What I Would Do if I Could

Since everyone seems to be well on their way to their healthy, happy selves in my household, me included, here's a list of things I'd like to do to my house do completely rid us of any lasting germs.

1. Take a leaf blower and blow every last piece of dusty-germy-hairbally sickness outside.
2. Take a Power Washer and blast the whadoodles out of all the surfaces in my house.
3. Burn all bed sheets and start over with 1,000 count. (What? It's my wish list.)
4. Find the deepest deep sucking vacuum known to man and suck the daylights out of the carpets.
5. Get one of those super-ultra-extreme air purifiers that you seen on Extreme Home Makeover when they re-do a really really sick person's house (no disrespect, I know we're not even one tenth as sick as those sick folks) and make our air squeaky-clean.

That's what I wish I could do. I hate being sick. I hate having a sick husband and sick kids. It's easy for me to feel overwhelmed and lost in self pity. I get sucked into thinking "poor me" and let all housework go. I'm not even that nice to Mark when he's sick, it's so sad. But! Things are looking up and I can see my kitchen counters again (thank you Lolly!!) and I see the surface of our dinning room table again too, that is until I have to fold my four loads of laundry, but I'm taking it one step at a time.

I feel like there's a nasty flu bug going around out there that includes fever, chills, achy and soreness all over and a cough. So be careful friends!!

The Boy Loves Him Some Ribs!

I'm not sure if this is the best dinner to give a ten month old, but he LOVED the ribs. Licked them clean! Couldn't get enough! It was rather hilarious. I handed him one of mine thinking he'd just gnaw on it a bit (side note: why the heck it there a 'g' in front of naw? Who's idea was that?) and when I looked back at him he had completely cleaned it. I wish we had video of the first couple when he was super gung ho about it. Still, it's pretty funny.

Just Some Pics, because that's better than nothing...

Hannah's B-day, where the kids got to decorate their own cakes and blow out their own candles. So fun!

At the Irvine Lagoon, the kids had a blast swimming.


Eating (and breathing) frosting. My kind of girl.


Happy Half Birthday Ben! We celebrated with cupcakes from French's and he received a couple new (to him) Rescue Hero action figures.


Opening gifts on Father's Day


Nana spent a good amount of time reading and learning about bugs from Ben's favorite magazine. (Thanks Pam!)


And my sweet baby boy, who is now over 10 months old.

Blogging

I want to blog, I do, really. I want to blog about my mom's birthday which was on the 13th of this month and I want to blog about how much I love her and do the whole "5 things I knew/5 things I know" bit for her. I want to blog about Father's Day and my awesome husband and how he is the most amazing dad to our kids and I know EVERY wife says that about the father of her children but there can only be one #1 and that's Mark. I want to blog about my own awesome dad and how much I still adore him and how thankful I am for his fatherly role in my life. I want to blog about seeing BFF Lolly and how excellent it feels to have her in the same state and how I love the ease of being with her. I'd like to blog about how much I despise Jon and Kate +8 and how much I wish people would STOP WATCHING THE SHOW and how sick I am of hearing about them everywhere but I can't blog about that because that would seem a little hypocritical. I want to blog about all of these things and more but I am so sleepy!

So, in honor of my awesome mom (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!) who taught me the art of napping, my fantastic father (HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!) who instilled in me the value of sleep, my dearest Husband (YOU'RE #1!) who deserves a thousand uninterrupted naps, my BFF who can make it seem like a nap has happened because such peace surrounds her, and J&K+8 (STOP WATCHING THE SHOW!!) whom I'll allow to blame .06% of their problems on sleep deprivation, I'm going to bed.

Goodnight.

Cause She's Awesome Like That

Addison keeps growing up, despite my best efforts to keep her tiny and babyish. Ok, that's not all true. I love that she's learning fantastic new skills, like using the potty and dressing herself and riding a three wheeler. She's adorable, even when she's whining... which makes the anti-whining campaign hard sometimes because all I want to do is laugh at her tiny chipmunk voice and kiss her. Troy is smitten with her and she has noticed and loves it. Yesterday we went for a walk around the neighborhood and she pushed T's stroller (almost) the entire way. When I attempted to push him myself (so we could get home before the sun rose again the next morning) she yelled at me, "I PUSH IT. He's MY baby." As close as Addison and Ben are I think eventually it will be Addison and Troy that are the buddies. It is such a joy for me to watch the developing personalities of my kids and Addison never fails to have me tickled by her cuteness everyday.

J.I.C.

Just in case you see me and you're tempted to either a). look the other way and laugh (or gasp), b). think bad thoughts like, "wow, she's really letting herself go", or c). flick (potential) caterpillars off my face, please don't. I had my eyebrows waxed for the first time three or four weeks ago and the lady told me that in order for her to do a "thorough sculpting" I needed to let all my brows grow in. So that's what I'm doing. And I'm committed. So don't laugh. Thank you.

BFF (aeaeaeaeaeae)

Do you remember those Noxema commercials, circa 1996-98, where two girls, most likely wearing overalls and pony tails and were painting each other's nails or something, would look at the camera and say, "I'm Katie, this is Jackie." and then together they'd really enthusiastically say, "We're best friends." Remember those? Yeah, well, I think I'm missing out on some royalties or something because whoever "created" those commercials totally stole the concept from me and Taylore, we were the epitome of the Noxema Girls. So much so that I remember us being called that by kids in high school. My neighbor is in high school and her best friend is over ALL the time. Sometimes I roll my eyes at their giggly little ways and think, geez, don't they ever get sick of each other? And then I think of Tay and the hours upon hours we spent together and how we'd talk on the phone for umpteen hours and hang up only so one of us could go to the other one's house for the weekend.

Since fourth grade we've done everything together. We are constantly amazed at how God has kept our lives so parallel for over 20 years. (Oh my gosh, did I just say TWENTY YEARS?) From the glories and pitfalls of growing up, to our weddings being two months apart, to three simultaneous pregnancies, to our lives as wives and mothers, the Lord has kept us walking very similar paths. It is such a gift to have such a significant friend who has known me - really known me - for most of my life. That is a treasure like no other.

All this to say... Tay has moved back to relative driving distance and we are up to our old antics again, with the addition of our six children. Though our trips to the mall look much different now than they did 12 years ago, we never cease to have at least one good belly laugh and a few "That God, I tell ya." moments.

A couple of nights ago I drove up to Fullerton and all 8 of us walked from Tay's house to Spaghetti Factory where we got dinner to-go then sat at the train station and watched the trains come in and out. You would've thought we'd taken the kids to Disneyland they were so happy! Ben and Thompson are four days apart, Owen and Addison are 4 months apart and Calvin and Troy are 4 weeks apart. See what I mean? That God, I tell ya...