There Are Days...

...when ants invade my home twice in one day.  Again.
...when the laundry room curtain falls down on my head.
...when the dog won't stop barking loudly.
...when my attitude stinks like husband's dirty socks.
...when I feel like I yell "No!" all day long.  Even though I don't.
...when I just want to lay down and sleep.
...when all I do is complain to myself in my head all day.
...when I am so negative, rays of seething anger and disgust radiate from my head like an overheated cartoon character.
...when my laundry is clean, but in a ginormous pile on my bed.
...when I eat Easter candy and leftover junk food most of the day.
...when I just can't operate.

and then I remember...

I didn't read my Bible today.
I didn't pray today.
I didn't spend time actually reading the sticky notes of Bible verses around my house.
I didn't put first things first.

Lord, forgive me for teaching these traits to my daughter.  Forgive me for falling to sinful nature and wallowing in selfish pity and thoughts.  Forgive me the broken sinner that I am.

Let's make tomorrow better Lord.  :)

"Worry weighs a person down, but a kind heart cheers a person up." Proverbs 25:12

Stickers.

Sesame is very into helping these days.  I pretty love it.  No matter what we're doing at home she is so eager to help.  In an effort to encourage this behavior, we have made every possible attempt to find little jobs for her around the house.  She loves laundry (we'll see when she hits age 13) and, as of late, tools.  She also finds paying bills hilarious.  No.  Really.  She laughs when I say, "Mommy is paying bills."  I have yet to discover why it's so funny, as it's one of my most abhorred household chores.  If only I could trust her to write the checks for me.  :)  

Anyway, one of the "bill tasks" she's been helping with is placing the return address stickers and stamps on the envelopes; because, really, who cares if they are all catty-whompus on the envelope?!  :)  We've also been using a sticker chart to move along the potty training.  So, stickers are pretty popular around these parts.

One day, after laughter filled bill paying, Momma failed to put the stamps in their home.  Which is out of reach of said small sticker-loving hands.  I returned from the mailbox to find this:

I can't say I blamer her.  I heart the liberty bell too.  If those stamps weren't worth almost 50 cents a piece, I'd wall paper a room with them. (Please do note the wall paper sarcasm - While the art would match my mauve counter tops and blue-gray toilets, I do not want them on my walls.) Anyhow, she quickly learned that the were "special stickers" as Mommy said.  "These stickers only go on mail."  "An bills" Sesame said. "Yes, exactly.  That's how the mailman knows he can take them."  She looked at me, grinned and giggled saying, "Da mail man likes bills toooooooo."  I have no idea where she comes up with this stuff.  :)  But she sure does make paying bills and using stamps a ton more fun!  :)

Family Photos.

It's been 4 years since my side of the family has had a family photo of any sort.  Wait.  I think there was one snapped last Easter by Conrad's parents.  Yes, there was.  Nellie's hat was falling off.  :)  Anywho, the point is, we have photos of all of us from our wedding and that's pretty much it.  We decided to rectify the situation this Spring.  See, I didn't want my daughter thinking we didn't want family photos before Little Squirt came on to the scene.  And that large empty frame in my mother's kitchen has needed a family photo for almost an entire year.  :)  So.  Without further ado, a little snapshot of our session with Elizabeth Chapman Photography:

 

Again, these are just a few.  Love them all!  Hope you enjoy them!  :)

What We've Been Doing

We've been getting ready for Grammy and Grandpa's arrival!  The plan is to assemble our swing set, on Saturday, while they are here.  We though it would be a fun project.  So, in preparation, we've been organizing all the pieces.  Someone in particular has been helpful.

Her mantra as of late has been "I wanna job!"  or "I help you wit dat Please."  She's so fun.  I love two.  :)

I promise there is more to come.  I have a story about my car dying.  At ten at night.  While I had my large Homer dog and a 15 minute walk ahead of me.  Because I didn't have my cell phone.  Oh, and I'm 31 weeks pregnant.  Awesome.  :)

If You Tell A Toddler...

..to get ready for bed on her own; her attire will look like this:

I think she'll sleep quite well in that hat.  Perfect for dozing.  Not uncomfortable in the least.  :)

A Week = 100 Years

Doesn't it drive you crazy when your favorite blogs don't update for like, a week!?  What is THAT about.  [note: sarcasm]  I have decided that a week = 100 years in blog time.  Hence, the title of this post.  :)

We had a busy week.  A mighty busy week.  I had the 3-hour glucose test. (Yes, I failed the first one. Silly chocolate chip cookies...) and Sesame's friend, Saffron visited all day.  SO FUN.  I mean, honestly, look how adorable  they are:

Yeah, how many 2 year olds do you know that will snuggle up on a couch like this.

Apparently, the bathroom is the cool place to hang out as well.  Or it might have been dubbed the "store" while they were playing.  :)

On Tuesday we trekked to the outlet mall with Yia Yia and Aunt Becky - who were greeted at our home with this smile:

We shopped for several  hours rendering Sesame unable to even complete her snack.  That cracker, on her seat belt, had a bite out of it.  I'm fairly positive she fell asleep mid-bite.  What a trooper.  :)

Then Wednesday I spent most of the day cleaning and in the kitchen - which I don't mind doing.  Kitchen = food.  Yum.  :)  The down side to this time in the kitchen is sometimes I become extremely focused.  Like in a zone - singing and dancing - not noticing that Sesame has been extremely Ninja-like for half an hour.  Extremely Ninja-like.  Which  might then sometimes result in photos like this being snapped:

Yeah...Crayon on the new windows.  Score: 1 for Sesame; 0 for Momma.  At least Crayola was kind enough to make all their crayons washable.  And at least Windex was kind enough to clean the crayon off quickly.  :) We'll try harder next week!  :)