I'm not really here.

This is just a recording.

I'm supposed to be looking up dry rub recipes for Saturday.

Or cleaning the house for THE BABYSITTER! THAT'S COMING TOMORROW! FOR 7 WHOLE HOURS!

Or picking up all the stuff that got thrown around the yard and porch by the wicked afternoon thunder storm we had today.

Maybe even washing some of the clothes that are spilling out of the laundry basket.

But I'm definitely not here.

Nope.

Not me.

I'm not slacking, catching up on my blog reading.

Never.

Welcome Summer!

And just for fun, Kev's new to us car, a 2000 Toyota Celica. What? You hadn't heard that he totaled his old car a couple of weeks ago?

I've been away so long, it's hard to get back in the groove of things!

I'll be back!

We're still here!!

So baby thing is out, I think. Kevin is calling it a moment of temporary insanity. But we'll see.

We've been trying our hardest to have a fun spring break. But the weather has not been cooperating! We've had nearly 2 weeks of severe weather. We got 2 good sunny days though and we tried to make the best of them. We went to the beach on Friday, and Saturday we went to an egg hunt the a local church sponsored. We had a blast both days, so I hope the kids got to enjoy a little bit of a break from school.

Today we're just hanging out at my sister's house. Playing with the babies, letting the boys play XBOX.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon.

Look! Pictures!

Guys. He is seriously the best kid ever. He's sick (AGAIN) right now and you can totally see it in his eyes. But he is SO sweet. I've seriously been pinching myself lately. We've really hit our stride I think, things have been going so much more smoothly. It's almost easy (knock on wood). By the way, did you notice his "cousins" in the frame behind him? Tell me I'm not the only one with picture frames with the stock photos still in them. I got a big one one year for Christmas that held like four photos, I had it on the wall for months before I finally got the pictures to go in it!

My little sweetie. Or Tutti Fruiti, or Chicken Noodle. She goes by many names. She's holding her latest accomplishment. She's really starting to get into reading, it's starting to make more sense and it's not nearly as frustrating as it had been. We're having her 6th birthday party Saturday. I still can't believe she's going to be six. SIX! Hard to believe it's been that long since we brought her home from the hospital.

My kitchen. The color. It's growing on me I guess. I have a really deep chocolate brown color that I'm going to paint the cabinets (and trim, maybe) and I think I'll like that contrast a little bit better. And yes, I totally need to work on my accessories. I have gotten anything new yet. But I really hope I can make my apple curtains work. I just love all those bright colors. But they are pretty country so we'll see.

See that green apple in the curtains up there? Imagine this wall that color. Yeah. Nice in theory, but it was entirely too bright. This one wall had been green for the last, oh, 4-5 years. I'm so glad I FINALLY got this done! The kitchen looks so much more put together.
And check these out. I'm calling them German Chocolate Truffles. I don't have great lighting in the kitchen (next project!) so they look a little funky, but imagine heaven, if it were a chocolate ball, in your mouth! (I linked to the recipe yesterday...)

The Weekend. It was good.

What is it about weekends that leave you exhausted that make you feel so good about yourself? We were crazy busy and I even threw in an insane project. But I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

This past week, I have been slowly getting my kitchen ready to paint. Nothing fancy, but I was essentially doing it by myself and in 2 hour increments while trying to make dinner and help with homework and all that. (Kevin’s working nights. Still. Blech.) Anyway, by Friday night I had the whole place primed, and the back splash painted and Kevin was supposed to help me knock it out Saturday after karate practice. Well. Kevin came home Friday night, (at 11:30pm, I was still painting!) and said that he had to work Saturday, which meant that I would have no help! So I sweetly asked (ok, forced) him to tape off the ceiling for me so I could paint Saturday (By myself!). (What? I’m 5’4”, I can’t reach that! To prime it, I had been standing on a stool on top of my chair to reach up there. Not to mention walking on counter tops, standing on the desk. Boy it was tricky.) So we were up until 2am taping and cleaning up and then we had to be up at 7am to get everybody going for karate practice. After THREE HOURS of practice (they are doing a demo at a street festival we are having in town this coming weekend) we finally made it home so I could finish up. Saturday night I was finally done, but not until 11pm, and I was beat. I could barely move by the time Kevin got home, but I am so proud of myself.

And oh yeah, I don’t think I like the color.

GREAT.

Sunday was a glorious day. We went to church, came home, and Kevin actually helped me make lunch. Well, I told him what to do while I folded laundry, but we helped each other and we were in the kitchen together, it was pretty nice really. After lunch and a glorious 2 hour nap, I made cake balls. (I found the recipe at Bakerella. Love her!!) You should know I renamed them Red Velvet Truffles. Just because I can, and because my sick mind found cake balls to be a little offensive. (Ok, not offensive, but every time I said it, I giggled a little. And then I had to explain myself, and well...) But whatever, they turned out pretty good. I think I might have used too much icing, mine were a little too gooey. But really, can you ever have too much icing?

And now I have a High School Musical birthday party to get ready for this weekend….

Oh My Stinkin Crap

My husband wants another baby.

Another. baby.

Can you believe it?

Me either.

He's C.R.A.Z.Y.

But am I crazier for considering it?

You wanna see something sad?

Edited to add: I gave up on the spacing. I promise it's not one big run-on sentence!

These are the only 2 pictures I can find from Christmas. And they were taken Christmas Eve at my sister's house. This to me says, 1. I really am a terrible mother and 2. Christmas was a little, um, bitter sweet. We had some family issues going on. Tasha did an excellent job on everything, her house was wonderful. But it wasn't quite right. That makes me really sad. Next year, no matter what, I'll do better. And in the mean time, holidays or not, I have got to take some more pictures. My babies are growing up too fast!

Speaking of growing. Wednesday night at church, I noticed that Isaiah had a hole in his only pair of shoes (besides dress shoes). I had made up my mind to go and get him a new pair, and not a pair that were cheap, but a pair that would last. Thursday at work, my office manager stuck her head in my office and told me that she had put some shoes in my vehicle, they were probably too big, but that Isaiah would grow into them. (She had asked me LAST WEEK what size shoe Isaiah wore and I had forgotten all about it.) And ya'll, they were nice, really expensive shoes. That afternoon, I made Isaiah try them on and they fit perfectly! He had been shoving his feet into his too small shoes for probably the last month or so! But it really hit me this morning that that was just one small way that God was looking out for me. He had arranged it before I even knew I had a need. And there were 2 pairs, one that fits perfectly now and one a size bigger for when he outgrows them. Talk about divine provision!

On a totally unrelated note.... As of today, I am down a total of 18 pounds. This is both exciting and depressing. Exciting because, holy cow! 18 pounds! But depressing because I am still not truly down a size. My clothes are looser, yes, and I'm thisclose to being in the next size down. That is bad because it means I have been squeezing my butt into clothes that were entirely too tight or had too much stretch. But I'm trying to be excited. I am continuing to lose and my jeans that were once too tight to wear are now hanging off. So go me! Right?

I hope everybody has a great weekend. I'm off to run the kids around the world, we've got so much going on. But I think it'll be fun, and I am SO taking some pictures!