Got cake?

I enjoy cake.

White cake with white icing please and thank you.

Princess recently celebrated her FIRST birthday, and, yes we had cake.

Princess cake. How perfect huh?

I figured I had better do all the "Princessy" stuff while I can because with two older brothers and a daddy who enjoys being outdoors in the mud, she will be a little tomboy.

So dresses, hair bows and pretty pink Princess stuff it is until she has a say.


This was her first time eating cake and being the wonderful Mommy that I am, I had the camera ready and took approximately 57 pictures of the same thing. But....remember, her facial expression may change and a special moment may happen that I cannot miss, so I was prepared with camera in my hand and video camera set up on the table.

She looked at her piece of cake for a bit.

Then squeezed it between her fingers.

Put some in her mouth.

Shivered and quivered when the sugar high hit.

And then ate some more.....

...and more.

Then wiped it in her hair.

Clapped her hands.

Yay Princess!

She had fun.

Everyone had fun watching her.

My baby girl is 1.

Hold me.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

D@#$ Dishwasher!!!!!!

Dishwashers are great when they clean your dishes spotless.

They are not great when your dishes come out with food caked on them.

Dishwashers are great when they work.

They are not great when you have to wash your dishes by hand. At least 3 times a day.

Dishwashers are great when they do not require an appliance repairman.

They are not great when they cost you $144.75, billed by the repairman with the long ponytail and reeking like cheap cologne.

Dishwashers are great when they have a mulcher.

They are not great when you have to rinse every single microscopic crumb off of your dishes before putting the dishes in to be washed.

Dishwashers with mulchers are great when you have young children.

They are not great when they do not have mulchers. And you have young children.

Damn dishwasher.

Today

Today I will.....

yell less {at my kids. And dishwasher}

play more {with my kids}

eat less {chocolate}

exercise

smile {at the little things}

laugh {at the little things}

appreciate {my life}

remember {the moments}

embrace {my faults}

change {nothing}

love {my life}



The End

Go see MamaKat for more completed assignments.

Annoyances

I love my darling, sweet, intelligent, good looking children.

All 3 of them.

But they do things that annoy me.

Alot.

I know. I am their mother and should love them unconditionally no matter what horrible, disgusting, annoying things they do.

And I do.

But they still annoy me at times.

Princess likes to wipe her mouth clean after every spoonful of mushy food goes into her mouth. and if there is no evidence of food on her hand, then she sticks her fingers in her mouth...while the food is still in there.

Messy calls me "Old Lady" and says "Blah blah blah". All.Of.The.Time. I can only ignore it for so long before I want to do the ugly cry and tell him that "I am not old" and he will "realize it one day when he hits his thirties". Oh wait. I have already said that. Now I just want to hide in a corner and pound my head against the wall. I also want to shout "blah, blah, blah" in his face when he is telling me something very important and being friendly for once. Just so he knows how it feels. Seven year old attitude sucks big time. How will I ever survive the teenage years?

And Rowdy. He wipes his boogers on his pants.

"Rowdy, go change your pants before we go out because they are dirty."

"No, Mom. They aren't dirty. I just wiped a booger on them."


He also eats a package of gummies. All at once. He opens the package and puts all 14 of the little buggers in his mouth at once.

It drives me insane.

One day he will realize that sucking them one at a time lasts longer than shoving them all in at once.

Orrrrrrrrrr, he will realize that Momma using the Heimlich Maneuver on him is not enjoyable.

Happy Birthday!

There once was young beautiful Momma.

Not me. *cough*

MY Momma!

She married her handsome Prince and had a baby girl.

Me.

Then she had a baby boy.

My brother.

Now that I am a Momma myself, I now realize the hard work she put in. The long hours. The endless days and nights. All with a smile on her face....most of the time.

I now realize the love she had for us. The sacrifices she made in her own life.



I now understand why she would get angry when her house would get messy 5 minutes after she spent hours cleaning it. I also understand why she wasnt the happiest person to be around on Sundays while she was cleaning.

Cleaning sucks.

Now that I am a Momma, I appreciate her. I appreciate everything she did for us growing up. I appreciate everything she still does for us.

She is a good Momma.

She deserves the vacation she is on right now.

Even though I am not there too.

Happy Birthday to my young beautiful Momma.

I leave you with pictures.

xo


Scroll down for my other Tribute post

A Pressing Tribute

I am on an ironing strike.

I have been my entire life.

I do not iron.

Never have.

My idea of ironing is throwing the piece of clothing back into the dryer for a few minutes. Or..umm...the Permanent Press cycle. The word "press" is in there for a reason people!

Apparently this is an issue with Mr. Momma.

Apparently he gets teased at work for coming in with wrinkly shirts and messy collars. Here I am thinking I am doing a wonderful job being Mrs. Domestic, washing, drying AND putting his clothes away. I guess not. I mean, if my husband is being teased for his clothing and not being teased for listening to bluegrass music, it must be bad.

Reeeeaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllly bad.

Now, apparently one more task is being added to my list of duties. Let me just say that he never mentioned me doing it for him. He only mentioned me not doing it.

Does the job description for stay at home moms ever get shorter?

I don't mind at all. I mean, I sit on my tanned butt all day eating bon bons so I need more to do. Really. I can iron in between my soap operas and reading my romance novels. I can iron while the children play nicely together for the afternoon. I can iron while Princess plays with her toys and not the dog's eyeballs.

No problem.

I will put my apron on and smile.

Because I am nice like that.

What is wrong with this picture?

My parents are on a plane right this very second on their way to the Caribbean for a week long vacation.

They will be there with 4 of their bestest friends.

In the Caribbean for one week.

They will be at a fancy shmancy resort. Eating lots of food. Probably alot of bananas which are one of my favourite foods. Anyone that knows me, knows that I love them on eggs....and pancakes......and even barbecued. Yum.

They will be on the beach.

They will be around copious amounts of alcohol. I don't drink often but if I felt like a fruity-girly drink, I am sure the best ones in the world would be where my parents are.

They will be going to a wedding.

On the beach. With lots of food and alcohol.

What is wrong with this picture???

I will not be there. That is what's wrong.

Now if you will excuse me, I am about to play baseball with middle child for the second hour this morning. Actually, it isn't really baseball. It is middle child hitting the ball really hard and far and then watching Momma go get it.

Fun huh?

I love my life but I would really love being on a plane right now.

*sigh*

Now that you have listened to my whine-fest, go here for my Macro Monday post.

Shame on Me

I am reluctant to admit that I have been going tanning. I know, I know. It is soooooo bad for me and I will age early and be diagnosed with some awful "c" word in the future.

I know it is wrong.

I do not want to age early.

I really do not want to be diagnosed with an awful, horrible...well....you know. I don't even like to write the word.

My hubby was diagnosed with the "c" word 7 years ago. Not fun.

But, tanned skin hides cellulite.

Tanned skin hides stretch marks.

Tanned skin makes me feel 100% better about myself.

I look in the mirror and think "Ok, Momma, you don't look that horrible."

Some people go on drastic diets, or obsessively exercise. Some people have plastic surgery. Some people live unhappy.

I will live tanned. Until the fall.

Because it is wrong to look orange when there is no sun.

Oh, and apparently after going tanning and spending the day outdoors in hot sunny weather you can start to look like this

I should know better.

No tanning for awhile.

I don't want to look like this.

No lectures please. I have learned my lesson.

Summer Clothing Question.

Soooooooooooo......the warm weather is here. I have been waiting for months and months to open my windows, take in some sun and wear less clothing.

Ok, the less clothing thing is a problem.

I tried on shorts yesterday and threw up a little bit in my mouth.

Then I tried on sundresses and had to stop myself from cursing at myself in the changeroom.

"Momma, you had all winter to get in shape. You had all winter to eat less. You had all winter to plan for spring and summer!"

And here we are.

Hug me.

And hand me some chocolate.

NOOOOOOOOOOO.....don't hand me some chocolate! This is how I got into this awful mess in the first place.

My questions for you .......

What kind of summer clothing do you wear? Shorts? Capris? Dresses?

Do you throw up in your mouth while trying on clothes?

After telling me, go on over to this fabulous place to answer some more questions.

Merci.

A short, simple story

See Rowdy ride his bike over homemade bike ramps.

See Rowdy concentrate.

See Rowdy be cool.

See Rowdy fall.

See Rowdy get very angry.

See Rowdy kick his bike and call it a "friggin dammithead". Oops...I didnt capture that moment, but it happened. Really.

See Rowdy give up on biking over ramps and decide to go fishing in the ditch instead.

With a branch.

Moral of the story-
When you are unsuccessful at something, beat the heck out of it, stomp away and move on to something else.

The End.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Book Review...Kinda

Scroll down for my Thousand Words Thursday post.

I enjoy reading. Alot.

But do not have the time.

Parenting, television, blogging and sleep have all gotten in the way of me picking up a book.

Terrible isn't it?

I do read gossip magazines so I can tell you all about the latest in the world of "Celebrity-Wood". I am an expert when it comes to Brangelina and Octomom.

I know. You want to be me.

Who doesn't?

I also read children's books. Every day. For the last 7 years.

I could probably recite many of them word for word and tell you all about the pictures without even opening up the books. I could also tell you the difference between loaders, excavators and bulldozers. I know all about penguins, crocodiles and Dr. Seuss. And have read every single Berenstein Bears story that exists. Even the old ones before they looked like the "real" Berenstein Bears Annnnnnnnnnnd, I am a know-it-all on how homes are built, roads are made and every single part of a tractor. I could probably build a tractor with my eyes closed.

Yep. This is my life.

I have become an expert using different voices for each character. I am also good at condensing the story and telling it in my own words because if I have to read the same thing for the gazillionth time I may just jump out of a window. I have a million questions I use to get my children to give details about the story and what they think will happen.

I know. I should be a teacher.

One of my biggest regrets. But that is a post for another time.

I digress.

So I am going to review the books that have been favourites in my home for years. I have read each of this author's stories about...um.....2431 times each and pretty much know them by heart.

My boys love them all.

They are the books that never get forgotten. They are the books that get searched for when they are missing. They are the books my oldest son will read to himself when he is in a room for a time out for the 14th time in one evening.

Maybe I should read discipline books.

Anyways, I love, love, love any and all books written by

Robert Munsch.

Ever heard of him?

If not, shame on you.

If you have, then you know how great his books are.

+ many, many more.


This is my all time favourite book.

Down here.

Get it.

Even if you don't have kids.

Or your kids are grown.

Why are these books so great? Well, for many reasons actually.

They are simple stories.

They are funny.

They are repetitive. Sure that's not the most fun for parents but it gets the kids involved and keeps them interested.

His stories have probably occurred in each of our homes so they are very easy to relate to...for parents and for children.

He writes sound effects. I know. That doesn't exactly make sense. He uses words like "glub glub" and "whoosh" + many other creative words which allows parents (and kids) to go nuts with their enthusiasm while reading.

Now does it make sense?

Oh yeah...and the pictures are awesome.

Have I convinced you yet?

Ok. If not, do this.

Buy/borrow one of his books and read it once to your kids.

When your kids ask you to read it again...and again....and again......you can say, "Momma was right".

And thank me with chocolate.

Deal?

Go on over to Mrs. MamaKat's classroom to see other completed assignments.

Firsts

Go here for my Book Review...or something

There are many joys when it comes to being a parent but I have to say that one of the greatest (on a very long list) is experiencing all of the "firsts" through my child's eyes.

I have been on a swing a million times. Sure it is fun. As long as it doesn't go too high. Yes, it makes me smile. Sometimes even giggle.

But it is not that exciting for me anymore. In the almost 34 years I have been around, the activity known as swinging is...well.....nothing exciting.

Unless, I am watching my kids.

Then it is an event.

I smile.

I giggle.

I talk in a very high-pitched -excited- mommy- voice. I say words like "Weeeeeeeeee" and "Wooooooooooooo" and tell her "I'm gonna get your feet" more often than any human should.

I laugh.

I take approximately 89 pictures. Of the same thing. Just in case her expression changes for a split second.

I also etch this moment in my brain.

Because this is the last child of mine that will go on a swing for the first time.

I am not sure who enjoyed it more.

Princess or Mommy.

I am a Mom.....

I am a Mom who enjoys chocolate.

I am a Mom who enjoys gossip magazines.

I am a Mom who enjoys bathing her kids.

I am a Mom who enjoys clean kids.

I am a Mom who enjoys playing with Lego...

and colouring.

I am a Mom who enjoys wearing stylin' Walmart special rubber boots.




I am a Mom who enjoys walking in puddles.



And mud.




Who says grown ups can't act like kids once in awhile?


I dare you to do it

I know you want to.

I have no idea why my words are linking to my pics so please ignore it.