Little Life on the Bay

gasparilla - the pirate parade that DIDN'T happen for us

2012-01-30T14:54:00.001-06:00

when we moved down here uncle chris had informed us that he was coming down to tampa (from stl) especially for the annual "pirate parade". he had said that it was a party full of hot pirate wenches, and he wanted to get in on that. justin and i had never heard of this parade before, but it sounded like fun(!) and we were excited when it finally came time for the PIRATE PARADE.

little did we know that our experience of the infamous pirate parade was going to be a big fat huge dud - kind of like the pirate parade fireworks that we got to sit through...more on that later.

the pirate parade is also known as GASPARILLA. its, like, a huge deal here in tampa. the weeks leading up to gasparilla was a marketing frenzy. from the grocery stores, walgreens, billboards, radio broadcast - everyone was going to gasparilla, and they wanted YOU to know about it. its essentially a celebration about when some pirate dude named gaspar took over the state of florida, bringing with him deck hands, booze, beads (an STL favorite!) and wenches...lots of wenches. so many wenches in fact, that they have to break the celebration up into two weekend. one weekend for children i.e. no wenches or booze, but LOTS of pirates and beads. and the second weekend dedicated just for those wenches and drunk deck hands...oh and LOTS more beads, for, you know, "show 'n tell" with the wenches. "hooters. hooters. hooters."

we were pretty determined to get out to the children's pirate weekend. (had we no children, i would also be all over that adult weekend. it's supposedly like stl mardi gras, but on steriods. think a mix of mardi gras and lake of the ozarks "party cove" - hell yeah! amazing people watching, i'm sure). the night before i had justin look/research what the children's weekend was all about. what time, who-what-where, kind of thing. without the damn flashplayer on the ipad, he couldn't really find anything, so he went to a local radio show's website and read that the parade started at 11am. perfect! we can totally make that!

we woke up saturday morning with pirates on our brain! i had heard that people get all dressed up for this sorta thing. so instead of going out and buying something that the kids (and j and i) would only wear this one time, i figured i'd take some old clothes and try to make pirate-esque outfits for everyone. for the most part, i think the outfits turned out pretty great!

we jump in the car and head for the pirate parade, which was located on bayshore. we thought parking was going to be an absolute nightmare so we left a little early hoping to get decent parking and a good parade spot. we get to the nearby park and it's pretty much empty. huh...that's strange. as big as this thing seems to be, you'd think more people would be here by now, considering it's 1030 and the parade is supposed to start at 11am. but whatever. we park, hop out of the car and start making the 1/2 mile walk towards the parade route.

we get down to the parade route and it's like the parade had already ended! other than the sponsors and the corn dog stands, it was a ghost town. i was a little concerned. did we miss it? was it yesterday (friday)? are you sure you got the right time, justin? we're positive it's THIS weekend? where is everyone? why are WE the ONLY ones in costume?? omg.omg.omg. how.em.barassing.

the homes along bayshore are pretty spectacular...these are just a couple along our walk. there are other ones that are like right out of MTV cribs.

the further and longer we walk we start seeing random people...who are dressed as pirates. yes! thank god. justin, can you please check your phone to make sure we have the right time? no. damn iphone has the same problem as the ipad - needs that damn flashplayer thingy to view the "gasparilla" website. shit. shit. shit. well, lets find a spot along the parade route and wait, i guess. it's gotta start soon. i mean it's 11. how much longer are we possibly going to have to wait...can't be that much longer.

well, we wait...

wait...

wait....

wait...

its now 12:45pm. and it's HOT as HELL. conner is starting to overheat, so he takes his shirt off. he's now just a hoosier kid, with cut up pants and a drawn-on mustache with runny eyebrows. a nice little family ~~is brave enough to sit by us~~ sets up their parade-route-shop right next to us. a little girl, a couple years older than addi, and her mom and dad. they got it all; chairs, cooler, umbrellas, blankets, frisbe. huh, thinking we came a little underprepared. the mom starts chatting it up with us while the dad and daughter ask addi and conner to play frisbe with them. in the middle of the conversation we got up the courage to ask if she knew what time the parade would start, afraid that we would get laughed at or not like what she had to say. she happened to have a newspaper cut-out that contained all the parde information (never wish i had a newspaper subscription more than at this moment - damn technology!)

no. we have no idea who that guy sleeping behind this pirate bead boat is. didn't even know he was there until i went to edit the photo. a drunken hobo or pirate, or a someone who also passed out from the heat that day waiting for the damn parade to start??

oh...look at that...the parade does NOT IN FACT START AT 11am, like we had thought. rather IT STARTS AT 300PM!! WTF!?? not the answer justin nor i had wanted to hear. awesome.

seeing that our son was about to pass out from dehydration, they offered him a capri sun - again, we came a wee bit underprepared...and a FEW HOURS too early. she continues to inform us that there is a dog and childrens parade at 130pm, down the street, in soho, and then the big parade starts at 300pm followed by the airshow at 600pm and then the "biggest fireworks display you'll ever see" at 700pm.
yeaaaaa...we've been here for over 2 hours, sitting in the hot florida heat, on itchy-ass grass with a son that's about to over-heat. we're not staying any longer.

"thank you so much for this information - but i think we need to get out of here before our son passes out. besides, its nap-time, so he's not only hot and sticky but crabby too. we'll be back for the big firework display(!), i guess"

so we left the parade - with two unfullfilled, crabby children. walking BACK the 1/2 mile to our car, in pirate costume, with comments like "you're done already?" "that's it?! the parade hasn't even started yet!" "if you're leaving, can we have your parking spot??" from the folks we pass by.

yes. we're done already.

we know. the parade HASN'T even started yet.

and, you're welcome for the parking spot. hope you get pegged in the head by random flying beads.

yeah...i was crabby too, i guess.

kids were bummed out. i was bummed out. we're all hungry, hot, sweaty, and dressed like pirates. or gypsies. whatever. we stop by subway, grab lunch and head back home, less one pirate parade.

the fireworks were that night though! so we at least had that to look forward to, right!? we were told and read lots of great things about this gasparilla firework display. things like, "this is the #1 firework display in the country!!" so that's pretty cool. that'll definitely be a good show, right?! but that's not until 7. so we'll grab dinner and take that with us to a good fireworks spot later that night.

a few hours go by. everyone's showered and back into civilian clothes. we head BACK out to bayshore / gasparilla fest, grabbing panera bread for dinner. this time, we were prepared! we had the stroller, chairs, blanket, food and drinks! hell yeah, we were going to get something right this weekend! the drive down to the fireworks was a P.I.T.A (pain in the ass). it was like sitting in L.A. traffic. hair pulling exhausting. and add to it that the fireworks started in like 30minutes and we were no where close to parking, much less walking down to the water and finding a spot to watch the fireworks at. ugh...might be another comedy of errors tonight.

we pull down a local street with signs all over it that read "local traffic only" all baracaded up. justin says, screw this(!), we're local for the night. we park the car, grab our ton of things, throw the kids in the stroller with our panera bread and make the walk down to the water.

it's EMPTY...

again.

trash trucks are driving up the boulevard picking up the trash cans, police men are just standing around chit-chatting, its pitch black other than the few street lights, and did i mention, it's pretty much empty!?

"are you sure the fireworks are at 7pm, babe?"

we ask one of the officials and he responds "i beleive they start at 730"

okay, so that's cool. we only got a half hour - but where is everyone!? i thought this was supposed to be like the biggest thing since 4th of july 1777 (the first official 4th of july celebration)!! where's everyone at!?

the fireworks finally start...and i know where everyone's at...at home, in their beds.

the "biggest firework display in the country" was a total snooze-fest. granted, we weren't right up in the action, but still, the cardinals homerun fireworks are bigger than these things! it was a dud...no pun intended.

i went to edit this photo and realized this firework display looked like palm tress :)

that shiney building to the right of the fireworks...that's justins work. that's tampa general hospital. did i mention, he has to take bayshore to get to the hospital (bayshore = parade route = closed) and he was on-call the following weekend, the weekend of the adult pirate parade. he said watching the boats and the partying going on that weekend reminded him of summer at the lake house [lake of the ozarks] :)

sad to say, but that whole saturday was pretty much a dud. the only thing that made our comedy of errors worth it, was the fact that we got to hang out as a family, all four of us, for the day. i love being able to do that. but still, pirates suck. i miss st louis mardi gras.

xoxo
michelle

just because

2012-01-22T09:36:00.000-06:00

looking through photos, trying my damnedest to finish up the "addi birthday weekend" post (oye...its taking me, like, over a week now to finish that post! for some reason i get started and then half way through i get bored, close the computer, and get this, go do laundry. i know! i get that bored! but digress...) and i found these from our last walk around the bay / bayshore.

they're nothing extraordinary or special, but i wanted to post them. just more great memories of the time we had here in tampa. these pictures were taken on new years eve, 12.31.11. the weather was (and still is) ah-mazing!

on this day it wasn't the dolphins that joined us on our walk, it was a group of stingrays. daddy was pointing them out to conner.

conner waving to the stingrays

we're not 100% sure on where we're headed after this fellowship is over (5 1/2 more months...hollah!), but staying in tampa wouldn't be too bad ;)

xoxo
michelle

* sei, sex, hat, se', szes'c', zeks, SIX!

2012-01-13T11:07:00.000-06:00

DISCLAIMER: THIS POST WAS WRITTEN THE SUNDAY MORNING BEFORE I ~~FELL ONTO MY DEATH BED~~ WENT TO MEET THE ER STAFF AT TAMPA GENERAL. SO THIS MAY POST ON FRIDAY 1/13/12 BUT IT WAS STARTED AND MEANT FOR MONDAY 1/91/12.

monday's child is fair of face

tuesday's child is full of grace

wednesday's child is full of woe

thursday's child has far to go

friday's child is loving and giving

saturday's child works hard for his living

and the child that is born on the sabbath day

is bonny and blithe, and good and gay

needless to say neither one of our children were born on a tuesday. damn it. rather they both were born with fair faces (what does that even mean?) unlike her brother, addison chose to be born on a monday (conner was induced the morning of his monday birth)...a whole week earlier than expected. and of course it all started in target (one of her favorite stores). little did i know that after she was born i'd be spending 5 out of 7 days a week in that damn store.

yes, six years ago today, monday, january 9th, 2006 at 10:55pm our brand new, sweet, large (8lb 2oz), beautiful (later down the road a bit retarded looking, per her father) baby girl was born. addison danielle sweeney. hard to believe it's been six years. i need to give justin and i more credit. we can't keep plants alive for more than six days, but we managed to keep a baby alive for 6 years (that's 2190 days) ! and she's a brilliant, attitude filled, gorgeous (not retarded looking anymore!) little lady of a 6 year old.

in honor of addi's 6th birthday i thought i'd write down a few of the things she's currently doing. people do it for babies so why can't i do it for my 6 year old. 6 year olds are doing waaay more than babies anyhow, so hopefully this list is more interesting than a baby's. (sensethesarcasm?)

1. she poops and pees on the potty. nice job, addi! babies can't say that!

2. she likes to make her own nutritious breakfast in the mornings - eggo's chocolate chip waffels (if i'd let her, she'd live on chocolate chip waffles) and chocolate milk.

3. she can ride a two wheeler, by herself - again, can babies say that!?

4. she can swim on her own. and underwater too! - some babies can say that.

5. she's in the last half of kindergarten...and she hates school. she says its boring. her two favortie parts of school; lunch time, and leaving-because she gets to ride the bus. although recently she's been asking me to pick her up from school vs riding the bus. supposedly some little girl named 'ocean' (yes, her real name is ocean) and melitsa (again, her real name) are annoying...which leads me to #6...

6. she puts the addi in addi-tude! justin and i are scared about what the pre-teen years hold for us...please pray for us

7. she has a crush on a boy in our neighborhood - damen - he's very artsy/rock-'n-roll looking for his age (9). he has the beiber haircut, wears jewelry (silver rings and necklace), always very calm, cool and collective at the bus stop, and he dropped off lipsmackers lip gloss and a birthday note on our door step yesterday for addison. poor zachary never stood a chance with damen.

8. she's in "honors" science, math and reading at school. i was informed last thursday that she was just upped another level, beyond the "beyond level" reading class. i asked her what the new level was called and she said, "i'm the first and only one to be in that level, so they created the level for me and ms saul [her teacher] hasn't come up for a level name yet." woo-who, addi! babies totally can't say that! (addi-3 babies-1)

9. her favorite shows; phineas and ferb, wizards of waverly place, spongebob (yes, he's still on the list. slitmythroatnow), icarly, victorious and big time rush. her favorite movies; diary of a wimpy kid, the smurfs, and unfortunately twilight. she's team jacob too, by the way. she thinks "hes hot"

10. the friends she plays with here in florida; feberney aka febe (7), psalm (7), damen (9) and mason (5)

11. she loves playing outside (and riding her bike)!

12. she can't fall asleep with the TV on (conner can...and right now, they sleep together)

13. she told me the other day that she's a "monster whisperer" and she converts the monsters in her closet from bad to good monsters (her and i love watching ghost whisperer reruns together)

14. she LOVES dancing and singing. her and conner both will make up songs and put on a mini concert for us after most dinners. (we got her a kareoke machine for her birthday - she's gonna flip! okay, okay i too am kinda excited for the kareoke machine) i feel sorry for our neighbors, the kids are LOUD.

15. i asked her what she wants to be when she grows up and she said, "uhhhhh...a rock star (shaking her head to confirm)"

16. shes still, after all these years, a HUGE snuggler

17. she wants nothing more in this world right now than to loose a tooth - all of her friends have lost teeth and she's got nothing. not even a wiggle. unfortunately for her, her dad and i were both very late bloomers

and that's just a few things about this little girl that you never knew, but now you do! i tried to make it a nice round number to end this list, but let's face it, this post has almost taken me a whole freaking week to write. its been one of those weeks. okay, really, it's been one of those few months!

happy belated birthday to my sweet six year old little lady! sorry your birthday was such a bummer, but we promise to make it up to you on your 7th!

xoxo
mommy + daddy

* the number six translated into; italian, german, hungarian, irish, polish, yiddish and english. addison's heritages.

merry christmas

2011-12-24T17:53:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas, everyone!

we miss you all *so* much!

xoxo

justin, michelle, addi + conner

i'll be home for christmas...if only in my dreams

2011-12-23T19:01:00.000-06:00

i admit...i miss my cold st louis christmas. its probably not so much the cold that i miss, more so my family and the christmas feeling i get around this time of year. that feeling has been missing down here in florida. obviously the warm weather isn't helping matters. but not having family around is just the icing on the not-so-christmas-feeling cake. i'm known for not being a big fan of christmas. i think it was the cold weather that i always associated with christmas - and i *loathe* cold weather!

until right now.

(our small tropical inspired christmas tree...being climbed by an elf)

i've been trying everything to get myself in that *christmas spirit* that everyone talks about - i decorated the house (as best i could for a 900sq foot place) extra early knowing i would need help to get in the spirit. i bought christmas smelling candles and have been lighting them since november! i personally searched and found the "christmas radio station" down here in florida - i NEVER listened to the christmas station in st louis, it made me wanna barf. but here in florida, i'm trying everything i can to get that feeling of christmas. and nothing seems to be helping.

and that makes me sad.

(she found richolas aka ricky in the fridge one morning...that's her stylish morning bed-head. don't be jealous)

christmas is in 2 days and this christmas season is going to come and go and i feel like i never got that "christmas feeling" - that makes me really sad. in st louis that feeling came when i would walk outside and smell the fireplaces lit up in the cool winter air. walking into my parent's house and smelling my mom's christmas candles in the dinning room and the family room. the smell of winter in your scarf as you wrap it around your neck and chin to bundle up before going out in the winter air. the smell of the kids' hot chocolate whafting up into the front seat of the car - you can't have hot chocolate in florida, its like an oxymoron! the look of the steam from your starbucks coffee cup floating up into the winter air - we don't see coffee steam down here in florida. we just see normal florida swamp steam. the feeling of jack frost nipping at your nose - the only thing nipping at us are the god forsaken mosquitoes! YES! they eat you all year long.

i seriously hope justin doesn't read this post - he would laugh in my face. all the things i'm missing right now, this christmas season down in florida, are all the things i would complain about to justin the past 7 years we've spent christmas together. craziness! did i mention that i smelt like 50 different candles at walmart and target back in november, trying to find that certain christmas smell that mom uses?? NUTS! people at the stores had to be thinking i had some kind of OCD or something the way i sniffing all those candles. and i don't think i ever really found the right smell - think its because its a party lite smell maybe??

should we end up back in st louis after this fellowship, and be subjected to that god awful winter / christmas season again, i'm going to have to read and re-read this post to remind myself how special and important that winter is to me *before* i start complaining.

tomorrow is christmas eve - we usually spent christmas eve at my parent's house with my dad's side of the family. we would have a big chrismas eve feast, lots of homemade cookies, my dad's bourbon slushies and watch the kids open early christmas presents - but this year we're not sure what we're doing yet. we had thought about maybe staying down in st pete's and waking up christmas morning on the beach. but one of justin's residents had also invited us over to their house for chirstmas eve dinner (the same house that we carved pumpkins at). i think i prefer the christmas dinner at rohit's house, a sense of family would be a great feeling tomorrow. and we love ro. he's like the kid's uncle chris, except in florida!

(lowry park zoo at the "wild wonderland" light display. conner looks posessed, and on some days he is, but i assure this night he wasn't. that is just the really cool flash job of my camera)

whatever we end up doing tomorrow, i'm just thankful that our small family is together, healthy (for the most part - justin has bronchitis. joy. even without the st louis winter weather my two boys end up sickly), happy and in great company! being without family is tough, but looking around our small apartment, hearing the excitment in the kid's voices, looking at *all* the presents under the tree already, i know we are truly blessed! like, seriously blessed! and i'm so lucky to have such a *Wonderful Life* :)

xoxo
michelle

what else are shop vacs good for if not for making jack-o-lanterns!

2011-11-04T22:08:00.007-05:00

after our pumpkin patch at the "horse track" (per addi) we headed over to one of justin's friends house - Roe (row). i know. we have friends! well, justin has friends so i guess that makes them my freinds by association. but i will say, i do have at least one friend. and funny enough her and her family are from the midwest too...good ole chi-town! but i digress.

leaving the "horse track" we were emptied handed...no pumpkin. the "horse track" was good for farm fun but not so good for pumpkin picking. so on our way to Roe's house we stopped by a church with a make-shift pumpkin patch in front. yeah, it wasn't the same as STL when you get to go up and down the patch to find the perfect pumpkin, but it'll work. we found 2 great pumpkins and headed off Roe's.

we couldn't help but stop by starbucks though! j got his usual, grande pike, extra cream and sugar. and i got a grande hot mocha...with the motive of stopping by publix liquor store and picking up some bailys and vodka! hollah!!

we get to Roe's house and the joint is filled to the brim with food, drinks, carving utensils, people and pumpkins!

one smart little lady...originally from the midwest no less...brought her contractor husband's shop vac with her. she suggested that shop vacing the pumpkins guts out of the pumpkin was a quick and easy way to de-gut your pumpkin...and not to mention totally cool! and she was right - it totally was faster and fun! and also a lot less messier! (you should try it next year)

something that was really nice about being able to carve your pumpkin outside rahter than inside your kitchen, because it's usually so freaking cold out by nightfall in the midwest, was the FL sunset! it was pretty amazing that night (although, it usually is here on the beach).

we stayed at Roe's chatting it up with everyone while the kids played in the grass until it was addi and conner's bedtime (830). another nice thing here, its like STL summer nights all the time!

thanks to the shop vac, the vast amount of carving tools, friends for the kids to play with and the baileys in my coffee, we managed to carve ourselves 2 very interesting pumpkins. we let the kids trace the face they wanted on their pumpkin and justin and i carved the face. daddy helped conner and i helped addi...conner's was quite the interesting face :)

this "carving party", coined by Roe himself, took place 2 weeks prior to halloween. i had raised the concern that "would our pumpkins last long enough for halloween?? will they melt in the FL heat over the next 2 weeks?" well, let's just say if we're here next year for halloween and Roe insists on another carving party, that party will be held the weekend of halloween. yeah, our pumpkins totally melted / rotted and then we had gnats and flies to contend with. like, massive flies. fun.

up next...aunt "lelly's" halloween visit!

xoxo
michelle

falling back...

2011-11-04T08:57:00.000-05:00

holy crap...its now november. halloween has come and gone so fast! which is also a sign that fall has arrived! although, here in tampa, you can't tell it's fall outside. its still sunny, gorgeous and WARM! but my understanding, the word on the street is that november is the start of the "cold" weather. but it only lasts until february..."you'll be back in the pool by february..."...yes, you read that right. we'll be back to swimming by february!! i'm pretty sure sunny pool beats cold ass snow any day! at least in my book. i don't handle the cold very well.

so, with all that being said, i figured that maybe you'd like to see some of the fun things that happened during our beginning of fall...espeically now that i have the computer back! (again, this whole having only one lap top thing SUCKS!)

this "rewind" through the beginning of our fall may come in a few posts...i will try my damnedest to be down with the quickness with the following posts. espeically since my sister is DYING to put up pics from her visit to FL last weekend on facebook. (we have another visitor showing up friday morning...another reason i haven't been blogging...busy, busy, busy...)

i was worried about the annual pumpkin patch thing we do with the kids. i wasn't even sure if FL had pumpkin patches. its so hot here! i imagined that pumpkins and the like couldn't survive in this heat and as soon as they would pop up from the ground they would melt...which truth be told, after you carve your pumpkin it does end up melting...lessoned learned. but i'll be damned! they do have pumpkin patches. and we were lukcy enough to find a pretty sweet patch / farm!

horsepower for kids farm. it's actually like an equestrian type of place where kids and adults too i guess, learn to ride horses. some for fun, some for theropy and some for competition. we were just there for their awesome pumpkin patch / pumpkin patch fun!

FYI this post contains a crazy amount of pictures! (you're welcome, gramaw and yayas)

this little lady was pretty excited to get her pumpkin patch on!

unfortunately, this little man wasn't as excited...it was nap time. he slept the first 30minutes of our pumpkin patch fun.

both kids LOVED the ghostly cemetary...once conner woke up, that is.

the boy...still sleeping...

she was pretty sure of herself on this tire swing...and every watched as the little girl sat ON TOP of the tire rather than inside the tire...after that, everyone sat ON TOP of the tire.

a pumpkin patch without hay stacks just wouldn't make sense...a pumpkin patch with hay climbs, hay maze and hay tunnel totally makes sense!

a little help from daddy!

our pumpkin patch not only has hay...but it was also has hay rides around the lake!

brother woke up just in time to see this guy chug on by...

yeah, he pretty much freaked out...so we had to ride thomas too!

since we were already there, the kids of course had to ride the barrels...something else every pumpkin patch is or should be equipped with!

does your pumpkin patch have a petting zoo/farm?? well, our's did. and it came with a ZORSE! how cool is this guy!?!?

other cool animals at our petting zoo / farm that are probably not at most other petting zoos / farms...emu and bambi!

we also have your normal run-of-the-mill animals too...my favorite animal - the piglets!!! (yes...my favorite animal is the pig. i love the dirty pig. they're so freaking cute!)

is this little pony supposed to have a pot belly?? he was pretty cute none the less. maybe i have a thing for the pot bellied animals??

after the animals addi wanted to show conner all the cool games and hay things to climb on...so back to the "playground" we go!

(holding hands...so cute, right!)

they found a spider web bridge - and they're contemplating their next move...

something else that every pumpkin patch has to have - espeically a pumpkin patch known for horses...the pony rides!

face painting? sounds good to me! conner wanted to be a ninja turtle...the face painter didn't know how to do a ninja turtle so she made him iron man. addi wanted a full face butterfly...and that is what she got!

we ended up having a great time at the pumpkin patch. i was really seriously nervous about the pumpkin patches here in FL. especially since i wasn't sure of their pumpkin patch offering and not to mention every year since i was a little girl i've always gone to the same place to get pumpkins with my family. this year...a different patch, in swampy hot FL and no family. but it all turned out to be awesome! i was able to enjoy my family and the FL pumpkin patch.. successful day?

addi's pose says it all...yes...a quite succesful day!

next up, what we did with those pumpkins from that patch!

xoxo

michelle

photo phriday

2011-10-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

***

when they're not throwing shoes at each other

or playing tug-of-war over/with barbie

or crumpling up the other's coloring page

or fighting over the leapster games

or pushing the other one down

or pulling the other one's hair

***

they'll actually share their chocolate milk

or give the other one a bite of their kitkat

or open a door for the other one

or help the other one climb the jungle gym

or the scare off the boys that keep chasing the other one

or hold hands when walking through the mall

***

they actually really do love each other!

***

when they're not fighting, of course.

(and i'm sure my parent's could say the same thing about their two daughter)

TGIF,

michelle

the sweeneys play dress-up!

2011-10-19T21:37:00.001-05:00

its time!! halloween time!! one of my favorite holidays, next to easter and fourth of july...oh...and my birthday, of course (tee hee). last year justin and i did the halloween-store thing sans the kids - and we pretty much had the most awesomest time! this year though, we ~~had~~ were lucky enough to do the whole halloween-store thing with "the people". (not having a babysitter at your beck'n call really puts a cramp in your plans). and i'm happy to report that "the people" enjoyed the halloween-store experience as much as j and i do! trying on the masks, the wigs, playing with the fake swords and chainsaws. fun! fun! fun!

(photos courtesy of j's phone...also, picture over-load!)

a werewolf wearing a ruffled a dress with a pink flower ain't so scary, is it!

okay...a little creepy.

the placement of her right hand suggests that she's probabl asking how her hair looks.

don't be too scared...

it's just conner!

moving onto the weapons! conner was the first one there. i swear, we didn't have guns or swords or any type of weapon in his toy bin and one day all on his own he turned his playskool plastic golf club into a sword. and since then, he turns everything into a weapon. so the weapon section of the halloween store was his favorite part. well, next to the CARS display. he's definitely all boy!

his weapon of choice...the styrofoam sword...and the fake plastic chainsaw!

thinking the ruffled dress with the flower just adds to the creepiness in this photo - very children of the corn, i think. "outlander!"

"what's your favorite scary movie??"

(only one of my most favorite movie sagas - my guilty pleasure for sure. actually all the crappy horor movies i like are my guilty pleasures. i love me some scary movies!!)

i can NOT watch this movie alone. i doubt i'll ever watch this movie again. creeps the crap out of me! even more so since the true event this movie was based on happend in good ole STL. the part she bends over backwards and does the crab walk down the stiars *shutter* i'm getting the chills right now! the first time i saw this movie was with my gf jamie in 6th grade. her mom worked nights so her sister dana always watched us when i stayed the night. needless to say dana had already gone to bed when jamie pulled this little gem out of the video cabinet - VHS, baby! i don't remember how i slept that night after watching it. but every night after that for about a week i would sneak into my parent's room and sleep on the floor beside their bed because i was so freaking scared! this movie definitely effed me up for life. *shutter*

poor addi was so afraid of this little set-up / display. i had to hold her hand to get her to go under this bridge. and even then after she went under she darted back out! she was so afraid. those two zombie things in the middle jumped out and moved when you pass by them. plus there was smoke and strobe lights and a ton of other things that jumped out at you and made scary noises. i couldn't blame her for being scared. conner didn't even look at it - he was that afraid.

the scarecrow thing from jeepers crepers, maybe?? aaahhhhh!! another guilty pleasure movie. that movie is so stupid but i love it!

no...wait. wait. wait! THIS is the creepy scarecrow thing from jeepers creepers, right?? oh, nevermind...that's just charlie sheen...hahahahaha! (this totally creeped me out)

some creepy zombie-baby display. OMG! this reminded me of another movie i watched when i was really young. another movie i shouldn't have watched. my gf cassie had a slumber party for her birthday and she was a HUGE horror movie fan. this was maybe 7th grade. she rented the movie "the children" and it was about these little kids who's school bus on the way to school went through some nuclear radiation gas or something and turned into black finger-nailed children of the damned type kids. they essentially killed all the adults. it wasn't a scary movie more than it was creepy. little kids killing adults - cree-py!

another movie from my childhood - this one reminds me of my gf sheena. she HATED scary movies but her older sister LOVED them. when her sister would go out for the night sheena would sneak into her sister's room and steal the chucky movie for me. sheena couldn't watch it, she'd fall alseep and i'd stay up to watch chucky. needless to say i would be up all night because i was too scared to fall asleep. i was so afraid of chucky (but yet i still watched his movies) that one night at lindsey's house, i made my parents come pick me up in the middle of the night because i was so afriad that the freaking clowns she had lining the shelves in her room would come to life and terrorize me. well, chucky and the movie IT made me leave lindsey's house night.

dang - all this scary movie stuff at such a young age - why the hell do i like scary movies so much now!?! you'd think i'd hate them! but i don't! i love them! and halloween!

my gladiators! conner LOVED this costume!

after some fun in the store, we finally got down to the business at hand; finding the people a costume for halloween! up until this day addi was set on being a cat. she was so sure about that! so her first costume was of course...a cat / tiger...

cute, yet...but not what she wanted.

conner's turn. his first pick...batman! he's recently been on this kick of old skool batman. you know, the one with the "BAM!" "POW!" "SMACK!" he LOVES that show. so when he saw this costume he was done!

okay, so back to addi. her next choice? how about strawberry shortcake...

yes, she's very cute and she looks happy. but she said her butt was hanging out (good girl!). so little miss strawberry shortcake was a no-go. next!

yes...conner was still in love with his batman costume. wouldn't take it off! he was so excited to have it on!

so addi...well, her next pick was a "mystic witch"...and well, this one was the winner!

gramaw even sent her a black and purple long wig. and we're going to give her a scary witch face i think, for halloween night. it comes with a cute purple bat belt and a black bat embelished witches hat. she's pretty excited to see it all together!

after the halloween store we needed to do some grocery shopping...and surprise, surprise, conner would NOT take his new batman costume off. so batman made his rounds through publix! defending against mr freeze, the joker, the penguin and alikes.

oh...the city of tampa is lucky to have this batman around!

xoxo
michelle

photo phriday

2011-10-14T06:45:00.002-05:00

it's not a photo

it's a video!

***

some of us may remember "JODY"

eeeeek!

***

well, please meet conner's new friend...DAMIEN.

"it's all for you, damien...it's all for you!" ~ the omen

xoxo
michelle

the mess-maker strikes again

2011-10-13T11:58:00.001-05:00

i've said it once, i've said it twice, i've said it a one-million-thousand times - it's a NEVER a good thing when the house it quiet. never!

this house is made up of an attitude driven 5 year old sassy little lady. a diet pepsi guzzling daddy i.e. "burpy". a some times frazzled ~~and constipated~~ mommy i.e. yelling ~~and gassy~~. and a rambunctious, fiesty 2 year old crazy-man. so quiet never happens here...

...unless somebody is getting into trouble

that "somebody" being CONNER, usually.

and on this day, surprise, surprise, it was conner. i'm doing my mommy chores and conner is supposed to be taking care of himself so that i can get my chores finished before sissy comes home from school. bad call. bad call. conner should never be left to his own devices. never.

(noticed i've used the word 'never' a whole helluva lot in this post so far)

rather than playing in his room, reading his books, playing with his toys or watching one of his movies, he's in my bathroom, playing with daddy's toiletries!

"huh? what? i'm not doing anything..."

not to worry - he didn't floss his teeth with that after being on the floor - but he did floss the toe cheese from inbetween his toes. what! good foot hygiene is very important to this family!

speaking of good hygiene - every girl loves a clean shaven man!

"now, how does daddy get this thing to make that buzzing sound??"

"okay, *whistling while shaves* get the left nice and good"

"and let's not forget about the right side...that should do it!"

so i'm still not sure what that white paste stuff on his forehead and hair was - but whatever it was (some kind of ointment) it also ended up in daddy's contact lens case *sad face* fortunately daddy has like 500 thousand contact cases, so this one was tossed out, along with the toe cheese floss.

"okay, i'm done playing with daddy's things now, mommy. you can clean this place up now. k? thanks. you're the best. love ya, mean it..."

we i threw a lot of things out. there were a lot of things that got put back in wrong places. and i had to buy daddy a new toothbrush and contact lens solution. just another mess for me to clean up. this kid, i tell ya.

xoxo
michelle

his name is Zachary. and he's a non-smoker who likes tater tots.

2011-10-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

a little conversation between addi and i on our way to the grocery store one evening...

addi: mom, what does "a crush" mean?

me: well, it can mean a lot of things. but for the most part it probably means when you like someone.

addi: like when i liked thomas? (one of the cutest boy ever! he went to preschool with her. she was head-over-heels for this boy)

me: yeah. like that.

addi: well...i have a new crush then (*shy smirk*)

me: WHAT?!?! you do?? who???

addi: his name is zachary (*said with a smile*)

me: ooooo...i love that! zach and addi. what does he look like?

addi: he has blonde hair. he's a little taller than me.

me: is he really cute?

addi: yeah

me: what color are his eyes?

addi:...ummm...either blue or brown...

(okay...*confused face*...so obviously that means pink is out)

me: what do you like about him? what makes you like him?

addi: he's really good at figuring things out. like really good.

me: what do you mean?

addi: well, in class when there's a problem he's always the first one to figure it out.

me: so he's really smart. like your daddy!

addi: yeah. and he's always first for everything! he's always the first in line. he's always the first one to the playground. the first one to the lunch table. i like that.

me: so he's smart and a take-charge kind of guy, just like your daddy! i like guys like that too. just look at your daddy!

addi: what do you mean? i don't see daddy anywhere.

me: i meant figuratively. take a look at how smart and take-charge your daddy is. he's a brain surgeon for crying out loud!

addi: yeah. you're right. daddy always figures things out first. even before you! (gee...thanks addi) and he does surgery on the smartest part of the body...the brain! daddy really is smart! he's so smart he does surgery on people's smartness!

me: so true addi. so true :)

having this little conversation with my one and only daughter made me hopeful that when she gets older we won't have to worry about derelict boyfriends who have tattoos, smoke cigarettes, leave oil stains from their 1995 thunderbird in our driveway, talk her into skipping school and coming home after curfew, before finding her perfect man. (what? that's all figurative too. not like i ever dated those kind of guys...danielle, zip it!) this girl's only five and already she knows what she wants / likes in a ~~man~~ boy! and she already knows that anything less just will not do :)...pleasegodletthisbeture...

i also think it's very sweet that she has a crush on a boy that has the same dominant characteristics as her daddy.

xoxo
michelle

p.s. on friday when i was dropping her off at school, i was givng her a hug and a kiss when a little blonde boy, eerily similar to a 5yr old version of her daddy, walked by and said, "hey addi!" as he waved at her walking up to the school. she, all cool and calm said, "hey". as i hugged her again i asked, "who was that?" and she said, smiling ear to ear, "that's zach".

what, what, what?? i just saw zach!!! he's so cute! and tall. i like tall guys too *wink*

photo phriday

2011-09-30T09:02:00.000-05:00

surf wax + smoothies

daddy bought himself a new surf board

(pics soon! it's really cute!...i mean manly)

the surf wax - i could almost eat.

smells so yummy!

there's a smoothie king between the gym and our house

its safe to say that it's our new starbucks!

surf wax + smoothies

these two things added to the gorgeous weather

makes summer last forever here! love!

xoxo

michelle

who needs a little sister when you got a baby brother you can torture!

2011-09-29T10:14:00.009-05:00

the whole first months of my pregnancy with conner addi kept crossies that the ~~parasite~~ baby growing inside my belly was a baby sister and NOT by any means a gross baby brother. heaven forbid she have some smelly, loud, rude, mean, boy to have to share her mommy and daddy with.

well...at my 6 month check up with my OB all addi's crossies and hopes for a sweet, loving, quiet baby sister were flushed down the toilet...(which surprisingly is something [the toilet] this baby brother of hers eventually has a fascination with around age 2. helpmenow.)...

poor, poor addi.

she just wanted a baby sister so badly.

someone to play barbies with. (check! since this post pawpaw has started sendng him [conner] g.i.joes since ken is supposedly a girlie-man. i mean, come on. he wears sequenced leopard print jump suit and ascots!)

someone to wear makeup with. (check! blue is definitely his [conner] color. green, notsomuch)

someone to play princesses with. (check! kind of. she plays a princess. but he [conner] usually plays a fire breathing, flying dragon.)

and someone to play dress-up with...CHECK!

justin was dying from laughter...we all were! (i love his [j's] smile) and the laundry baskets...the kids use them as boats. they were princesses in boats! conner will then yell, "i'm on a boat!" - only because i say it like everyday (which eventually annoys the crap out of justin). LOVE that song! ;) cracks me up every time! i love stupid humor though, so. i'm not one for intelligent humor...is there such a thing??

conner knows a good jam when he hears it...and he also knows what to do...drop it like it's hot!

if you can remember reeeeeally far back, this was addi's very first dance recital costume. "teddy bear picnic". let me remind you.

thinking she was way cuter in it ;) [she looks so little, right!?]

my two little girls..ahem, i mean, two little people!

i can definitely see the swollen left eye in this picture...this little dress-up party happened a week or two after his left eye incident. and now even, a whole month later, it's still giving him trouble! hopefully we'll be "seeing" someone today about this whole left eye thing.

such a little lady. he would make a pretty girl, don't ya think?? hopefully these pictures / blog post doesn't come back to bite him in the ass when he's in jr high / high school :) wonder what the internet will be like then!!? that's when we'll be driving flying cars and using jet packs and stuff.

eventually though, every diva has her limits to what she will and will not do. and this diva was done being paraded around as a piece of meat in a barely-there costume. much less, this color on her skintone just wasn't cutting it! she got all diva-rific, pitched a diva-sized fit, ripped her hat off and stomped off to her dressing room to put on something more comfortable...like her shark jammies.

xoxo

michelle

photo phriday

2011-09-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

(even though its now saturday...)

running the bay

just another form of exercise

for those of us lucky enough to live by the bay

this particular day a dolphin joined in on our run.

justin ran, i rode the bike / pulled the trailer,

and the dolphin kept up with us; cruis'n the break wall.

we of course had to stop to talk to flipper!

he was very friendly. the kids got a total kick out of!

xoxo
michelle

p.s. it's still very much summer here :) hollah!!

photo phriday

2011-09-16T06:00:00.001-05:00

we're gonna try a little something different here. if you can reach reeeeal far back into your big large melons [i.e. memories], we "used" to do "wordless wednesday". remember?

we'll, let's try "photo phriday" instead. same concept...just a different day. why?

because its my blog...and i want to. i'm switch'n it up 'round here. making myself accountable for something, i guess.

cool? cool.

thank god for addi

without her, i'd have to play "mommy"

and help conner take his shirt off so that he could play in the water

instead, i get to sit on the bench,

drink my coffee,

read my book

and be thankful for my nanny, addison

(tee hee)

she really is a great big-sister

xoxo

go sweeneys, go! (said to the tune of "go diego, go!")

2011-09-15T12:53:00.000-05:00

we've never been much of an animal rescue kind of family. don't get me wrong, we love animals! like, love-love! but since the beginning of this little family of ours we've never had many run-ins with the animal kingdom - other than my parent's dogs, cats, fish and baby bunny rabbits living under one of their bay windows in the back of the house.

until now, we were city dwellers. and not just any city dwellers - top floor of a tall old building, kinda city dwellers. so as you can imagine we never saw animals, bugs, spiders, mosquitoes, etc, etc, etc. they just don't make it up to the penthouse floor, ya know?

well...there was that ONE TIME we had a visitor...

so the day justin went to use the bathroom and saved himself a lizard, was the day we became like diego (as in dora's cousin, the asnimal rescuer).

this is: Operation Save Lizzy the Lizard.

from here on out i need to inform ANY guests that choose to stay at chateau le sweeney; please take a looksy before you go to peepee (or poop for that matter). you never know who or what may be using the toilet with you!

*sigh*...the joys of living on the swamp in a 40yr old, first floor apartment...

xoxo
me

the incident with left-eye. and i'm not talk'n the pyro chick from TLC.

2011-09-14T15:09:00.000-05:00

what should we talk about today?? how about the fact that i had yet another most EMBARASSING encounter with more important people in my family's life. not so much in my life, but in my family's lives. this time instead of going half naked to addi's elementary school, i went looking half homeless to justin's work. seriously! why does this crap keep happening to me!?!? florida totally has it out for me. it must've been that post about all the cool things florida has to offer (sarcasm) or it could be that other post about all the cool things flo-rida has to offer. i dunno. but i do know that no matter what, the state of florida and all the people that matter most to my family have it out for me.

its thursday night and we're all having a grand ole' time. i was in the kitchen making yummy, baja inspired fish tacos. yum! addi and aunt melissa were playing a fun game of operation. and conner...well, conner, he was in his room supposedly coloring nicely by himself...yes, i said "by himself", something that we have recently started to realize should not be used in the same sentence as the word "conner".

conner + by himself = NO GOOD

so everyone was enjoying their thursday evening until we heard blood curdling screams!

coming from the same room that conner was in...by himself.

i fly out of the kitchen, jump over aunt melissa, addi and their game of operation, and into conner's room! he's screaming. his hands covering his face. i don't see anything unusual, like gasoline, terpentine or flesh eating acid sitting on the table next to him, only crayola markers and a coloring book. so i'm not too concerned...yet.

i pry his hands away from his face and he literally looks like the green hulk. his entire face is colored green! okay, don't panic. its just marker. he maybe got a little marker in his eye and it probably burns. whatever...istartpanicing!

"melissa! melissa! what should we do!??!" as i'm wiping his face with a warm wash cloth.

"you gotta flush his eyes out, michelle. put him under the sink. i'll pur water into his eyes!"

we rush over to the kitchen sink. he's seriously screaming bloody murder! i literally have to tie him down almost like a straight jacket, pull his eyelids apart while melissa takes cup-fulls of water and pours them right into his naked eye. his eyes were shut so tight it was like opening a bear trap.

we sit him up and green liquid comes running out of his nose and out of his tear ducts. the whites in his eyes are no longer white...they are GREEN!

we keep flushing...and flushing...and flushing. probably 10 minutes of flushing.

he's still screaming, but his eyes are no longer green.

i call poison control (crayola's hours are mon-fri 8am-5pm...go figure). poison control tells us to do what we've already done...flush the eyes out. but they also said that crayola markers ARE NOT TOXIC. so that made me feel better - but why the hell is he still screaming and crying uncontrolably ?? poison control suggests that we head to the ER and call our pediatrician. our pediatrician!?!? we don't have a pediatrician yet!!! so i call our STL pediatrician...she too says get ~~his ass~~ conner to the ER.

mind you, this is thursday evening. melissa's first night in tampa. it was a looong day for all 4 of us. i was in the middle of making dinner - hair a mess, no makeup and wearing "bum-around" clothes. doesn't matter though - i needed to get my son to the ER. and stat!

any of this sounding at all familiar?? looking my best to go meet justin's co-workers. awesome!

justn's OR nurse, kristy (sex-kitten name, right?? awesome. i get to see "sex-kitten kristy" for the first time look'n a hot mess) texted me directions to the ER and informed me where to catch the free vallet parking for the ER. thanks, sex-kitten.

hoping sex-kitten would have pulled some strings and get us through the ER quicker was just that...hopeful. because it didn't happen. he had to wait in the ER with the rest of the schleps. for a good hour. conner screaming, screaming, screaming and smelling like poop because he shit his pants and wouldn't let us touch him much less his stinky ass. so we're stinking up the ER with a loud-ass 2 year old who can't see.

we finally get called back to see an ER nurse and she's extremely nice...but not very helpful. she takes his vitals and enters our "story" into the hopstial's computer (possibily flagging DFS??) and sends us back out into the waiting room...more waiting! but this time daddy was out there waiting for us. and amazingly, after only 5 minutes of waiting WITH JUSTIN we were immediately rushed back into the ER (ironic, no?).

(i still think he [justin] totally has the doctor "lean" in this picture, don't you?)

nurse roger and the ER doc come into our room. poor conner is pooped out from all the screaming and crying and smells of, well, poop. ER doc has a fancy little light that looks like a blowdryer and the blinding light thingy that dentist use, all rolled into one big ass flash light. nurse roger and another large male nurse hold conner down (yes...it ended up taking 2 grown men to hold this child down) while ER doc squirts some red dye into conner's eye. that really made conner happy! (sarcasm). ER doc then quickly shined his big ole' flourescent light over conner's eye and right away the gash in his cornea lights up like a lightening bolt - couldn't miss it!

"that's a very large laceration. we need to clean it out, put some antibiotics on it, but first i think it's a good idea to sedate him."

ya think? (duh)

they sedate my little man and squirt more crap into his eye. i hold his hand the entire time, feeling so awful for being such a horrible mom that would let her child color, alone, only to have him poke his eye out.

we're given cleaning and healing instructions and discharge paperwork, pay our $50 co-pay and they send our happy-blind-asses packing. conner is a sack of potatos and poor addi is dead tired and she of course has school the next day.

on our way home though, conner all stoned out on the sedation meds the ER doc gave him, gave us all a good laugh to help end the night on a happier note...a stoned-off-his-ass conversation about the sun in the car, on the ride home from the ER;

(video courtesy of aunt mel...so that i could drive my drugged-up son and the rest of our tired asses home, safely)

(at home eye care - seriously needed those 2 large male nurses to come home with me. this was a work out!)

today? today (i started writing this post about 2 weeks ago) 2 weeks laster, he's doing much better. the first few days after the incident he couldn't use his eye. he was literally walking around like ray charles or stevie wonder. kind of creeped me out a little, made my belly hurt thinking of my son as going blind. something i never want to happen to my children (among other things, of course). after about 4-5 days he slowly started using his eye again. and today, it's what we believe to be a fully functioning left eye. looks a little lazy but that's becuase justin says its still swollen. so one more thing to add to our we-think-conner-is-color-blind-we-should-get-him-to-an-eye-doc list; is the tear in his cornea okay?

next on the list - find and schedule an appointment with an eye doc for conner. i keep forgetting to do that! maybe that should be at the top of the list.

(yes, he LOVES dora...she and woody-man are his two favorite plates that he owns)

xoxo,
michelle

crossroads. except with less britney spears and more boobs.

2011-08-29T09:20:00.002-05:00

and so here we stand. at the crossroads of toddler and big girl. from changing her diaper and wiping her butt to, well, we still help her wipe her butt when she needs it. but we're not changing her diaper! so that's a plus. the crossroads of preschool and kindergarten. *my heart just sank*

she's officially a kindergartner...the ginormous amount of paperwork i had to fill out and return to school says so.

the morning of the first day of kindergarten everyone woke up on time and in good spirits. myself and conner included! of course, addi was way more excited than any of us. she got to get the hell out of this house and play with people her own age rather than a barbie stealing, wall coloring, hair pull'n, mess making 2yr old little brother. i get stuck wih that now. all day. by myself.

(frosted cherrios for breakfast)

(justin has the typcial "first-day-of-school-dad-stants" down, don't ya think?! and typcial FL, the camera fogged up as soon as we went outside. its so HOT here and so early in the morning)

(she's a tad bit excited about this day!)

(remember this outfit and this face (i.e. mine)...you'll need it as a visual as the story goes on)

the big stack of "take-home-paperwork" we got from orientation said that the school bus would arrive at 731am (not 730 or 732...seven thirty ONE. where'd they get the ONE from??) at the enterance to our neighborhood. however, get to the bus stop at least 10 minute earlier than that in case the bus is running early. so that means we needed to get to the enterance of our neighborhod by 721am.

so we get there at 7:twenty ONE. which means we left the house at 715. we get to the bus stop and we wait. we wait, we wait, we wait and we wait some more. the 3 other moms at the bus stop with me were getting all anxious and cussing the bus driver. this isn't their first rodeo. "last year the bus had it's shit together. she was a mean old bird, but she was prompt!" its now 750. we've been waiting for 30 minutes for this bus to show up. we've been chasing after conner, who doesn't understand you can't run out into traffic or you'll get hit by car, which really means we've been dodging cars for 30 minutes now. the kids were now all anxious and i'm now seriously frustrated. we collectively decide that we should hop in our cars and take our children to school on our own.

addi's now pissed.

she wanted to ride that magic school bus to school soooo bad.

not today, sweetie!

we run back to the house, jump in the car (its now 800am, school starts right NOW) and we drive off towards school. which is really only 1.8 miles from the house, but we have to cross like 2 of the bussiest roads to get there so 1.8 miles turns into an 8 minute car ride.

we make it to school, 5 minutes after the bell rings. but it's cool. there are A LOT of other parents and students walking to class late and addi's classroom door is open and her teacher is welcoming other late paretns into the classroom. so we jump out of the car and high-tail it to addi's classroom.

we walk into a whirlwind of crazy. parents everywhere. and confused. "where does the pack of 500 thousand glue sticks go again?" "where does this donaction of 50 D batteries go?" "where does this donation of costco sized snack pretzles go?" "where does my child's beach towel go?" "where does my child need to go?" "where did my sanity go?" okay, the last question was actually said in my head, by me...or one of the many voices running through my mind that morning.

everyone gets situated; donations get put into the donation box, beach towels go in the cubby holes, glue sticks go in the "extra supplies" box and the kids find their cute little seats.

conner and i walk over to addi who is standing up next to her desk. ms. saul asks that we all quiet down, we being all the stuents and their parents, and watch the TV bolted to the wall up in the corner of the room for the morning announcements. a cute little girl with what i assumed to be fake glasses reads off the morning announcements, says "hope everyone has a good first day!" and we end it with the pledge of allegiance.

which was quite funny.

i didn't even think about it, wasn't sure schools still did the allegiance thing (they obviously do), but addi has no idea about the pledge of allegiance!

ms saul, the parents and the few kids who do know the pledge start saying it in hymn..."i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america" i place my hand over my heart and i look over at addi to see if she's faking-it-until-she-makes-it. and instead of pledging allegiance with her hand over her heart...she's praying! she's got her hands clasped in front of her and is praying! it was sooo funny! i motion over to her and show her where to place her hands and instead of putting her hand over heart she puts her right hand up, palm facing out, like was she was being initiated into the military or into office. another funny site :)

the pledge is over, ms saul asks the children to take their seats and the parents to please leave. conner and i kiss bubba goodbye, give her the biggest hug she's ever had and we make our way out of the classroom leaving our little kindergartner behind.

conner and walk towards the car, he asks me to hold him as we cross the street. i bend down to pick him up and i realize i'm still in my jammies! black cotton pants and a white wife-beater (hanes tank top). crap! and of course my hair is a crazy mess and no make-up. so much for the first impression i gave them last night at orientation with my hair straightened, make-up on, and a cute little blue sun dress. i've totally ruined that picture of me in their mind. i look like a freaking hoosier! surprised no one screamed when they saw the "walking dead", me, coming at them.

i pick conner up and find myself walking faster to car, almost sprinting out of embarrassment. conner holds on a bit tighter and closer to my chest. he pulls away a bit, grabs my boob and says, "boobie!"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!? not only am i a HOT MESS but i'm also not wearing a bra!!??!? holy shit! nice. real nice. no one wonder no one screamed when they saw me coming, they were too busy being disgusted by my see-through wife beater shirt. SHIT! i'm mordified. i throw conner in the car and we get the hell out of there!

conner and i drive our 1.8 miles back home and the whole way, when i should've been crying for the loss of my baby girl to kindergarten, i was fuming mad at the stupid bus driver who couldn't get her shit together on the first day of school thus leaving me to take my daughter to school in essentially an outfit only worn by females wrestling in jello!

so no. i didn't cry the first day of school. something that i thought for SURE i would do the first day of kindergarten. something in the past that i would get choked up about just THINKING about doing, dropping her off at kindergarten. but i didn't. nada. which was probably a good thing. i can only imagine what addi would've done if she saw me cry over leaving her at school.

instead, conner and i came home and i sulked over my coffee for the show 'n tell i gave the elementary school that morning. i am from the "show me" state, but this was too far.

braless and mordified,
michelle

(addi, right before we left for her 1st birthday party. January 2007)

she's been ready for this day for along time...since she was a little bitty baby *wink*

they told me she'd grow up. but i never believed them...until now.

2011-08-27T15:00:00.000-05:00

my sweet bubba girl has gone and grown up on this mommy...

oh, i'm sorry. yes, its me. blogging. you're shocked and probably a bit confused, "what? she's blogging again??" seriously, its not my fault. we are currently a one-computer (and one ipad - but that's just essentially an oversized iphone. only good for ~~facebook stalking~~ interweb fun) family with two people that need to use it. because justin needs it for work, and his work pays our bills, he gets first dibs on the one-and-only-computer. *side-eye to justin* so, sorry for my lack of blogging.

now, back to bubba.

as i was saying; princess addison has grown up and gotten herself a job. as a kindergarten student. she was totally over qualified for this positon, but in this economy you get what you can take i guess. she's been training for this position for the last 5 1/2 years of her life. all those years of hard work invested in preschool, dance class, playdates, slumber parties, has molded her into the ideal kindergartener. and pesonally, one of the most cutest kindergartners out there! but i could just be bias.

there was one more step to this kindergarten training - the infamous kindergarten orientation. where she got to meet her ~~hippie~~ teacher, check out her new home monday thru friday, and quite possibly meet her future bff (mom, that's best friend forever...wink).

she was so excited for orientation that i was actually able to pull her out of the pool early, with out a fight! so that we had time to get home to shower and get ready for this night. that's pretty excited. this girl would probably stay in the pool in the middle of a hurricane - she loves it that much.

conner was pretty excited too. he followed her every move and stayed about half a step behind her for everything!

conner helped to find addi's name on her classroom door. (that's a bruise on his fingernail - his finger had a run-in with his bedroom door. ouch!)

(do you feel as old as i do after you read that she graduates in 2025??)

her own special seat waiting patiently for her first day of kindergarten. and of course the special little seat was filled with all kinds of special little papers for mom to fill out later that night, resulting in mom coming down with her own special little case of carpal tunnel. thank you special kindergarten seat!

addi's classroom has all kinds of really cool and fun things to keep any kindergartner occupied. and also any toddler as well! conner was the first on the toy-carpet scene. i think he has train gps grown into him. the train set was inside a cuby shelf, inside a closed box, hidden away - and somehow with no help from the teacher, he ended up heading straight to trains. i think he can smell them or something - like a blood hound.

conner was also the first one to find the classroom pets. fishys! its the student's job to name them. they have one girl fish and one boy fish. and after much talk and debate the students thought that "diamond" was perfect for the girl fishy and "ironman" was perfect for the boy fish.

everyone, say to "hi" to ironman :)

other than the playgrund (of course) this place was conner's most favorite. he was in awe with all the books, magazines, art projects and other miscellaneous things that lined the book shelves. he also couldn't stop laughing at the weird scientist that welcomed you as you walked into the library. he would crack up and say "that guys we-oid (weird), mommy"

seriously, he was in awe. the epitomy of the phrase "wide-eyed".

saw this thing as we were leaving the library, and i thought it was pretty cool. cool enough to take a picture of, actually. i've never seen one of these things before. ingenious! the schools banking on kids who forgot their #2 pencils :)

what did addi think about starting school after this very information kindergarten orientation??

xoxo,
michelle

dusting off the old alarm clock

2011-08-15T07:57:00.001-05:00

for those of us in the tampa area, school starts in one week. really? really. school starts in one week. summer is officially over for my addi in one week.

and life as she knows it will have changed. forever.

{based on the low hang of her head...i have a teensy-bit feeling that she knows what's about to go down}

i kind of feel partially responsible for this change. for the past 4-5 years all i've been wanting is for her to grow up and be a big girl. i couldn't wait for her to start kindergarten. not only did / do i think she would / will make the cutest kindergartner, ever!...and one of the smartest (duh) (bias? maybe.)...but i would get excited to think about a world where i didn't have to shell out $400/week for daycare / preschool. to have an extra $1200/month was so nice to think about. selfish of me, i know. because now. now, all my wishing and thinking has finally come true. we no longer pay $1200/mo for her to go to preschool...instead, my poor addi girl is now headed off to kindergarten.

the easy years of her life are now over. as of 730am tuesday aug 23rd, she will start the loooooong walk down the long-ass aisle of knowledge. spending the next 18 years of her life, in school. and if she's serious about this whole "doctor like daddy" thing...she'll be spending even longer in school!

but all of this is a-okay. why? because apparently i'm the only one who's depressed and in denial of this whole kindergarten thing. addi is totally excited for school to start...she, however, is not so excited about having to wake up early again. therefore, knowing that my two little people have been waking up around 8:00 or 8:30 in the mornings, only to hit the hay around 10 o'clock at night (oh, and conner has started to not take naps too) we 've decided that this week is practice for "waking up on time for school".

i have to admit, it didn't go as well as i had anticipated this morning.

i slept through my alarm.

i'll be damned if i'm the one to blame for making addi late on her first day of big-girl school! guess this whole "waking up on time for school" thing just might actually be more for me than her. maybe. wish us luck this week. i have a feeling ~~i'll~~ we'll need it!

xoxo
michelle

i got my swamp card. i'm an official swamper.

2011-08-07T18:05:00.000-05:00

there comes a time in every girl's life where she needs to make a change. switch it up a bit. try something different. well, after 28 years this was my change. and a big change for my wallet, it was. no. i'm not talking credit cards - we live off those right now. can't get rid of them now! i'm talking a driver licence! or a.k.a. an official swamper card. i had to make the change. not because i wanted to, but because i was foreced to by the state of MO. MO betrayed me and has my MO driver licence expire on my 29th birthday. maybe to shove in my face that i'm only a year closer to 30. barf!

my birthday??? oh, ahem, aug 9th...*cough cough*...that's this tuesday in case any of you were wanting to buy me something. if you over night it, it should get here on time. if not, i'll still accept late gifts :)

...i digress...

so my SHOW-ME-yours-i'll-show-you-mine (mo is the "show me" state) driver licence expires on tuesday. and i sure as hell ain't gonna pass that driver's test (alread speaking swamper). so i had to get me a swamper's card before my licence expired.

so what does this swamper card really entitle me to?

1. i can hunt gators now. obviously.
2. i can say things like "choot 'em!" or "dares a tree shaka, dare"
3. sweet tea anytime i want
4. i can accessorise with a mullet if i so choose
5. i can smoke a cigarrette before, after or during my meals
6. probably the coolest one; i don't have to use the toilet to pee. i can pee in an ocean!
7. i can wear cute Gator team spirit t-shirts and hats (that stuff is everywhere!)
8. i can NOT and will NOT wear the shoe crocs. not that i ever did before, but now i really can't. it would be totally disrespectful to the gators 'round he'ah.
9. i can add the "salt life" sticker to the back window of my car (equivalent to the "no fear" sticker)
10. and lastly, vote republican (that was justin's idea)

i know, i know, i know. you don't need a flo-rida driver licence to do any, or all, of these things. but they're easier to do when you can say "i'm from florida" when someone asks you why you do them.

i.e. "why do you vote republican?"
      "because i'm from florida, that's why."
      "oh. makes sense"
     (you can't say that type of thing when you're from california)

      "why do you have a mullet?"
      "because i'm from ~~jefferson county, mo~~ florida, that's why"
      "oh. makes sense"
     (you can actually say that when you're from california...have you seen edward cullen's recent horrid of a hair cut?? supposedly its for a movie...sure it is, mr pattinson)

see, it's just easier to do these things when you can say "i'm from florida!"

now don't you wish you were from florida too, like me!?!

the old, yucky, SHOW-ME-your-camero-STATE, missouri licence.

and the new, pretty, SUNSHINE-out-my-butt-STATE, florida licence (florida is the "sunshine state"...except at 10am and 2pm when it turns into a rainforest). note to self, A LOT can change in 8 years. and it is true, tan fat is much prettier than white fat, that's a fact! and i lost an inch in the past 8 years...already shrinking??? that can't be good.

xoxo,
gator girl
(thanks mel!)

who knew learning could be so painful...ahem, i mean fun!

2011-08-01T07:13:00.000-05:00

in case ya'll hadn't noticed, i've been a West Shore House ~~Wife~~ Manager for a little over a month now. pretty amazing, i know. this past month has gone by pretty fast. thank god too because that means we're closer to this whole fellowship being over with and the hard residency and fellowship will soon be behind us. hallelujah! can i get an amen?!?! amen!

you ask, "what have you learned in a month, stay at home *momager*, michelle?" and to answer that i present to you this little list of things i've learned, and some, unfortunately, were learned the hard way;

1. it rains here every day. either at 10am or 2pm. count on one of those two times, but usually it's 2pm.

2. the small lizards; waaay easier to catch that the big ones.

3. speaking of "big lizards"; alligators are usually found in sarasota, fl. joel, the alligator wrangler i met in orlando, said that if they're called in to wrangle an alligator just being a nusance, they'll drive the alligator to the nearest swamp area and let him go. if though, they're called in to wrangle an alligator in, le'ts say, an elementary school's sand box, they'll take the alligator and give him to the state. the state will then gently kill the alligator and sell his pieces to the ~~black~~ market. true story. the alligator in the sand box; 8 feet long. holy crap! and yes, the children found him. can you imagine!!

4. no one here is a native floridian. they're all from somewhere else, and usually the midwest or the northeast.

5. our upstairs neighbor, the one that we believe to be a meth-head, lives above us and likes to vacuum at 11 o'clock at night (not shitting you. 11 o'clock at night) recently was found out by her *alleged* dealer of a boyfriend to be cheating on him. it was a very mess, loud and verbal breakup. addi is now afraid of our neighbor.

6. that same neighbor; from illinois. go figure. (see #4)

7. there are actually a lot more kids here than we had thought origianlly. unfortunately most of their parents are usually drunk and / or high.

8. its a lot easier to tollerate our neighbor(s)/hood when we're drunk. (see#7)

9. my kids have inner artists just dying to come out. just ask their bedroom wall and addi's hair.

10. my kids are lovers and fighers. they love to fight each other.

11. i'm a saint for not killing my kids by now.

12. contrary to popular belief, i can cook. and i can cook some bad-ass meals too! i've impressed not only justin and my children, but also myself. i'm the shit, yo! maybe i should open my own restaraunt?? yeah. probably not go that far with this whole cooking thing.

13. sand is a total bitch. espeically when it's in your butt crack on an hour long drive back home from the beach. and even more of a bitch to get out of your bathtub.

14. i can be a clean-freak. surprisingly, i know. the only thing i can't keep clean? the kid's room. i've given up and thrown in the preverbial towel on that one.

15. we do have cockroaches *shutter* fortunately though, per "bug guy joe", they're not german cockroaches. they're a type of outside/mulch cockroach. and they're easy to get rid of. unforuantely, no matter what, we have cockroaches and not walking peanut m&ms. damn.

16. i like to read...trashy books...by the pool.

17. i like to drink...alcoholic beverages...anywhere.

18. and lastly i've learned or realized that i haven't worn makeup in over a month! maybe the occasional mascara here or there. but actual full face, don't-scare-the-children makeup. nada. and surprsingly, i haven't scared anyone! hurray!

a whole moth down, eleven more to go. right now, granted, it's still early in the game, i think we can do this. wonder what i'll learn this next month? maybe that full-day kindergarten is a stay at home momager's dream??

learn'n fool
michelle

a boy named sue

2011-07-20T06:00:00.002-05:00

this particlar post is pretty much for my dad. the true guy's guy that my dad is. loves the history and military channel. plays softball with his buds. drinks beer. rides a motorcycle. collects boy things like pocket knives, guns and moody blues records. you know. a guy's guy type of guy, my dad.
also, my dad is like conner's bff; best friend forever. conner and pawpaw will (or should i say would...*tear*) sit in pawpaw's chair and fall asleep together, or nap together, while watching the history channel. i can't get conner to sit still for ice cream! but he'll sit still and fall into a trance, in my dad's lap, watching civil war reenactments on tv. how does he do it?!?

needless to say, my boy is a guy's guy too. he loves boy things. he'll take anything long and slender and turn it into a gun or a sword or a light saber. he likes to kick things, punch things, pinch things. he laughs at farts or general fart-like sounds. he'll purposely burb because he thinks it's the funniest thing since barney. he likes dinosaurs and sharks. he likes to growl at any and all the general public; except babies, he actually has a soft spot for babies :) he likes to yell, scream, spit, make monkey skreech-like sounds and i wouldn't be surprised if one day he throws his poop at someone like a monkey.

yes, my sons a boy. he falls, scrapes his knees and hands, bleeding everywhere, i rush over to him in the panic-mom sprint, i'm all concerned, worried he's hurt himself...and he's up and back running before i can even say ice pack. he's a boy. rough and tumble boy. and we love him that way!

so, again...this post is primarily for my dad...dad, why is my son playing with barbie??!!

or should i say, why is ken wearing snow white's dress?!?! not that there's anything wrong with that...

dad...please send conner's G.I.Joes...and pronto! florida is turning him soft.

on a side note - i think it's really cute that conner plays barbies with his sister...and look how happy it makes addi! :)

xoxo,
g.i. jane

because bigger isn't always better...or is it??

2011-07-18T06:00:00.002-05:00

if you recall, we've moved. from st louis to tampa. from cold ass zero degree winters to more normal 50 degree winters. from the land of corn stalks and cow poop to the land of beaches and gators.

oh yeah, and from 2000 sq feet concrete panic room type penthouse loft to an 872 sq feet, paper thin walls ground floor apartment. and did i mention there may or may not be small cockroaches? i dunno. maybe once or twice or 4 times now, i may have seen something that looks similar to a small cockroach. could have very well been a very large rolly polly. or maybe even a peanut m&m that was dropped by conner and grew legs and walked across the kids' bathroom floor. yeah, that's what it was. a peanut m&m with legs. thank god too because i was starting to get the heebie jeebies thinking we had small cockroaches in this joint...*shutter*...ahem...

other than the latin king, ak47 wheel'n, neighbors and the, ahem, peanut m&ms walking around - this place isn't that bad. we're in one of thee best school districts in this area (or so it says on greatschools.org), and that's what mattered to us most. but the fact that we're in a good school district also means things are pretty expensive. so this quaint little beach bungalo (trying to sell this place) was what we could afford. all 872 glorious square feet of it :)

you're questioning how all our 2000sqft worth of crap was able to fit in this quaint little bungalo? yeah, i was too. and the answer lies in my parent's basement and my grandma's basement - that's where 3/4 of our stuff went. and then another 1/2 went to goodwil. and then 1/4 went to florida with us. i know, those ratios don't really add up to a rational number - but that's because we had soooooooo much crap it wasn't even rational! every corner, nook or cranny we discovered in the loft during box-up month, there was more crap shoved into them. and i gotta say, it was mostly KID crap. they don't even have money to buy all the things they had but somehow they had more loot then justin and me! and we were ones who actually did have jobs to afford to buy things...and yet, we never bought ourselves anything! hmmmm...strange, don't ya think??

well, the 1/4 amount of stuff we did manage to bring down to fl all fit into a 16ft moving truck. it was wild to think that ALL of our belongings fit into a 16ft moving truck! wild, right???! but it also felt good too. to be able to purge all those things; the things we no longer needed, wanted or used and just took up precious space, it was nice to get rid of those things. and it was also to nice think that in just about a year or so we'll be able to buy most things new. like we tell the kids at christmas, if you want santa to bring you more presents then you need to purge the old ones. and that's just what justin and i kept telling each other; out with the old so that we can be "in with the new!"

so, would you like to see our sweet, quaint, not loud at all (sarcasm) little beach bungalo?? well, feast your eyes on these little gems!

my mom put her little green thumb to use while she was here and tried to give the front a little more curb appeal...thanks mom!

please...come in...

the nik-ked baby did not come with the house - we brought him with us from st louis.

thank you ikea for the wall mounted dish holder - we have zero cabinet space, so ikea came in handy! and did i mention that ikea is only 7.8 miles away? dangerous!

the awesomely gigantic kitchen with the sub zero fridge, oversized island, gas range with a huge range hood...wait, wait...i think i'm dreaming...yeah, i'm dreaming. what? what's that behind the curtain you ask? oh, that's our laundry room :) two spaces in one! i will say though, as tight as these quarters are, i keep up on the dishes and laundry pretty well, out of necessity though. but whatever, still counts!

the room's actually more finished now then when this picture was taken...pictures on the wall. a little leaf canopy in the corner. i'd have taken more updated photos for ya, but who am i kidding...thier room stays clean for maybe .679 seconds. if we're lucky.

the little people have their own bathroom - how nice is that!? we let addi pick out the shower curtain. pretty cute, bubs!

their bathroom has thee one and only linen closet.

oh! and i forgot one more thing...

this little guy;
they come free with every single property down here in tampa!

conner calls them dinosaurs :) and he roars at them. like aunts are to MO, lizards are to FL. they're everywhere you go!

so thats it. the tour of the sweeney compound. please feel free to stop by anytime you'd like...we'll even leave the light on for ya...and the bug spray on the front porch. the mosquitos are bitches around here! just ask poor conner's bitten up little limbs. they feast on that boy!

xoxo
michelle

SAHM = stay at home monsters!

2011-07-15T16:47:00.001-05:00

so this was an extremely hard week for me. :: i've started to feel the stl blues.
:: the weather was rain. rain. rain...and rain some more.
:: the kids have started turning on me.
:: and i've come to the realization that i really, really need some friends. (and i'm more than likely not going to find that here in our complex)

oh, and not to mention tis the time of the month...so that may have a little something to do with the way i'm feeling. is that a little TMI? on well. this is what you get.

i love my people very much...but holy crap! can they please NOT fight for like 3minutes??? just 3 minutes! is that too much to ask?? can they please SIT on the couch rather than use it as a spring board in one of their wrestling matches? can conner please push his trucks around on the floor rather than launch them at his sister's head? can addi sit on the floor and watch her shows rather than climb on the flat screen like a monkey? you'd swear she was blind or something. but at her last dr visit, for kindergarten, she had 20/20 eye sight!

and while we're at it; the next time she sticks her tounge out at me in her little fit of attitude i WILL cut it off and feed it to the alligators.

can the both of them STOP screaming? can i STOP screaming at them?? and you should also know that these walls are nothing like the walls at the loft. not even the tiniest bit alike. the people that live above us are always stomping on the floor in anger because the two little freak kids i have are too freaking loud! i'm waiting for the day when our neighbors come busting through our door with an AK47 and blow all of us away. (we live by some sketchy people. i wouldn't put it past them. i honestly think the one across from us is involved with the latin kings of hyde park. i swear. a man and a woman always come banging on their door and the people that live there are ironically never home...wierd? i think so)
.....

....

excuse me

....

....

literally 2 seconds ago, i had to put conner in time out...again (threw his truck at addi...again). he's screaming now like a crazy person, like i beat him to death or something. the neighbors love that, i'm sure.

and you're going to say, "why are these kids home? you should be outside doing something!" and you're right, we should. and we are! we get out of the house as much as humanly possible. we usually leave around 930am and we don't come back home until maybe 230pm. last night we got home around 9PM! we do the park, the pool, the beach. today? today we went to the zoo and didn't get home until like 330! and i'll be damned we were home for maybe 20 minutes and the crazyness starts! oye.

it's now five o'clock. their room has thousands of books, dvds and barbies everywhere, thank you conner. there are large tonka like trucks all over the house. addi had a fashion show before we left for the zoo this morning so there's a million clothes and empty hangers just laying around all over the joint. looks as though someone snuck an oreo cookie while i was in the bathroom because there's oreo slobber on the ottoman. i've got half a sink full of dishes. a full dishwasher to empty. a basket full of dirty laundry. a dryer full of clothes that needs to be folded. and did i mention it's 5 o'clock...i should be starting dinner! justin's gonna think i do nothing all day long while he's at the hospital working his ass off!

i'd rather be at work! how sad is that?? hopefully i'll get the hang of this. besides, before i know it addi will be starting school soon so i'll only have one kid to entertain during the day. thank god for kindergarten.

on a side note, i've started a wedding blog. found the invites we'll be using. and the save-the-date cards. so that's a plus! oh, did you forget? we have a wedding in less than 10 months! i totally forgot. really, the #1 reason you shouldn't have kids prior to marriage - so that you can have the appropriate amount time and effort go into your wedding planning rather than it being dominated by your kids. i'm totally slacking!

just to show you how much fun we have together...here's a sweet video of addi and conner playing nicely at the park. something to note - this is what i live with EVERYDAY!

tell me you didn't laugh after watching that...conner's cool-as-ice attitude kills me every time.

maybe this was just a crappy week and the rest should get better...right??

xoxo
michelle

pools rule!

2011-07-11T10:39:00.001-05:00

wow. it's monday. and its not even 10am here yet. guess what addi wants to do already??? go to the pool. she's obsessed with swimming now. which is a good thing because that means i don't have to try and find her something to do to keep her busy. (that's THEE hardest thing i've found about being a "sahm" - finding the monsters something to do other than fighting) but at the same time, the pool is way too boring for conner. he needs something more stimulating. he's go! go! go! not swim. swim. swim. booorrr-iiinnngg.

well, it's hot as balls here (and, side note; the bugs, no matter what time of day, will eat. you. alive!) and if we stay inside all day the kids will go ape-shit. which means i turn all mommy dearest on them "no more wired hangers!"...so unfortunately, for conner-man and his over active brain the pool is the cheapest and closest entertainment for us. and not to mention, i get to continue to work on killing my skin cells. oh how i've missed sun ~~fried~~ kissed skin!

not a bad view, eh? this is one of 3 pools. this is however, the only one that looks out onto the bay/ocean.

shawny/Mel, this smile was especially made for you! look! not creepy at all. she really can smile like a person who's not in pain :)

yeaaaaa for bubbas! can you hear her huffing and puffing? phew! was worried there for a minute. and yeah, i had to show ya the view one more time. tee hee.

so, think reaaaal far back, like, 2 posts ago...i'm being sarcastic because my posting skills have been less than stellar lately...let me help you - this post, right here. i told you of the dreaded skin disease i came down with...sun burn peeling. or is it pealing? whichever. i started thinking more about it. and while it does remind me of the neve campbell skin disease in the craft (which i googled, "neve campbell, the craft, skin" well, i got more than i expected. i don't recommend googling that. espeically if there are kids around. yowzer!) it was actually more like the skin peeling (or pealing) scene in death becomes her (shout out to my sister!) 2 minute mark, EXACTLY what justin and i are going through right now.

mmmm....yummmm...and how awesome are my tan lines! thanks to that damn peach strapless dress i was wearing that day.

and just to show you folks what brainiacs we ar; we went to the beach on saturday, redington beach to be exact. "most exposed portion of the beach" per justin. and did we bother to put sunscreen on ourselves??? hell to the NO! and did we come back crispy like chared bbq?? we sure did! and are we hurting today??? we sure are. dumb-asses. i know. and we're literally pealing / peeling huge chunks of skin off ourselves. dis.gust.ing! we'll never learn. i will say though that i got rid of that dumb, dress tan line! now i at least have a normal swim suit tan line. may be a red tan line...but hopefully it'll turn tan one of these days :)

xoxo
michelle

okay, so...we've arrived!

2011-07-08T13:04:00.000-05:00

(yeah...i kinda just skipped over the 2nd half of easter. but that's because this is just so much better!)so, as you know - we've made it to tampa! and in one piece. amen!
second - i need to rename this ~~neglected~~ blog something more appropriate, don't ya think? suggestions are welcomed. easiest ones..."Life's a Beach" or "Little Life on the Bay". 50 cool-points if you can think of something better. what can one do with "cool points"? well be extra special cool, of course!

so moving to STL to TPA (airport codes for St louis and Tampa...i'm a dork i know) was pretty intense. but it was made much, much more easier thanks to my family. the 2 days prior to us leaving we did a crap-load of packing. like, serious packing. and thank God for my uncle alan and my dad. all the crap and heavy things i couldn't help justin with, those two did. and not to mention those two men were like our "movers". helped justin take things apart, packed things up, loaded things into trucks, and took things where things needed to go i.e. dumpster, good-will or storage. i'm so lucky to have such an awesome family!

our last night in the loft was thursday june 23 (and we left STILL with no renters for our place). it was crazy to see our house all empty. very emotional for me. i may or may not have lashed out at justin a couple times just from the pure stress of it all (sorry again, babe). it was just so sad to see our house all cold and lonely. no hot-wheels all over the floor. or cheerios hiding under the couch. the missing baby crib; that's been in that house since pretty much the day we moved in, almost 7 years ago. the crowded closet with addison clothes shoved in every nook and cranny, now just empty white, wire shelving. lots of sadness. and lots of boxes.

but we have to do what we have to do; start a new chapter in our lives. and that chapter began in a 1-moving-truck-2-SUV caravan moving 'cross country!

after her first time behind the wheel of our very LARGE moving truck - i'd SWEAR my mom was a trucker in a past life. my mom has some bad-ass trucker skills! she was driving that big ole bulky moving like it was her bitch. she took tight, downtown nashville turns like she was riding a bike. and not to metion on the highways she drove like a bat outta hell! i was so impressed! in her car we're lucky if she punches it to 62mph. the moving truck though, she had that thing up to 80! impressive!

we made quite a few stops, no thanks to conner and addi getting car-cabin fever, the moving trucks large gas tank and crappy mpg's, and not to mention someone's pea-sized bladder (no names...ahem...mom!). we traveled many many miles, 1083 to be exact. and we saw lots of interesting things.

we left at the butt-crack of dawn from my parent's house and started making our way south.

"good bye childhood home...tear..." we'll see you again at thanksgiving. gotta say though, the butt-crack of dawn is very pretty, don't ya think?

of course we had to stop for gas...and a hearty breakfast before we left arnold! powdered sugar donuts anyone??

our first real stop that didn't include jumping out of a moving vehicle towards a public restroom, only to catch up with the said moving vehicle once you had relieved your bladder, like you were marty mcfly on a hoverboard or something; downtown nashville! which i gotta say was a A LOT like downtown STL. not only did i think so but so did addi. she kept saying "wow, it's like i'm home sumpthin!"

that little person on the back of the moving truck; the "guardian of the truck", my mom. that pink thing hanging from my car? well, poor coner got the crappy end of the stick, his seat happened to be facing EAST which menas the bright, morning sun that was once the butt-crack of dawn was sharp as nails sun rays in his poor baby face pretty much the first 3/4 of our drive. so we had to take addi's pink cover, hang it from his window by shutting an end in the window, and make-shifted him a sun visor. hoosier? yeah, probably. but honestly where we were i don't think anyone noticed. gotta love the south!

something really cool that happened; the AC on my car went out. AWESOME, right! it was like a hundred millions degrees and my AC decides that now would be a good time to call it a day and head home. what really made the bitch-slap from my AC sting was the fact that it was just at dobbs the day before for an oil change / check up. really? really, dobbs? well, i can't blame dobbs.

come to find out what was happening was that the AC was getting so cold it was literally making itself freeze. how sweet is that?! my AC was pumping and trying so hard to keep me and my 2 little peeps nice and cool that it ended up taking it's own life, so to speak. not to worry though. i finally started to catch on and knew when it was going to happen (it would start ~~chemical warfare~~ steaming through the vents and making ice crackling sounds in the dashboard), so i would turn 'er off and let her defrost for a bit. when i'd go to turn her back on, she worked liked new!

"the fixers!"

there was a lot of this going on;

and i got to stare at this...

and this, for like, ever!

all the boring scenery i could feel myself starting to waver a bit. my eyes burning and my brain about mush. but then, the gorgeous, sweet-peach city of macon, georgia's clouds parted and the sign telling me to "hang on a little bit more, you're almost home", appeared...

that's right people...THEY bare all here! it was almost like being home back in STL. the geogia / florida line really knows how to party!! my kinda town, baby!

about a hundred miles later this sign appeared and we all got excited...finally, the drive was almost over. we're almost home!

it was about 206 miles after this sign before we made it to our new digs. and it was a glorious feeling. 2 days of driving is really hard on your ~~ass~~ car and family.

surprisingly both kids did wonderful! i was very proud of both of them. i thought for sure as much fighting as they do at home they'd have killed each other on the 2 day drive down here. but they actually did amazingly! almost zero fighting. both kids made it to FL alive and my sanity was still intact. amaze-balls right!?

the next post or two i'll show how 4 people and 2000sqft worth of crap fits in a 900sqft (ahem...872sqft) condo. pretty exciting stuff!...oye.

xoxo

michelle

life's a beach...and i forgot sunscreen

2011-07-06T21:01:00.000-05:00

so i have this whole first-post/welcome-to-tampa post just waiting to be finished. but for whatever reason i can't seem to bring myself to finish it. i'm over the move already and ready to move on. not that i won't show you all the great fun moving pics, cause i will (lucky you). but today...today...i thought i'd bring you some fun beach pictures. ya know, wet your pallet for this little place called tampa, fl. or, also known as, our new "home sweet home".

addi dancing in the warm ocean water! the water is usually warmer than the air here. love it!

how cute are their seagulls, with their little black heads!?! :)

gramaw and addi had spotted some dolphins. not uncommon here at all. and lucky for gramaw cause they're her favorite animal!

practicing to be a swimsuit model when he grows up...tee hee...not likely with that big ole buddah belly.

conner thought it was funny to steal pawpaw's hat...and i must say the belly laughs he was making playing keep-away from pawpaw, it was pretty funny. and he was pretty cute wearing the hat as well. don't ya think? :)

"i ti-yud, mama"

my dad took this pic from the pier...not too shabby, eh?

and just show you that laying out and playing around on the beach all day does have it's downfalls...here's what i ended up looking like at the end of the day. these pics have not been doctored in anyway. i really have turned into a racoon.

the last two were taken with Justin's phone, straight off the beach. F.R.I.E.D. fried!

this was after a shower and my skin had time to calm down...HELLO! can we say sunscream?!?! think "kim k" had posted something similar to her twitter account not that long ago. guess that's mean i'm as cool as her?? oye.

thankfully i've learned my lesson. i now wear sunscreen, but really only because i'm still recovering. the next post or two i'll show you how i look now...think skin-disease-neve-campbell in the movie the craft. google it if you have to. pretty gross.

xoxo

michelle

christ has risen...and he needed to bring an ARK with him! (part 1)

2011-05-06T12:38:00.000-05:00

(now i've got that hymn stuck in my head "christ has come...christ has risen...christ. will. come. aaaa-gain...)

seriously, i gotta say, i've been pre-tty disappointed in Easter these past few years. i honestly can't remember the last time we had a "normal" sunny, warm easter day. i think i was like 20...ahem...that was like, 2 years ago! (i could totally pass for 22, right? with a 5 year old? yeah, i started the baby making process early) honestly though, i do believe the last "nice/normal" easter i can remember was probably close to 10 years ago. if it's not snowing then it's FREEZING (and freezing without snow is just stupid! what's the point? if you're going to be cold at least give me something pretty look at, ya know) if it's not snowing or freezing then it's icky, cold and rainy - which is what it was this year.

we should've known though. we should've expected that we would've needed an ark on easter. rain is all we've seen lately...rain and tornados. i'm sure you know, but in case you were living under a rock or in a compund surrounded by the pakistanian government, the lou made it onto the national news easter weekend. our "15 minutes of fame" i guess!

(although being, supposedly, the #1 most dangerous city in the country for, like, the 5th year in a row might count as 15 minutes of fame too - but we blame that fancy title on East St Louis - which technically is in Illinois (sorry Illinois - gotta give crappy credit where credit is due))

sad, however, that a tornado that ripped through the city is what gave us our 15 minutes of national news fame, though. fortunately i knew no one affected by the tornados - none of our friends or family were touched - thank god!

this is the view from the loft as the storm(s) came roaring through the area.

as you can see, it was pretty amazing!

was there rain? oh, yes. yes there was. were there high-winds? oh, yes. yes there were. was there HAIL? oh, yes. yes there was. (which, given the company i work for - we LOVE hail). were the tornado sirens going off? oh, yes. yes they were. were there 2 scared little babies? no. only 1 - addison. conner thought it was cool. he thought the sirens were firefighters. addi though - she knew tornados were dangerous. she got a little concerned and all snuggly. we headed to the basement (i.e. our underground parking garage) and waited out the storms with our neighbors. thank God for smart phones - we tracked the storm from justin's phone and that's how we knew it was safe to go back upstairs! oh, technology. what would we do without you?

but oh wait! there was still more that weekend - EASTER! the craziness that was the tornado hit friday night (good friday), so saturday was when we dyed our easter eggs! this was conner's first experience with egg dying. last year he was too young. so when i brought out the pan of colored water and the bowl of hard boiled eggs, he jumped right in! addi was more meticulous, like her father, about her egg dying. she even went as far as painting with a teeny-tiny paint brush and writing names on some of the eggs.

jealous of addi's sweet tattoo?? you'd be even MORE jealous if saw the thomas-the-train masterpiece on conner's BELLY :)

he's so photogenic! he just loves the camera!

try as we might, those 10 little fingers were good and stained...and just in time for easter pictures. perfect...!

(oh boy...this is a two parter! luckys!) (sarcasm)

xoxo

michelle

please be kind...and rewind

2011-05-05T09:44:00.001-05:00

hmmmm...how do i start this post? it's been well over 3 months since my last post and honestly i feel like this post is just setting me up for more posting failure. because i know i won't get back on here for another week or so after i post this. so, lets not kid ourselves, okay?

let me just say life has been CRAZY!

between finding a home for us in Tampa (which by the way we move in less than 45 days - holy crap! and it's not going so good. really freaking out), cleaning and boxing up our home here in STL, finding a renter for our STL home, a recent engagement (hollah!), sick kids, etc, etc...i've found it really hard to even log onto Facebook via my phone much less sit my happy ass down in front of the computer and write something on a blog.

but a lot has happened in the last 3 months. and i know for a fact that yayas is missing her grandbabies. so i thought it would be nice to post a little sumpthin, sumpthin, here on this little ole blog. luckily i save my photos my date so it should be pretty easy to rewind the last 3 months...the way i look at it, we don't do very much of the-rewinding these days, so this is a good opportunity to do so!

(and i won't make you sit through 3 months of rewind eventually to gauge your own eyeballs out...no. only 1 month - i love you that much. i want you to keep your pretty eyeballs!)

like i said we started the packing process. fun? no. not really. depressing? yes. why? 1) i have to leave everything i know and my loving family back in STL! my childhood so-to-speak is being left behind. i have to now cross over into adulthood - yuck. how sad. and 2) my kids have WAY more things than i have. how unfair! somehow they have ZERO income coming into this household but yet they're ones with all the STUFF! how does that happen???

these were taken on a Pancake Saturday. the kids and i usually do Pancake Saturdays twice a month (the other two Saturdays of the month i throw 'em (the "chitlins" that is) at my parents...hehehe). notice how much conner LOVES pancake saturdays! and all the crazy mess behind him...packing. joy.

(she's getting big, right! she graduates from pre-school next wednesday...CRAZY!)

conner fell in love with Toy Story - espeically TS3 (you like how i made an accronym out of it...i'm so hip!) - these past few months. he received the movie for xmas from santa and he wore that poor little DVD out! of course Woody-Man and Buzz are his favorite! and Jesse might get a nod every now then too. so when daddy brought home some cowboy hats and a bandana form one of his work trips, conner thought he was an official cow boy...and addi's fur-real pet dog, Biscuit, was his Bulls-Eye (for those not hip enough for TS - Bulls-Eye is Jesse's/Woody's horse)! you're my favorite deputy!

the weather here recently has been pretty, dare i say, shit-tastic! even more so since it's now May and it FROZE this morning. seriously? seriously. whoever said anything about global warming, i'd like to punch them in the throat. this is re-dunk-ulous! but! there was a time or two when we actually did have WARM days...and we were actually able to take the kids outside to get some fresh air and reunite them with the great outdoors. and on those days, well, we hit up the park and ventured over to sonic for some slushies (justin introduced both kids to the 7-11 Slushie recently (yuck, by the way. i'm totally down for a snow-cone, but i never could get on the slushie band-wagon) and now anytime its the least bit warm outside they're both begging for slushies).

yeah...he's up to no-good. he's trying to figure out how to jump off the slide. why slide down when you can jump off!?

judging by that face, it must've been a HOT slide on the way down.

so, that's only HALF of the month! i've still got Easter to wow you with! (because this post was so "wow'ing", wasn't it! lie if you have to). yayas (and anyone else that have missed my posts; again, lie if you have to) i hope you enjoyed this post and i'm going to try to my damnedest to post more this weekend.

oh...PS...

HAPPY CINCO DE'MAYO! have a margarita (or two) for me!

xoxo
michelle

let the good times roll - roll away and take the snow with you

2011-02-10T11:43:00.000-06:00

hi my people! in case you hadn't noticed (who am i kidding) my last post was Jan 6th, 2011. now, i know what you're thinking she's been really busy and all with work, sick children, house hunting for FL (only 4 more months to go), etc. and while yes, that may all be true i can assure you there were weekends of days that i could have posted something and i was just too dang lazy / zombie-like to do anything about it. i just sat on the couch or in bed and watched saved by the bell or full house or something. meanwhile the monsters were running around destroying their room. which by the way, i pretty much have given up on them two keeping their room clean. it's pretty much just useless. once it's clean it only takes 1.23 seconds before its detroyed again.

props to myself though, i did manage to do the dishes and laundry for this little family of mine. big pat on the back for me! everyone was drinking out of clean glasses, using clean utensils and wearing clean underwear! (the clean underwear part justin can attest to. there were a few times in the past that he's had to go to work commando because i hand't learned how to juggle everything yet - singing a different tune these days though, thankfully! - the learning-to-juggle part was when addi was first born and then again when conner was first born. learning to be a mom / maid / butler / "wife" is hard) i have to say i have been drinking more often. white russians and the alabama slammaher have both become almost regular nightly beverages for me. maybe that's what's helping me get through the day and my "chores"??? i dunno. just say'n.

i'd like to blame this laziness on the weather here in the lou - so that's exactly what i'm gonna do. and i'd also like to blame these pesty extra 5lbs i've gained on the weather too. so, i'm fat and lazy because of the weather. are we all good with that? good. and while i'm at it, lets blame this crap-ass weather on my kids' current state of health as well. i'm sooooo over the snow, cold, freezing rain and fevers! i can't remember the last time both the kids were healthy at. the. same. time.

that's the kicker. they have to be sick at diferent times. the germs infesting my children take no consideration for the fact that i'm essentially a working, single mom who has to take vacation days from work to stay home and nurse sick children. suckage. i mean, my vacation days at work are supposed to be for vacations, right? like high-tailing it to jamaica, key largo or something, on a whim, right? laying on a beach sipping mai-tais and watching the waves roll in while the warm sun kisses my skin and hot soft sand hugs my body as i lay there soaking up my "vacation"......WAKE UP! not that i meant to forget them, but did you notice how my vacation didn't include ~~monsters~~ children ;)

this last round of sickness was actually pretty scary - landed conner-man in the ER. if you remember he's been to the ER twice before when he's been sick. and both times were for breathing treatments. i'll be damned if this last visit to the ER was because his lips were blue and purple - he wasn't getting enough oxygen! scared the crap out of us. took him to the ER and after a few doses of steriods, breathing treatments, nose swabs and chest xrays it was determined that he has pnuemonia! let the good times roll.

so today - post ER and post a really crappy night with a sick little man - we're chill'n at home. poor justin though - he has to go to work - he doesn't get "sick" days. conner is doing great! right now. but after breathing treatments he's always a wild man. and addi being home with us - well, i can guarentee there will be laughing, screaming and most likely tears. tears; mostly from the kids.

me? i'm anxiously awaiting and praying for nap time...and so thankful for litle einstein and charter "on demand". didn't even know these things existed, but little einstein is teaching us about BABY BOOBY BIRDS! penguin look'n birds and not a single booby on them. huh.

xoxo,
michelle

good intentions - let's act like they count

2011-01-07T09:14:00.000-06:00

i seriously had thee best intentions as far as christmas / new year cards are concerned. i even jumped on getting them created back in november...NOVEMBER for crying out loud! i knew i would do what i did last year and totally wait until the last minute and not have time to run out to by "specialty" envelopes (uh, that's what happened last year. stupid 5x5 card). this year though, this year, i was on top of things. i was going to get these puppies out at the exact. right. time. no excuses.

except, they didn't get out at the exact right time...and unfortunately i have no excuses for it either...son-of-ah...! i could just slap myself! i wasted a good chunk of change getting these puppies printed and more change on stamps. what the heck happened!?? why couldn't i march my happy-ass to the mail box to send these dang things out!??! and now - well now, it's january 6, kinda too late to send anything out now. god!

so instead i'll post it on the blog - just like i frick'n had to do last year...because i'm a looser. who has nothing to offer other than "good intentions". my life story; procrastination and good intentions. jeeze.

i'm going to act like my good intentions count for something - it would be great if you could do the same. k? thanks!

so here it is - happy ~~flipp'n~~ new year...my resolutaion, STOP PROCRASTINATING...we'll see how well i keep up with that. i wouldn't hold your breath.

cute, right!!

oh, and cali, you're still getting these...once i'm able to drag my happy-ass to the ups store and mail out your christmas gifts, that is. yes. they're all sitting on our kitchen table all wrapped up and boxed up, just waiting for someone to take them down to the god-for-saken ups store. it sounds so simple, but yet so hard.

nothing like ~~a busy lifestyle~~ procrastination.

xoxo
michelle

um, yeah, we're still here

2011-01-06T11:54:00.000-06:00

seriously, i know, it's been forever since i posted something on this poor ole lonely ignored blog. but, i just want you to know that we are still here (god love ya christine). i've actually started a few posts and for whatever reason i would get about 3/4 of the way through and be all like, "what the hell did i just write?!? no one wants to read that crap!" so the posts never got published to the blog and it [the blog] remained empty and ignored.

but, like i said, we are still here...and still alive and well. well, as well as can be expected (poor justin - working, working, working, working).

so, something for the ladies...to hold you over until i can actually write a post worthy of your attention...a few pics of my little elmo underwear model. santa brought him these little gems and he LOVES, LOVES, LOVES them! thankfully the pack santa brought him was a 6 pack, we've had a few accidents needless to say.

we didn't have boys in my immediate family when i was growing up, other than my dad, and trust me, his underwear was. not. cute. so these little elmo underwear make me smile rainbows and sunshine when i see them on him. so stinking cute! and they even have a real "peepee hole" in them. i thought for sure it would be sewn together like a faux "peepee hole" but i'll be damned, it's real! and so cute! that's also something addison is pretty impressed with and jealous of, the "peepee hole". she wishes she had a "peepee hole" in her underwear - but that's a whole nother story and probably something best suited for her wedding night "peepee hole equiped lady's underwear" (if you get what i'm saying...)

yes, he's only 1 step away from putting that hand down his pants and zoning out in front of the TV. and look at that belly!

(yes - he's wearing sissy's under shirt, hence the pretty little silk bow)

look at that pose - what can i say, he's a natural.

if you're nice - he'll share his goldfish with you, like he's doing here in the picture. but you have to be exceptionally nice to him, he doesn't share his food well :)

in the words of the great govenator of calee-four-nya, i'll be back!

xoxo,

michelle

baby it's cold outside...

2010-11-18T11:45:00.000-06:00

...so lets warm things up with a little trip back to cali!

i know. it took me FOREVER to get this finished...and i'm sorry...but it's freezing here in STL and the smell of winter is everywhere. so this video is actually pretty perfect for me - seeing the family and the beach warms me right up :)

this video has evertyhing you're looking for - hot firefighter, hot surfer, pretty cali "gurls", movie stars (okay...no i didn't use the chevy chase pictures, but paramount is in here), cute kids, coffee, and some great tunes. so enjoy! and hopefully, if you're watching this from somewhere cold like i am, hopefully this video warms you up too.

xoxo
me

THE WALL - happy veterans day

2010-11-11T12:59:00.000-06:00

back in mid-october (when justin was in san fran actually), a little something known as the "the traveling wall" came to my hometown of arnold, mo. if you're not familiar with this wall, it's an 80% replica (largest replica, actually) of the big Vietnam Veterans Memorial that stands in Washington DC. the traveling wall is 380 feet long and contains all 58,253 names. amazing, right? and it continuously is being updated to honor those that lost their lives in the vietnam war.

this may sound really bad - but during our visit to the wall, during lunch actually, i asked my dad why the vietnam war is given such honor and not any of the other wars that america and it's soliders have fought in? like, what about desert storm or even the current war we're in now. why is vietnam ('nam') so much more important?

i'm not a huge history buff. so i will agree / be okay with being called ignorant. especially if the history we're discussing is about war - it only makes me sad that so many people had to loose their lives. mom's and dad's had to loose their sons. brothers and sisters had to loose their sibling. grandparents had to loose their grandchild. so sad - but to give so much credit to the vietnam war was confusing to me. why does this war get its own wall?

well, my understanding, from what my dad and my mom both tried to explain to me (and addison) is that this war was very misunderstood by the people. seemed as though thousands and thousands of people lost their lives to a very controversial war. and that maybe by memorializing those that were lost, maybe it would help those left behind to heal. (this is just a theory - or at least the theory i walked away with after lunch that day).

it was very, very...no, extremely hard not to get choked up at the presence of this wall. all the names on that wall represent actual people. actual people that were selfless enough to fight on behalf of us and our country. actual people that knew loosing their life was a great possibility when they signed up for the job...and yet they still signed up for it. brave. very brave. i wanted to thank every single one of them.

and it made me sad that i couldn't. and that's when i started thinking about all the other hundred of thousands of brave men and women that lost their lives serving our country. and those that didn't loose their lives but lost other things, like limbs, sanity, loved ones, the ability to sleep at night because of nightmares, etc (someone very to close to our family is going through this right now after everything he's seen during his time at war).

so today and everyday, thank you. thank you ten times over.

thank you to the men and women that serve our country to keep us safe. thank you for the ability to be able to sleep soundly at night knowing that we're being protected. thank you to all the families that have selflessly given their children / brothers / wives / husbands / mothers / fathers to let them go serve our country. thank you. i honestly wouldn't know what to say or how to react if addison or conner, just one day up-and told me they wanted to join the armed forces. it takes courages families to build courages people like that - so thank you to you too.

happy veterans day
michelle

wordless wednesday {except with a VIDEO!}

2010-11-10T17:48:00.000-06:00

i've got A LOT going on in my life right now - busy busy busy!

i don't have anything witty or fun to talk about,

therefore, i thought i'd let my people speak for me.

this is a peek into a night at the crazy "sweeney compound"

("sweeney compound" was for you pawpaw don!)

i unfortunately didn't get a good video of what actually goes on here

but, addison drives the big wheel around the kitchen island

all the while conner surfs / skis / is dragged along on the back.

they LOVE doing this!

and this only a glimpse of what our nights are like.

i've said this before, and i mean it,

i'm surprised our new neighbors haven't called DFS on us yet.

snow white and her vampire

2010-11-08T20:34:00.001-06:00

halloween - i know, it was over a week ago but i promised you (yayas) pictures and our itsy-bitsy teeny-tiny halloween video.

like the past 5 years, we do halloween / trick 'er treating in my mom and dad's neighborhood. it's tough to tirck 'er treat in downtown STL. not sure i really trust what the homeless' candy bowls contain.

my work is going through a HUGE acquisition right now so i needed to go into work on halloween morning. i was hoping and praying that i would be able to get to my parent's house in time to get the gremlins dressed and ready for the trick 'er treating. justin was on-call at the hosptial, so i was also hoping that he would be able to join us for trick 'er treating too...and guess what? we both made it!

conner wasn't feeling too good halloween night - as you can see - he was less than enthused to get all dressed up. i however couldn't wait to see him in his costume!

aunt yelle was just as excited as i was to see our little dracula!

it was thee perfect night for trick 'er treating. the weather was perfect. not too cold and definitely not too hot. it was that "perfect cold" - the kids didn't have to bundle up. all they needed were some long sleeve shirts under their outfits. i definitely was over dressed for the temp outside. and the fall smell in the air just made it that much more perfect.

our infamous pumpkin carvings!

conner was a very brave little man. he would march up to the houses yelling "her-rick her heet". and as soon as the unsuspecting home owner opened their door and bent down to conner's level with their candy bowl, he attacked! he was such a moocher. so greedy! he would grab handfuls and just shove it into his tirck 'er treat pail. he never even looked at what he was grabbing. just grabbed and shoved...grabbed and shoved. a couple times he tried stealing the whole candy bowl! but...our son has manners as well. so after he was through with hoarding the candy, he would yell "hank you!"

it was a great night. we walked half of my parent's neighborhood and the kids came home with loads of candy! we're not a big candy family, so some of our candy went with me to work. the left over candy is used for bribes :) ~~and between you and i, if there were any kitkats or snickers i might have stolen them...but don't tell addi. her favorite is the kitkat.~~

before our way out for trick 'er treating we tried to debrief the kids on what they would say to get their treats...what kind of trick would they do to get their treats? addi didn't really have any great jokes this year, so she said she was just going to be pretty. conner though, his trick...was the evil vampire laugh!

xoxo
michelle

boo-hoo at the zoo

2010-11-04T09:24:00.000-05:00

again...i'm trying to squeeze all relevant materail into these posts before they become, well, irrelevant! so that leads me to the st louis annual "boo at the zoo" at the st louis zoo.

last year when we did this it was FREEZING, like, seriously freezing. snot freezing as it drips from your nostrils and your hot breath turning to ice as you breath in and out of your mouth (because your nose is so numb and frozen you can't breath out of your nose). that cold! conner was just a wee lad, 7 months old, and addison was 3. we got there very, very late - we didn't know the park closed at 830 and we got there at like 715 - and didn't really have that great of a time. i mean, it was nice being with my mom and the kids and my cousin ryan but it seemed like it was just a waste of time and effort. it was freezing and we walked around a dead park for about an hour.

this year, though! this year, of course, started out with some hitches (thats our M.O.) but it ended up being a great night! the weather was perfectly crisp, no one froze and we got experience boo at the zoo like it was meant to be experienced! there were tears though. we can't go anywhere without someone shedding some sort of tears.

justin and i met my mom, dad, the kids and my uncle and his family at the zoo. kids (and parents as well) are encouraged to wear their costumes by offering any costume wear'ers free admission to the zoo. so justin and i brought the costumes with us for the kids to wear, but by the time we got through the loooooong admission line and into the park, the kids wearing their costumes had become moot. they were already in there before us.

so, conner went as a nerd - thanks to the outfit he was put in after the 3rd time he fell in my parents pool...remember? - and addison went as a soccer player - she still had her soccer gear on from her soccer game that morning., including her kleets..remember? (yeah, that's how we roll - ride'n dirty).

the children's zoo area puts on little halloween skits with their "scary" animals - rats, snakes, crows, etc - so we went there first. the crowd gathering around the skit was HUGE! so where's the best place for the kids to watch the skit? well, perched on the shoulders of a few of their favorite people :)

right outside the chidren's zoos' exist is the entrance to the "spider mazer" aka a not-so-scary, scary maze. lauri, my aunt / ryan's mom, HATES spiders. like, freaks-out-at-fake-spiders, hates. so when she saw this spider maze she got all uptight and said NOOOO WAAAY. alan tried forcing her into the maze and she started jumping up and down and screaming (kind of like a temper tantrum) - well, that's all it took for addison to start crying about going into the maze as well. and so, this is where our tears-of-the-night comes in; addison crying about the spider maze.

so, she stayed behind with justin and lauri while the rest of us went through the not-so-scary, scary maze. when i came back out from the maze addison was in justin's arms crying so hard about me going through the maze that she was hyperventilating! is this my child?! what happened to my child!? she never does things like this - scared about a maze. really?

after some threats of going home if she continued to cry, she finally settled down. we continue to tour through the zoo and stop for a family photo op by the monkey houses (fitting? i think so). come on! you KNOW i had to get in my family photo op!

conner was glued to pawpaw ALL NIGHT (which is nothing new - he's a pawpaw biggest fan) so when i forced conner out of pawpaw's arms to sit down with us for a family picture he [conner] was PISSED! hence the screaming in the picture and notice the arms / hand reaching out, towards pawpaw.

since conner wasn't really cooperating - we decided on just a pic of justin, addi and i...this one didn't turn out any better...but there's no screaming baby! so that's good :)

we then hit up the carousel - but that's pretty much the exact moment my camera crapped out. battery died. go figure. so this is the best i got of the carousel.

by this time the zoo had started shutt'n it down for the night, so we all started heading for the door. and that's when the tears came back out again - but not because we were leaving. no. but because someone needed to make a deposit in the little girl's room (no...not me...addison). and thats when i was introduced to my first eco-friendly toilet! (i was "fortunate" enough to have my phone with me to capture this great invention)

up for #1...and down for #2! that cracks me up! needless to say, we had push down :)

xoxo
michelle

p.s. yayas - your teeny-tiny halloween video is oming up tomorrow!

pumpkin guts

2010-11-03T10:01:00.000-05:00

so, i figured i'd better update the blog - it's been over 2 weeks, sorry - while the material is still somewhat relevant. this past weekend was packed with LOTS of great things, halloween being one of them!

justin's work schedule has only gotten worse - and i fear that by the time i become accsutomed to this schedule we'll be forced to switch to a new schedule - so it was hard for us to find time to do our annual tradition of family pumpkin carving. we eventually ended up waiting until the last minute and opted for carving on saturday afternoon after addison's soccer game and after daddy had a nap. fortunately, the weather was AWESOME! and we were able to carve outside!

i had on my grey jeans and a white long sleeve t-shirt...and i was sweating! i NEVER sweat! the carving and digging for pumpkin guts while the sun beats down on your heavy weight, grey jeans may have had something to do with the sweating, but i'll take sweating over shivering any day!

like every year, i get ~~stuck~~ the honor of carving addison's pumpkin as well as my own. except this year it wasn't really addison's pumpkin i was carving...it was gramaw's. addison's perfect little pumpkin ended up getting "sick" about a week ago and essentially melted on my parent's front porch. it was a pretty gruesome death and addison was upset, but gramaw offered up her green pumpkin (which ended up turning orange) and addison was good to go!

addison had a blast with the pumpkin guts! she thinks pumpkin guts are the coolest things since sliced bread. she was digging in those pumpkins like it was no one's business. squeezing her hands around the guts until they oozed out between her fingers. then she'd fling 'em off her hands and they usually landed on me, daddy or conner.

conner though - he was NOT having anything to do with those damn pumpkin guts! he was so grossed out. he scrunch up his nose and say "eeeeewwww" as addi squeezed the guts through her fingers.

after addi cleaned out the pumpkins for us, justin and i went to work on our masterpieces! mind you, i have two pumpkins to carve, so mine are usually very simple and done with a stencil. justin's though - his are ALWAYS done free-handed and he takes his time. the more difficult, the better. this year, it wasn't so much more difficult as it was time consuming for justin. he made the cucumber from veggie-tales (we don't watch veggie-tales, but justin had this oblong pumpkin and that's what it made him think of, veggie-tales) and his wasn't cut into, but shaved!

see! how'd they turn out?

while justin and i were busy carving / shaving our pumpkins, the kids were off ~~fighting over brooms~~ playing nicely together by the pool.

my parent's pool is closed for the season; so it's been covered and winterized. i didn't think we had to keep an eye on the kids playing around the pool too much knowing there was no way anyone could fall in and drown. the pool cover is marketed as being able to hold a car on it and not break. so surely, if a 30 lb 1 or 4 year old falls in, they'll be fine! right? well, yes. they'll be fine. no worry of drowning. but, they'll most certainly get WET! and conner was not too happy about that. the water was FREEZING! but again, it was gorgeous outside on saturday. so we changed his diaper and he essentially walked around in the backyard with just a diaper on - the true jefferson county way!

xoxo
michelle

such a photogenic family!

2010-10-21T12:54:00.000-05:00

its just me and the kids this week. justin (lucky him) is in san fran, and has been since last friday! so, instead of hanging out by ourselves picking each other's noses we hung out with gramaw and pawpaw this past weekend.

note to self; something i just thought about! - i need to get my trip to white castles in while justin is gone. lord knows we don't eat that crap when he's around.

the weather has been outstanding here in the lou. like, 80s! and it's mid october! this past saturday a local "celebrity" was having a family picnic at a park near my parent's house - so we thought it was a great idea for all us to go and hang out. listen to some great music. meet some local radio personalities. drink some beers and eat some grub.

1 - the music was actually very good! joe dirt played some great 70s rock. LOVE 70s rock!

2 - we didn't get to meet anyone (any personalities, that is). dad and i were too impatient to wait in line forever.

3 - i don't drink beer (barf). boo. i know.

and 4 - the only grub available was gus's pretzles. which isn't bad. but i wanted hot dogs and hamburgers, ya know?

luckily i was armed with fruit snacks for the kids to munch on. and even more lucky that my mom packed glow bracelets and necklaces in the back pack for the kids to play with once the sun went down.

i also thought - what a great opportunity for some photo ops of just me and the kids! i very rarely get pictures of myself with the kids because i'm always the one behind the camera. not in front of it.

yeah...well...these are the pictures i got.

really. this is the best we could do...

{coaxing conner over for a picture, with a glow-in-the-dark neckalce}

{is he biting her hand!?!? yes. why yes he is}

{wow! great pic Addi! i'm so glad i'm the only one smiling in ANY OF THESE!}

{yes. he's dodging the camera...hiding his face}

so, my kids and i are obviosly not that photogenic. even bribing them with glow bracelets to sit down with me in front of the camera wasn't working. umph. all well.

instead, we all just rocked out...and learned some new moves from conner.

yes. that's laughing you hear in the background. you can't help it when he dances. conner is THEE best dancer. ever! and at the end, he yells "CHEESE!" of course. now you want to be all photogenic. crazy boy!

xoxo

michelle

ohhh...so that's the words to the song

2010-10-20T17:26:00.000-05:00

this post totally made me think of you, mel and shawny.

when we were in california (oh...man, wish i were there now) back in august, addison picked up a new song. i think she was with mel when she heard it. and once it was in her head, the girl couldn't get it out. she sang it and sang it and sang it all week.

and sang it....wrong.

but it was cute how she was singing. and more so appropriate for a 4 year old to sing addi's version than the actual version of the song.

the actual / real version of the song is something like;
"it's a quarter after 1, i'm a little drunk and i need you now"

what addi heard in the car last august, back in cali was;
"it's a quarter after 1, and i am having fun and i need you now"

see! addi's version was much more appropriate for a 4 year old, don't chya think?

well, this is what she's singing now;

i asked her why she thinks it's "drunk" now and her response: "i heard the song again, mom. and it's drunk. why i said "fun" i have no idea. it was dumb. the girl is DRUNK, mom."

okay. great. so now let's all go to target and listen to you, a 4 year old, sing about being drunk and needing someone (now) while we walk down the pull-ups isle. one more reason for DFS to come for a visit - a drunk 4yr old.

xoxo
michelle

wordless wednesday {except with a few words}

2010-10-13T09:09:00.000-05:00

addi is her mother's daughter -

she absolutely HATES the cold i.e. fall / winter.

however, just like her mother,

one thing she does LOVE about fall / winter is

BLUES HOCKEY!

hockey games are something her and pawpaw do together.

he has season tickets and she's usually the lucky one going with him.

(i think he secretly buys them for her, more so than himself)

justin and i just happened to be lucky enough

to go with them this last game...and we WON!

here's to hoping for a good season, Blues Notes!

bleeding blue,
michelle

bring it on...if the uniform still fits, that is...

2010-10-12T07:11:00.003-05:00

when we got home after running our errands on friday, addi wanted to play dress up. the movie "bring it on - all or nothing" was on disney. her and conner were hooked to the TV. during a commercial break she took it upon herself to run to her closet and open her trunk full of dress-up clothes and pull out her cheerleader uniform. she comes running back out into the living and starts "cheerleading" for me.

it dawns on me that i still have MY cheerleading uniform from junior high! she'd probably get a total kick out of seeing that thing. so i tell addi, "addi, you know mommy was a cheerleader a looooong time ago?"

"you were!?"

"i was! you wanna see my uniform?!"

of course she said yes. and that's when i started to regret my decision to let her in on this type of information. i KNEW she would want ME to play dress up with her. this uniform is from JUNIOR HIGH! i'm not even sure i had even started my period yet when i wore this thing i.e. i had NO figure whatsoever, stick straight, bean-pole body type. crap! now i gotta try and get this damn thing over my big-ass, two babies, birthing hips. crap! crap! crap!

self-esteem - right out the window.

i take my clothes off, pull my hair up in a very messy pony-tail and pray that the skirt fits over my hips - and should it fit, that i can actually zip the bad-dog up.

holy crap! it does. it fits!

granted, it doesn't fit like it used to 15 years ago. but it fits. kinda like when Brooke Shields told US or People Mag that she still fits in her Calvin Klein Jeans (the ones that made her famous at like, age 16). sure she looks like a packed piece of tube sausage, but the jeans still fit! that's how i felt.

sure, i had the skirt fitting up to my belly button, the smallest section of my torso - as compared to when i was 14 / 15 wearing this thing. i was ROLLING the skirt like i do for conner's pants to keep it from falling off me and i even had two pairs of under-drawers on; regular undies and red bloomers - but it was on me! and i was able to even do some jumps with addi! which she thought was totally cool - my groin and hamstrings, notsomuch.

she, beign her mother's daugher wanted to get the camera out and start taking pictures of the cheerleaders (i.e. us). conner aka woody-man, thought it was only fair that he was in the pictures with us :)

trying to smile through the pain

OMG! i can't honestly believe i'm posting these - but, so be it! if anything, it's more motivation to try and get back into shape. now...does anyone have a personal trainer, a personal chef (who are both pro-bono) and an extra 10 hours a week they're not using that they could give me?!?

xoxo,
maaaaah-shell!! *spirit fingers*
(said in a cheeleader, sing-songy way)

bird poop and belly laughs

2010-10-11T10:05:00.001-05:00

i have to admit, i had a pretty good weekend. friday, we had plans to hang out with abe at his house, but those unfortunately fell through. (not to worry though! we'll be seeing him THIS friday) so i had the whole day with my little people. and they BOTH woke up in exceptionally good moods! it. was. amazing!

fridays are usually my days to run errands, catch up on the laundry, dishes and floors and hang with my peeps. on our way to run errands that afternoon, while in the car driving to brentwood, addi's looking out the window and says;

"mom, i wish i were a bird..."

"why, babe? so you could fly!"

"yeah. but really so i could poop on things..."

and she was DEAD, straight-faced serious when she answered with that.

"so you could poop on things!??! what!?"

"yeah. birds get to poop on everything and anywhere! i wanna poop on everything."

and that is how our day started.

we return home from day out. i put everything away and the kids are upstairs in our bedroom watching spongebob or something (remember - the TV upstairs is off limits to conner and his sticky fingers. off and on. off and on. off and on.)

i hear a bunch of giggling going on. so yell, sarcastically, "hey! what's all the giggling about? giggling is not allowed in this house!" :)

i throw the whites in the washer and head upstairs to investigate.

conner is rolling on the floor with big belly-laughs. addison has the white down comforter over her head and talking silly to conner while making silly movements under the comforter. conner starts cracking up! every single time she does it. she'll then yank the cover from off her head and get in conner's face and say, "hey! who took my cover!?" conner looses it even more - rolling on the floor laughing so hard.

i take the opportunity and get a video of this - it was too funny!

* watch / listen as i tell addi NOT TO HIT YOUR BROTHER and then conner does what? hauls off and wails addi in the head. she doesn't mind though. i think the down feathers cushioned the blow a bit.

** also, when i ask conner "what was that!?" he holds his butt and starts laughing / smurking. yeah, he farted :) he holds his butt when he farts now, like he's trying to shut it up or something. crazy kid.

*** and last but not least - the ending. a part of one of conner's favorite songs! (his other favorite song, "loving you" by minnie riperton. his favorite song since he was new born - i've got video of me singing it to him in the middle of one of colic fits / break downs and he shuts right up and listens. he sings the song to himself now!)

watching this video over and over and over again, i'm so happy that these two have each other. they have their bad moments, yes, but moments like the one in the video are much more prominent. the sounds of giggling through the house out weigh the sounds of screaming on most days. gotta love having a true best friend for life :) - at least i hope they stay that way!

xoxo
michelle

the perfect kick balls...errr...i mean pupkins!

2010-10-07T07:11:00.000-05:00

we headed out last sunday to the pumpkin patch with intent of finding the perfect pumpkin! we usually don't go this early in the month but gramaw wanted to find the perfect pumpkin and usually by the time we do go (2 weeks prior to halloween, usually) all the "perfects" have been snatched up. so, we went early.

last year when we went conner was a wee-lad, 7 months old. therefore, he didn't really get to experience the pumpkin patch or even pick out his own pumpkin,for that matter. so, i figured it would be different this year.

and it was.

but different than what i thought "different" was going to be.

he's a maniac. i think we've established this by now, right? right. so this year, instead of watching addi play nicely on the fort jungle-gym, or skip down the pumpkin patch, or calmly have her face painted...i get this - chasing after conner!

trying to get to conner before the monster-truck tire-swing knocks him out (i wasn't fast enough)! quickly trying to get to the end of the slide, before he face plants into the mulch (because he can never go down a slide on his butt)! to feverishly yank his hands away from his face before he eats an entire handful of dirty, filthy community sand-box sand. to yelling at him to STOP KICKING THE PUMPKINS, THEY'RE NOT SOCCER BALLS! to chasing after him before he runs out into the parking lot, which was a field that he thought he could play on.

oh man! this kid is a handful!

and then, you go and add his crazy sister to the mix and all day you're just tryig to get the monkeys back in the barrel! and usually a barrel ride pulled by a tractor does just the trick!

(addi looks constipated, doesn't she? i promise though, she was not. that's just her beautiful smile (sarcasm))

speaking of smiles. since addison is such the expert on smiling - obviously, given the proof above - she thought she would teach her little how to smile...he wasn't too happy with that.

once she let him go though, he finally figured out that mommy wanted to get his picture taken on the haystacks, like last year. so he saw the camera, bucked-up and yelled, "cheeeeeeese"...

notice, conner is saying "cheeeeeese"...addison is actually smiling pretty,for it being such a sunny day....and ryan is looking off into space. this was the best i got.

so, i eventually give up on getting a good picture of everyone and let them all finally get to down to the whole reason we were here...to find the perfect pumpkin!

we were fortunate enough to have a little helper out on the patch with us that day. he said he had the "inside know-how" on how to get us the perfect pumpkin. conner didn't care what kind of information mr.kitty had. conner just wanted to chew on him.

armed with lots of help, super-strength kisses for when we got weery, some sweet shades to keep our eyesight keen and clear and a trusty red wagon, we found the perfect pumpkins for everyone!

the perfect pumpkins!

conner's and daddy's looks more like a cucumber, doesn't it? justin wants to do some sort of veggie-tales thing. i dunno. we don't watch veggie-tales. i know addi has one super ~~annoying~~ cool toothbrush that sings some ~~crazy-ass~~ really neat veggie-tales song (thanks yayas! best gift ever! (sarcasm, xoxo)). so maybe that's where justin knows veggie-tales from. i dunno.

and gramaw's pumpkin? well she saw this perfect little green guy sitting out in a section of the field all by himself. so, she plucked him up and called him her own!

we took our perfect pumpkins inside the barn so that we could purchase them and make them truly out own perfect pumpkins...and that's where addison ran into this...

a dancing and singing halloween witch! i LOVE the look / smile on justin's face. it's too cute. while addison was all excited and thrilled about the dancing and singing witch, conner was the total opposite. he wanted NOTHING to do with that damn witch. and would freak out every time addison pushed the button to make the witch dance and sing. look at conner, he's trying to stand as far away as possible, but yet still be in the middle of the action. very curious about that big scary black thing,singing and dancing. should i be scared? should i laugh? should i dance? that's what justin's laughing at. i love his smile!

while gramaw was paying for the perfect pumpkins, i forced the kids and justin back outside with the hopes of getting a decent picture of everyone...this is what justin's turned out to look like...

thank you for the face-cover, addison.

and this is what mine turned out to look like. i had to make a series of them because i wanted to show you the progession of the brotherly / sisterly love we got go'n on here (sarcasm)...

once we all had enough and i decided to stop torturing everyone with pictures, we left the pupkin patch with our perfect pupkins in hand...but not before someone got one last good soccer practice in.

xoxo
michelle

wordless wednesday {except with a VIDEO!}

2010-10-06T13:19:00.000-05:00

so, my post have been a little long winded lately.

thank god for wordless wednesdays. amen? amen!

this wedensday i figured i'd bring you a video!

yayas, aunt ashley, i know how much you loooove videos :)

this one, addison is playing doctor.

conner is her patient, in need of brain surgery (go figure)

and i am playing the role of conner's feisty guardian!

things start to get dicey once dr informs me that she has no billing experience.

but, it all works out in the end.

oh. and conner eats a rock.

enjoy!

xoxo
michelle

he's lucky to be alive

2010-10-04T18:16:00.001-05:00

this post will only have 1 picture of the demon-child, holy-terror we call conner. why? because what he did on saturday was so horrible, i couldn't even think about taking pictures. i was too busy concentrating on NOT killing him! or his sister for that matter.

and of course, i'm not just gonna spell out what happened, right up front. noooo...i have to write it all down for you in a long drawn-out post. why? because that's what i do. and what kind of boring post would it be if i did anyways? so, let's start from the beginning, shall we?

saturday morning. i'm home alone with the kids, justin is on-call and in the hospital making / doing his rounds. the kids and i just finished breakfast - i made chocolate chip, mickey mouse shaped pancakes - and i was cleaning up our mess. i sent them off to play together or watch TV or something, so that i could get said cleaning accomplished.

our big-ass boob tube in the living room is right at the perfect height for little conner to find the power button. more advanced, high-tech, flat screen TVs usually have the power button on the side or up on top of the screen. so he's like totally infatuated with the fact that he has the power to turn off and on the TV by himself. and even more-so infatuated by that fact when addison has a cow about it. which she does everytime. i can't blame her. her sponge-bob or icarly is like dexter to me. i would be PISSED if conner kept turning dexter off and on. off and on. off and on. all the while i'm crying, and he's laughing. poor ladybug :(

so, my solution for this problem - at least to get the screaming and crying to stop (thank you addison) and to keep the old-ass boob tube form catching on fire (off and on. off and on. off and on.) i tell her to go upstairs and watch whatever she's watching in my bedroom. we have a TV from the 21st century in the master bedroom and it's mounted on the wall - no way he's gonna turn that TV off and on. off and on. off and on. so, she marches upstairs. and i don't hear a peep after that.

in the middle of my cleaning i hear banging. sounds like a high heel shoe hitting the hardwood floors in my master bedroom walk-in closet. sure enough, conner comes peering around the corner and looks down at me from the top of the stairs, he's got on one of my high heels. (don't tell pawpaw - he'd have an absolute fit!). he yells, "mama! see!" and points to the high heel on his right foot. i laugh. and say, "ooooo....cool, conner! pretty shoe" he walks off back into the bedroom and i can hear him play with what sounded to be like more high heel shoes. so i continue with ~~my chores~~ the cleaning!

about 20 minutes later, conner comes peering around the corner again, looking down at me from the top of the stairs. "mama! see!" i look up, he's got on a white espadrille this time. "ooooo...cool, conner!" i look further up on him and there's stuff all over his belly and his hands. what the heck is that!? i close the dishwasher and quickly walk over to the stairs and straight up them. conner meets me half way. i thought he was bleeding at first. and it was EVERYWHERE on him. "conner, are you okay, buddy?!" getting right up on him i can smell FINGER NAIL POLISH! and not just any finger nail polish, HOT PINK finger nail polish.

"what the heck did you do!?!?"

i grab him and we go the rest of the way up the stairs. i turn the corner into the master bedroom and there. in a puddle in front me. HOT PINK FINGER NAIL POLISH EVERYWHERE! all over the REAL hardwood floors (in the kids room we have "floating" hardwood floors b/c of the concrete floors beneath them), all over the furniture, all over my duvet and pillow cases. all over HIM. all over the decorative rug. HOT PINK everywhere!

and what's addi doing?

oh, she's just sitting there watching spongebob. she had no idea what conner was doing. just smelt finger nail polish and didn't think anything of it. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? you just sat there as he did this!? how did you not see him put HOT PINK finger nail polish on the duvet that YOU'RE laying on?! right next to you!?

i can't be mad at addi. she's four. its not her job to babysit her destructive little brother. but throw me a bone here!

i immediately lost it! like bawling. on my hands and knees. thinking for sure that justin would break up with me and throw me and the kids out on the streets! i pull myself together, look at the clock and guesstimate that i've got about an hour before justin might be home. i gotta clean this shit up. and fast. no evidence of this ever happening (another reason for no pictures).

i know that acetone (nail polish remover) would totally eat the wood floors (and marble sink tops by the way - sorry mom and dad, from my 14 yr old self) so i tried warm water first. thinking if it's not dry yet, maybe it would come up. ummmm...no such luck. it's dry. frick'n O.P.I.!

i try my trusty ole magic eraser. that guy always gets me out of a jam! he'll work it!...yeah, again, notsomuch.

i loose my marbles again! start bawling. addi bends down, i think she's going to give me a hug and tell me she's sorry...but...instead, she finds the last few WET puddles of HOT PINK nail polish and says "oh! i'm going to paint my nails!" and starts dipping her finger nails into the puddles.

I SERIOUSLY LOST IT!

i start throwing the towel in (literally - i threw the towels i was using, across the room and screamed)

i grab my cell phone - which is now HOT PINK and call my parents, panicked. they google some crap for me and find out that hairspray, mineral spirits and murphy's oil should do the trick. i have hairspray...that's about it. my dad, not so surprisingly, has the other 2 things. so he packs 'em up in his car and races over to my house at lightening speed. he trecked 23 miles to come help me salvage my relationship with justin and our hardwood floors. thanks dad :)

my dad finally gets there and guess who beat him? JUSTIN! amazingly (and i think it was becuase he was too tired to think straight / be mad), justin didn't really think too much of it. he was disappointed, sure. but that was about it.

we all head upstairs to try to get this HOT PINK nail polish from off the floor - mineral spirits? check. murphys oil? check. hairspray? check. alrighty boys, do your thang. ummmm...yeah, nosomuch. NONE of it worked. we had to resort to acetone. dab a little on the towel and start scrubbing.

it all came off the floor and the furniture. my rug and duvet? they've got a little jackson pullock touch to them with HOT PINK nail polish. thank you conner. after the scrubbing, my dad wiped it all down with the murphys oil. you can't even tell that a bottle of HOT PINK nail polish had been viciously murdered there!

fast forward about 2 hours and conner is violently throwing up ALL OVER MY COUCH. and to top it off, anal leakage out of his diaper, ALL OVER MY COUCH! conner kept it quite interesting for me on saturday. i called the pediatrician's on-call guy and they said to call poison control - uh, duh, michelle! (it was justin's idea. he said to call the pediatrician. not me. i just do as i'm told) poison control said that swallowing nail polish does no harm internally, whatsoever. phew! it may irritate the skin around the mouth, but that's about it. phew!

but wait. does that mean we have the flu now?! shit!

i'm happy to say though - after a few up-chucks and a few (too many) messy, slimey diapers, a bath and a 3 hour nap, he was back to his crazy ways! needless to say though, my nail polish remover is now gone. and i haven't gone out to buy a new bottle yet. so as of yesterday (we went to the pumpkin patch) he's got pink toe nails and one little HOT PINK finger nail.

see it? right hand, ring finger. what? it's totally manly to have a HOT PINK figner nail!

xoxo
michelle

i'll never learn

2010-10-01T11:22:00.000-05:00

quiet in our house is NEVER a good thing. never. as we've found from previous posts, quiet means somebody or somebodies are getting into trouble. and if they're not getting into trouble, well, then that means they're probably choking on a barbie shoe. still just as bad.

remember this post - back in 2008? yeah, it was quiet in the house. (gross. i know.)

or this post - back in early 09? again, it was too quiet in the house.

and then this post - in late 09? again, it was too quiet and by this point addison had an accessory to the crime.

so seeing these 3 incicdents and the countless other incidents that have happened that i haven't blogged about, you'd think i'd learn my lesson about what happens when i don't keep all eyes on the two mischievious monkeys. right?

well. obviously not. i have not learned my lesson. and as long as there are dishes angerly piling up and laundry screaming to be washed and floors crying to mopped / vaccummed, i will never learn my lesson. because that's when the kids go awry and get into trouble - when they know mommy is preoccupied with house work. they'll sneak off, playing nice together and i think, awwwww...that's so cute. they're being nice to each other. when in reality it's addison, the puppeteer, taking her little puppet, conner, off into a too-quiet-out-of-mommy's-sight-room and starts tugging / playing with her little puppet's strings.

i stop in the middle of folding the laundry and realized it had gotten too quiet. hmmmm...what are those two up to now?? i walk into their room and find this...

yes - the room had been destroyed and if you hadn't noticed, conner opened every. single. marker. and colored all over addi's sheets. great.

and i'm guessing he even taste-tested the markers for quality assurance. he's got a little hitler-mustache-look'n-thing going on.

it was a big mess. fortunately the markers were washable - thank god for the genius that invented washable markers. so the markers came out of the sheets and most importantly off of conner's upper lip.

i think he was trying to write out "i love mom" - that way i couldn't be mad at him for the crazy-ass mess he made :)

once i stopped laughing ~~and taking pictures~~ i asked him to please help mommy pick up the mess. put all the toys back and clean up the floor. he looks at me like, "okay, mommy" and walks out of the room. where you go'n? i follow him.

he ends up walking over to the vacuum to help me clean up the floor! awwww...thanks buddy :) and what made it that much more sweet was the fact that he had to pass up the dora big wheel to get to the vacuum. the fact that he didn't start playing on the big wheel and instead got me the vacuum said a lot!

oh, when will i learn? my children have to have proper supervision 24/7 - that, or i'll just have to duct tape them down to their little pottery barn kitchen table while i do house work. yayas knew what she was doing when she bought them that table! :)

xoxo
michelle