, fly jets (that's what she wants to do when she grows up) and then she can get married.  Today I tried a different stance and said, "Katie you don't even have a boyfriend."  She informed me, "I'm gonna marry Dada."  I told her she couldn't marry her daddy and she responded with a whiny, "Yes, I can.  He's my brother."  I explained to her that Dada wasn't her brother (as a only child the whole brother/sister thing confuses her) and regardless she couldn't marry her brother either.  At that point she started to cry and through the sobs I heard her say, "I'm gonna marry Dada."  I decided to back off and not say anything.  Her little tears were so pitiful.

Lesson Learned AGAIN

I woke up today with the beginnings of a migraine headache, so I took two Excedrin Migraine tablets.  Well, I knew as soon as I swallowed them that it was a bad idea.  Excedrin Migraine has caffeine in it and caffeine on an empty stomach does not work for me.  Let me rephrase that, it works if I want to feel nauseous.  Yesterday I started cleaning the house, but I tried to pay a fair amount of attention to Katie, which resulted in not getting all of the cleaning done.  (The more time I spend with her the more behaved she is.)  Anyway, I took the tablets and proceeded to finish vacuuming despite the rolling stomach.  I bent down at one point to pick something off of the floor and when I was standing up straight I became incredibly dizzy.  So much so that I had to lean against the wall to prevent myself from falling over.  I stood there for a long time because I was afraid to move, my legs felt rubbery, and I didn't want to pass out and leave Katie by herself.  (If Rick is reading this I know he is now very worried.)  Without a doubt a few things have contributed to the dizzy-almost-fainted episode.  First is the ingestion of Excedrin Migraine on an empty stomach.  Second, I have very low blood pressure especially so in the morning so quickly bending over then straightening up was not a good idea.  Third (and this is the part Rick is going to lecture me about) I didn't eat well yesterday.  I didn't have a regular sit down meal, but snacked on animal crackers and drank juice all day.  Matter of fact, the low food intake may also be why I woke up with a headache.  So lesson learned.  Scratch that, lesson learned AGAIN.  I need to go a make myself something to eat or will feel like this for the rest of the day and I have too much to get done.  Ciao!

Conversations In The Dark

Sometimes before Katie falls asleep I will lie in her bed with her.  We chat about the day or what is on her mind.  It is also when Katie tells me the most fascinating stories or shares her wisdom with me.

This evening Katie informed me that she had to feed her cock-a-doos (roosters), which are outside and very hungry.  She can see them, but I cannot because they are so small.  Also, the cock-a-doos do not like me but the snails do.  Whew!  I was worried there for a minute about my popularity in the outdoor critter world.

This evening she also shared this wisdom with me, "You have to find it and you have to be good at it.  It's your life.  It's your job."  I don't know what "it" is since a few moments before we were talking about snails.  However, upon reflection that is a pretty deep thought that she expressed.  I translated her philosophy to mean that it is your life, so make sure you live it to the fullest.  It is your responsibility to make yourself happy.  Not bad for a three year old.

Highland MOPS Great Moms Walk and Carnival

Dear Readers,

This Saturday is my MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) group's Great Moms Walk and Carnival, which is our one fundraiser for the year.  Our moms who have collected sponsorship money will be walking and it is a great sight to see a crowd of moms that embrace their roles as mothers.  After the walk, we will have a carnival for the community to enjoy with free snacks and games for the children.  We would love to see you there.

Here's a little background on Highland MOPS.  We are a ministry of Highland Church of Christ; however, you do not need to be a member of the church to attend MOPS.  We are a non-profit group that is only partially financially supported by Highland Church of Christ.  In order to continue to offer the group to Big Country's moms, we need to raise funds to pay for our next year's expenses.

MOPS is so much more than a bi-monthly, mommie get-together.  We exist to support, encourage and teach moms to be the best moms that they can be.  The years from birth to kindergarten are considered the most formative years of a child's life and that is why we try to get the message out that mothering matters.  We meet twice a month while our children attend MOPPETS.  We learn about mothering and our children learn about God and Jesus.  I personally like the speakers that we have had.  For example, this year we have had the Children's Librarian from Abilene Public Library; a pediatrician; a panel of older married couples--boy did we pick their brains!--and so many other women and men that offer us precious child raising tips or suggestions

Please consider supporting me in the walk.  MOPS means so much to me and seriously has made raising Katie less frightening, as well as less lonely with how much Rick travels.  All donations are welcome and greatly appreciated.  To donate, click on the First Giving widget on the right rail.   Thank you!

Rick's Tuesday Picture

Rick is doing his traveling thing again.  He is in Plano and will be so for the next three weeks.  Even though Dallas is 3 1/2 hours away, he flies, which means for the next three weeks he will be home on Friday night and then leave back out on Sunday.

Last week Katie was invited to plant flowers and veggies with our neighbor Geri.  Geri has a huge garden tilled up and I am envious.  Rick wants to put up a greenhouse, so I will hold off on becoming the Gardening Guru til then.  As for our afternoon with Geri, even though it was unbelievably windy, Katie really enjoyed herself.  She got to plant corn and zucchini.  Geri had also bought Katie a little garden hand-tool kit and Katie got to plant some flower seeds in the accompanying pots.  Here is Katie in her gardening get-up and ready to go to Geri's.  This is also Rick's Tuesday Picture--I forgot one for yesterday.

Below is another picture that I took the other evening.  The picture and my photography skills do not do the sunset justice; however, the sun was a brilliant orange ball just on the horizon.

Other news.....hmmmm....I filed an extension for our taxes because I am a lazy fool and also a fool that finds our taxes complicated.  As for parenthood, we have had to intensify our parenting.  As you may remember, Katie started acting out again, so we decided to make consequences for all of her actions, good or bad.  That means that today we did not go to Kindermusik because she didn't nap and also got out of her bed when she was supposed to be sleeping.  We have also noticed that the more time I spend playing with her or doing her workbooks with her, the better she is.  She firmly believes that negative attention is at least attention and that is why she starts getting naughty when I am busy doing something else.

Well, sorry for the short update.  I have noticed that my posts are shorter when I have not posted in awhile.  I reckon that is because so much has gone on and I don't remember it all.  I also write with more passion when an incident just happened than a few days later, so I pledge to blog when the passion is still alive.  Ciao!

Easter Modeling

I have been neglecting this blog (so, what else is new?!)  On Easter Sunday, Rick and Katie went to church.  Below is a picture of the two of them, each holding their Bible.  You'll notice that Katie's has a handle on it--I thought that was so cool.

Of coursed when Katie saw me bring the camera out, she started modeling while Rick was still getting ready.  Below is her film from the Easter Morning photo shoot.

I keep on hoping that her modeling is a result of something that she has seen on TV and not an innate talent.  Til later..........ciao!

A Star Gazing Rattlesnake

Rick and I were outside star gazing this evening when a young rattlesnake decided to join us.  What gives me the shivers is that the rattlesnake was on the sidewalk that runs along the front of our house.  I was in the front yard this evening pulling and spraying weeds.  I wonder where he was when I was doing that?  I was next to some tall grass.  Anyway, of course eagle eye Rick shot its head off.  That makes number three for the year.  Because of the colder weather, the count is down this year, which is okey dokey with me.

Art Imitating Life

Last night we rented the George Clooney's movie Up In The Air.  Rick could so relate to Ryan Bingham's (George Clooney's character) life from the zipping to the front of the line because of frequent flier status or hotel stay status, to packing the luggage the same way every time, to conversations with seat mates.  In the movie the city that Ryan is flying into is shown on the screen, by the third city we were laughing because Rick has been to every one of Ryan's destinations except for Tulsa.  I had to laugh when Ryan buys a Chrysler Sebring from Hertz.  Rick actually called the Hertz location in Chicago because he wanted to buy one of their Cadillac DTSes--not just any one, but a particular one just like Ryan.  Hertz does sell their cars, but if I remember correctly not their current year cars, so we couldn't get that particular one.  Then we ended up looking elsewhere and that is where I piped up that my dream car was a Chrysler 300 SRT8 and the rest, like they say, is history.  Anyway, back to the movie.  Rick laughed at the true-to-life portrayal, but he also found the movie depressing because it reminded him of how lonely life as a road warrior in the air is.  If you are a frequent flier, I recommend that you see Up In The Air.  You will get to see your life on the big screen.

Anyhoodles

I want to thank all of those people that had kind words and advice in regards to Katie's attitude.  Rick and I have been discussing this in length and made adjustments in our parenting styles.  Has Katie made a remarkable turn around?  No, it's a slow process and she has made little baby steps.  In addition, Katie is basically grounded.  Not only does Katie look like Colonel Hogan from Hogan's Heroes (see picture on right side bar) she is in her own little Stalag 13.  All though I let her go to Kindermusik, she hasn't done the MOPS' play dates or gone to the store.  The Easter Bunny will stop here, but he will only be bringing a small amount of candy for her basket.  I had already bought some other stuff i.e. ink and stampers, bunny pen, frisbee, etc. but I will save those for next year.  The reason why we backed off on a stuffed Easter basket is because Rick told her he called the Easter Bunny and little girl's that do naughty things don't get an Easter basket or if they do, they get a very small one.  Anyhoodles, I also purchased a book from Amazon that a fellow blogger recommended.  (I'll tell you more about the book and method when I read it.)


Other news:  I've been loving my iPod Touch and have been busy loading free apps.  We have oodles of CDs from where I am slowly transferring select songs to the iPod.  What can I say, it keeps me out of the bars.

You know I am the type of person that tends to be slow to share the "big stuff".  I typically don't talk about major issues until I had time to get used to them.  Sometimes I just need to deal with things myself.  For example, I was four months into a new job when my brother died.  I never mentioned it to anyone at work.  It was about a year later when I made a statement about "when my brother died".  My boss was shocked to learn that it had happened when I worked there and never said a word.  Any hoodles, with that being said, a few months ago my dad was diagnosed with prostrate cancer.  It's pretty aggressive and he's been through some aggressive procedures.  Thank goodness my sister Linda has medical power of attorney, so she can call his doctors and get the scoop.  My mom with her Alzheimer's has great difficulty relaying medical information to us.  Matter of fact, most of the time she doesn't know he has cancer.  Thankfully there is a home health aide visiting my dad.  My Aunt Fern also emails us--my sisters and I--updates.  (Thanks Aunt Fern!  Also, thank you for the little books and Aurora picture that you sent to Katie.  She loves getting mail.)

Lately Eric, my dearly departed White German Shepherd, has been on my mind.  Perhaps it is because I am spending more time outside--you know with the weed massacre--but I miss him terribly.  Even when Rick was out of town and Katie was sleeping, Eric was always with me.  I was never alone.  I miss my former schedule.  I used to be up and out of bed bright and early because he needed to be walked.  Now I don't have that incentive to get up before 8 am and I am becoming a lazy, sleep-in late person.  This is especially true when Rick is home because he will tend to Katie while I lounge in our comfy bed.  I better snap out of this because Rick will be traveling all of April and into May.  My days of leisurely mornings will end soon.

Anyhoodles, that is about it for now. Like always so much more has been going on and it is either too mundane or too big and important for me to talk about right now and right here.  As for the "anyhoodles", I read a blog where the writer uses that a lot and it makes me smile, so I blatantly copied her.  Ciao!