New Verbage

Little Man has a case of the grunts.

And not the potty kind of grunts. The lack-of-vocabulary-necessary-to-have-a-conversation grunts.

He approached me today with a very passionate plea for something, of which I had no idea what that something was. He had hand motions, a rise and fall of vocal volume, and an enormous amount of grunting.

In frustration I said (so calmly), "Little Man, I sure wish you could talk like a human. It would make my life so much easier."

In comes Big Sis to the rescue.

"Oh, Mommy!" she says, "I'll teach him how to talk. I know just how to teach him new words."

Perfect.

Leave it to the 3 year old to bust out the Vocab book.

Or my latest issue of Real Simple magazine.

She climbed aboard the couch, magazine in hand, prompting her brother to hike his hiney up on the couch next to her.

She opens the magazine and begins her lesson.

"Buster, what is this? A flower pot?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Now [turning the page], what is this? A kitty cat?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Now [turning the page], what is this? A baby?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, Buster, last one. What is this? Is it an orange?"

"Yeah."

"No, silly. It's a tangerine."

Closing the magazine with a look of pride, she says to me, "See, Mommy, I taught him LOTS of new words so now he can talk like a human!"

I look into that Little Man's eyes and say, "Well, son, did your Sister just take you to the next level of vocabulary?"

"Yeah."

Good. Glad we got that taken care of.

Potty Mouth

Carter is going to kill me for this one, as he doesn't always think the bathroom humor in our house should be shared with the public.

I, on the other hand, think it's a gold-mine of humor that everyone should enjoy.

I'm so painfully lady-like, it hurts.

So here goes, the

QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

#1 "Mommy, LOOK! I pooped an ice cream cone!"

Hey, at least I'm not posting pictures.

#2 "So what would happen if I got poopy on my toothbrush?"

Upon checking, toothbrush looks clean...simply a hypothetical from a 3 1/2 year old brain...I hope.

#3 "It hurts too bad. Can we make it the liquid poopy kind?"

This being after a conversation at the dinner table of what makes a liquid a liquid.

#4 "I SEE THE CORN! I SEE THE CORN!"

Oh the excitement of watching her brother get his diaper changed...and the surprises within.

Sadly, that's only a small portion of the potty antics in this house. I must save the rest in order to save my marriage.

The Rush

eBay is going to be the death of me.

Slight obsession.

Right now, I have 9 items listed to sell and I literally get an adrenaline rush when I see the bids go up. Why do people want to buy my junk? Why am I getting this free money when it takes so little effort? Questions I don't care to answer because no matter what, I GET PAID.

I have mentioned before that I love to play with money. If I had it to do over, I would have concentrated more in my financial classes in college (oh wait, I didn't take any of those) or at least, I would have taken some. And jumped on this boat 10 years ago.

I have rules, though, for eBay. Rules to tame.

1. I can only buy on eBay AFTER I sell an item for equal or more value - thus becoming a bit like monopoly money. It's not really mine so I can spend it, right? Sure.

2. Along those lines, no money can be transferred into my eBay account. Only way to gain funds is to sell (which requires effort - which mostly steers me to not buy - which is good).

3. I never buy used items. If I want a used item, I'll go to a garage sale so I can witness first-hand what type of house it comes from. "NIB" or "NWT" is clutch (that's "new in box" or "new with tags" for you non-ebayers). Some people just don't think their house smells rank. Poor peeps. Somebody should tell them.

4. Lastly, I only accept paypal. If you're not techie savvy enough to use paypal, you're not techie savvy enough to guarantee me a sale. I don't want to get stuck with a check that doesn't clear.

So at least I have some rules to keep my sanity. Goodness knows I could put us in debt easily were I to shop where the wind blows online.

If I sell my 9 very un-important items, I could be a rich, rich woman. I mean, who wouldn't want to buy my swim training float suit from 1997?

I can hear the cha-ching in the distance.

Grillin & Chillin

Every weekend when Carter fires up the grill, Little Man moves the high chair to his favorite front-row seat. From the air-conditioned box seats, he learns the proper technique to true Webber grilling (learned at the "D-Daddy School of Grilling"). He voices his opinions on the cooking process and is always happy with the end result (though he doesn't really like burgers...just the burger-making process...he's more of a "fries" man).

And the outfit? He picked it out himself. I stood at his closet trying to decide among the 700 t-shirts and he quickly pointed out (over and over and over) his UGA jersey by saying "Football! Football! Football!" Though it's a long-sleeved jersey on a 90-degree day, he wouldn't be stopped.

A true Dawg.

All Growed Up

Though I will continue to refer to my kiddos as "the babies" until they're married, it has become official.

There are no more babies in my house.

Hippy Boy has had his dreadlocks chopped.

I must say, the Beauty Nook did a fine job despite the moving target. No blood was shed and there was minimal scolding. We did end up with toothpaste smeared all over the sink and counter, but it's all in the name of a successful haircut.

Though I will miss those beautiful curls DEARLY, there is hope that one day they shall return. And hopefully, less shaggy-like.

THE BEFORE

When he could wear a ponytail better than me, it was time.

THE AFTER

Such a little man. All growed up (sniff sniff).

Community

I walked away from church yesterday with a box of clothes for myself, a bag of clothes for my kids (I am NOT scared of a hand-me-down!), enough lunches to last my kids 2 weeks, and a gallon of milk.

Did I dress like a homeless person for some pre-Halloween festivity to garner such a response?

Nope. It was just church. I came dressed as myself.

Our big small group launch started yesterday which seems to resonate as the heartbeat of our church. Getting people into community. Providing opportunities for people to become closer to Christ while building friendships, and in some instances, building family. The turnout was awesome. I loved watching people clamoring around to sign-up for a small group.

There is something in the water at our church because people are having babies left and right. For 2 that were recently born, I threw out the word about getting a dinner rotation and you would have thought I was handing out free cars. The response was incredible. People came through the woodwork to provide a meal to these families with newborns. There was a need. They showed up.

In a conversation with a friend of mine, she was telling me about a time when she and her friend saw me in the Wally World parking lot (a weekly given). She honked as I was strolling my scream-o kids in a buggy full-o-grocery back to the car. When I saw her, I gave a semi-obnoxious dance-like greeting back (shocking, I know). Her friend said to her, "That must be a friend from The Chapel." When she asked her why she would think that, she said "Because people at The Chapel seem to be really fun" [and notably obnoxious]. Her friend was not a church-goer.

This is what church is all about.

People living in community. Seeing needs, filling needs. Cooking dinner. Hosting small groups. Living a life that exemplifies Jesus.

Giving leftover food to a mom with 2 kids.

Thinking of another family as you pack up clothes that you or your kids have outgrown.

The community, my community, did not go unnoticed.

Labor Day Labor

I had a thought on Thursday. It came to be by Monday. I should have thoughts more often.

Our shower head has been spewing backwards and upwards for some time now, unbeknownst to us, and created quite the little water damage and mildew areas. Since I shower without my contacts on, it took the mildew getting to a nasty level for me to even notice. Then I panicked.

I felt a migraine just at the thought of having that nastiness in our house. That was Thursday.

By Monday, my sweet hubs had me a new bathroom. No more water damage. No more mildew. And I think we stepped it up a notch, thanks to our carpenter-extraordinaire-on-loan, David.

Prior to the revamp, we had a basic bathroom, beige and boring. No decor. Simply blah.

I haven't put the finishing touches in there yet, but the basics are done...walls, new shower head and curtain and fresh paint.

We find ourselves just going in there and standing. Looking around at the beautiful work. We have yet to use it. Can't get it dirty. We'll just stare at it a few more days first.

Our fancy new shower curtain - my favorite find of the weekend.


I also "thought" about a double-sink vanity and quickly got shot down. So here's our lonely little single. I just thought he needed a friend. Carter didn't think so.


When I envisioned this project, I said, "Yeah just put some boxes under the chair rail. That will look cool." thinking it would only take a couple of nails and poof. Not so much. Hours and hours and hours. But it looks GREAT!