steph's stuff

The little pink bear & and the big yellow dog

Remember this photo? We gave Sawyer a pink stuffed bear that the kids had given me for Mother's Day when he first came home. We realized on the first day that we didn't have anything soft and snuggly for him to sleep with in his crate. The kids weren't willing to give up any of their stuffed animals, so of course, Mommy's stuffed animal was sacrificed. And he loved it!

 
The bear was bigger than him, but he didn't care. It probably felt like one of his siblings - he chewed on it, threw it up in the air, barked at it and slept with it.

After only a week or two, though, he got a bit bigger than the bear.

 

But he still dragged it around with him everywhere.

And he still does. We've had to sew up the bear once and the bear's little pink heart is almost completely off and well, I'm not sure the bear is really pink anymore. Ewwwwwwww. But, Sawyer still loves him. Carries him everywhere, chews on him, throws him all over the house, stalks him from around corners. And he still sleeps with him.

 

Of course, he's just a bit bigger than the bear now. :)

One more day

 

This is a lift of Ali for Jill's blog. All credits here.

We have one more day of Spring Break. The kids don't go back to school until Tuesday. Why? I don't have a clue, but oh well. So, not much blogging for me today. We had a great Easter - stayed very busy doing household things instead of partying with family this year. It was very nice. And today is grocery shopping, errands, putting away laundry, cleaning house, finding the kids' backpacks, and generally getting ready for the normal routine to start again tomorrow.

Back tomorrow with lots of pictures.

I am in so much trouble

 

I needed some photos for an assignment earlier this week, so I snapped a few of Em. You know - cute little 11-year-old girl photos. As I was editing them, I came across this one at the very end of the card.

Holy $hit, I am in so much trouble.

Needing some R & R

 

Full credits here.

I want to go back in time when life was so much simpler. When Tom and I first got married, life was just so simple. We were both in law school and you would think that it was a stressful time in our lives. But, it was just so easy. We went to school, we studied, we played. That was it. We didn't worry about money because we didn't have any, we didn't worry about the health of our kids because we didn't have any, we just didn't have much to worry about. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to go back in time just for a a few days?

Just the thought of it makes me want to chuck our possessions out the windows, hop into the van and head to the coast of Maine and live in a tiny cabin. Unfortunately, I think our worries would follow us, but the thought of simplifying life is so darn appealing right now. It just seems as though life's worries get bigger the older you get, ya know?

Or maybe I just need a tropical vacation. That would work. LOL!

Wednesday rambling

 

Sawyer's favorite thing to do is to bring me a ball to throw. Except he doesn't want to give it up. He wants to rub it and all kinds of slobber all over me for 20 minutes before he finally drops it. About a second after I snapped this photo, he slobbered the ball all over my camera. Ugh.

Today is just a rambling kind of morning for me:

• I am incredibly sore from doing a lot of Wii boxing and hula hooping. I am sooooo glad we bought Wii Fit this week - it has been a really fun addition to my workout and I'm working out longer because it's fun. Love that!
• I love a morning that starts with 20+ new blog entries to read in Google Reader. It's like curling up with a new book.
• The kids and I cleaned a bit of house yesterday and it makes this morning even nicer.
• The sun is shining!!!! Holy crap - yep, the sun is actually shining!!!!!
• I would love to go to Europe. Don't know why I'm thinking of it, but wow, wouldn't that be a fun trip!
• I'm back sliding on training Sawyer. Sigh. It just takes so much time. Why, oh why, did I think this would be fun?
• I'm still catching up on my Project 365 layouts, but there's one new one up there in the album. More to come this weekend.
• Dh got a new car last week and we are both loving it. Not loving having a car payment after years without one, but his other car was 14+ years old and it was just time.
• I am enjoying working out more than I ever remember enjoying it in the past.
• The kids and I have rediscovered the library and they beg me almost every single day to take them to get new books. I've limited our trips to 1-2/week. It's also been a great tactic to use when they start fighting: "Knock it off or we won't go to the library!" It works. :)
• I'm totally re-doing my half of our den. I have a closet in there that I can't even open for fear of things falling down on top of me. I have photo backdrops in there, all of my old teaching supplies, books, notebooks, resource books, etc....about 6 months worth of papers to be filed, about 6 months worth of papers to be shredded, old scrapping supplies that I'll never use again, and on and on and on. I've gone through some of the paper with Emily's help earlier this week and I think I'm going to tackle that closet next week once school starts again. It will probably take me a whole week just to do the closet.
• What are you doing today?

My kids love Jillian Michaels

 

I'm on week 4 of working out and since the kids are home on spring break, they are my "helpers." The first day I told them that I was going to work out, they ran upstairs and came down in these outfits - apparently these are their workout clothes. And when I grabbed my hand weights, they ran to the pantry and grabbed cans of soup and bottles of steak sauce for their hand weights. They line up on either side of me and do the whole video with me. :)

Watch out Jillian Michaels - my kids love you and think that you're too easy. LOL!

We're doing Jillian's 30 Day Shred.

He'll always be my baby

 

Sigh. Six years ago, I was snuggling that precious little bundle. He had had his first bath, been nursed, swaddled, and was simply the absolute picture of preciousness. He hasn't changed much. :)

Okay.................maybe a little.............

 

We had his party yesterday at an indoor soccer field. It was supposed to be an outside bike-riding party, but since we got snow (ARGH!!), I scrambled around until I found this place at the very last minute.

 

See that tongue hanging out above? That is EXACTLY like his father. Exactly!

 

He was pretty darn happy. :)

 

And there was lots of wrestling involved. Libby tackled Daddy on this one, but at times, it was four or five of them piled on at a time.

 

And then the cousins got there and we switched to flag football. This picture actually makes me teary-eyed. Andrew calls his cousins "the brothers." There are three brother cousins - 8, 5, and 2 - and Andrew wants them to be his brothers rather than cousins so desperately. Here he is huddling up with Daddy and the two oldest "brother cousins." I think this moment was pure heaven for him.

 

Here's most of the crowd. Libby and one uncle are missing, but it's everyone else. Well, minus the moms. We were the only civilized ones of the bunch. LOL!

 

And running for the touchdown!!! Didn't matter that the flags were falling down, or that his cousin had officially touched him, or even that his uncle was blocking for him (even though he was on the opposite team). He was going to make a touchdown no matter what! And he did. :)

 

And, finally, a Star Wars cake.

So, while this April 6th was spent a bit differently than it was 6 years ago, he's still my precious little baby.

 

But, oh my God, I miss those cheeks.

Happy Birthday, baby. Mommy loves you!

Is there any hope for Spring?

 

It's cold, it's dark and it's rainy. It is just dreary outside here lately. But, I saw this in our yard this week and I'm hoping that it's a sign. A sign of better things to come.

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time being optimistic when I don't see the sun. I feel depressed, tired, and even sad when it stays overcast for long periods of time. I always made fun of people who moved south when they retired. Now? I'm totally jealous and can really see why they do it.

More tomorrow about our birthday boy. :)

Dear M&Ms: I hate you. Good-bye.

 

Dear M&Ms:

I used to love you. You were my comfort food. You have been since I was a child. I took you to college with me and you've been with me ever since. My former colleagues at any job I've ever had all brought me M&Ms on my birthdays or whenever there was a reason to celebrate. And my kids all know that there must always be M&Ms in the house or Mommy will not be happy. Emily even made me this M&M "cookie" this past week when she was bored.

And that brings us to the problem. I've been on Weight Watchers (again) for the past 3 weeks. And you're no longer helping me. You're hurting me. You make me feel good for about 5 minutes and then the next morning, it's all pain on the scale. It's not a healthy relationship. And, really, you're kind of childish and I think I'm too old for you. So, I'm breaking up with you. I threw you out of the house yesterday. And I'm not letting you back in. I know it seems harsh, but I'm a mom now and I know all about tough love. And so you're getting the boot.

Good-bye. It was good while it lasted.

I'm just not that into you

 

I complain about Sawyer. I whine and get mad about the restrictions I have on my life now. I pick up his poop (ARGH!), I have to walk him too many times a day to count, he barks, he still nips the kids, he runs around the house like crazy, the whole family room smells like dog no matter how much I clean, and I can't be gone from home for more than 3 hours. He drives me crazy.

And then we go to the vet's for pre-op bloodwork (oh yeah, this boy is getting neutered very soon!) and I hear him yelp from the back as they take the blood and I worry about him. Or we're contemplating leaving him here at a kennel during our annual trip to Maine and I get horribly worried about how he'll do in a kennel. And then he chokes on his food yesterday and it takes forever for him to catch his breath and cough up the food that went down the wrong way and I'm dying inside at the thought of losing him. Sigh.

It's the eyes that get me. Every single time.