Lily has...

...a new tubmate! She is so excited that Jade has graduated to the big bath. Yay, Jade!

Jade is...

My fuzzy chick...

My little cotton tail...

and the apple of my eye...

She is also my chunky monkey. Although I don't have a picture of that, you've probably already seen the evidence.

What were they thinking?

Let me preface this by saying...I'm all for planting new trees AND using what you have on hand. I just hope they don't catch it on fire. Maybe if this was a bit further from home I'd count it as laughable. At it's current distance I'm considering it an eyesore. Although it is several blocks down, I'll be passing it daily. Any thoughts?

This was fun...

I was just instantly transported back to 8th grade...blue hall...Mr. West's room. Oh junior high. Our school had colored halls...my favorite was to have my locker on yellow hall...right in the middle of the school...red hall not so great...on the end by band hall which I didn't use! Anyway...back to Mr. West's room...filled with over 30 electric typewriters. I can hear the sound of them clicking away and see the floor to ceiling keystroke chart on the wall. Mr. West was eccentric to say the least. One thing he asked us to do religiously was the one minute timed typing test. I LOVED those drills! We had to manually add up our words and subtract the errors to calculate our WPM. It wasn't until keyboarding the next year when we actually used computers to do this for us!

77 words

Speedtest

Do you have 60 seconds? Go back in time with me! Let me know how you do!

I've Been Tagged!

This is a first for me. I was tagged by a new blogger at The Sullivan Sitcom, so here I go:

7 Things About Me:

1. I love Mexican food. Happens also to be the one type of food I don't cook at home. How convenient for me, sounds like a reason to go out often!

2. I find it difficult to go to sleep at night without these three items on my bedside table: cell phone, chapstick, and a glass of water. I rarely use any of them, but I just feel better knowing they are there.

3. While on the subject of sleep, I cannot sleep with socks on no matter how cold it is. I also have to leave one foot out from the covers to regulate the temperature!

4. I am a huge fan of room darkening shades. It looks like midnight in our bedrooms no matter what time it is. I think it helps explain the girl's good napping habits. Also helps us to sleep in a bit on the rare mornings when the baby monitor is hollering at the grandparents instead of us!

5. I only drink bottled water. And only two brands: Aqua Fina and Ozarka. ALL others taste salty to me. Even though, as my husband has pointed out numerous times, their labels all say they are sodium free.

6. Nummy. This is the word my mom passed down to my sis and I for "yummy". Jerry can't stand to hear "nummy", in fact he is completely embarrassed by it. I'm trying hard to get Lily to use it often. We'll see who wins.

7. Paying for my gym membership every month, even though I seldom use it, somehow makes me feel more healthy.

Okay, there you go. Now I'm supposed to tag 7 people. Christina, Martha, McKenzie, Melissa, Michelle, Rachelle, and Stephanie...consider yourselves tagged!

Can we have a Spring Break do-over?

Spring BREAK? More like wake at the crack of dawn, take the child to the potty on one hour intervals, make her sit there long enough hoping something that makes the plop sound will come out, fake excitement when only tee tee arrives, and for your sake that will be the end of the -ake words!

Spring break is over and as you can tell it didn't feel like much of a break at all. Jerry took on a ceiling project at our house and a floor project at the rental house...why we chose to do all of this while trying to wrap up the poopoo phase of Lily's potty training? I'll never know. I guess we just thought...well, we aren't going anywhere, so let's....well it wasn't a good idea. We're whipped now and although the house projects are done (whew!), the princess still ain't pooping on the potty!

Here are some things I learned this week:

1. Lily is not motivated by rewards...not surprise ones, not known ones, not unwrapped staring you in the face ones, not wrapped ones, not food related ones, not party related ones, etc.

2. My daughter does not care about things being taken away either.

3. If my daughter does not have a pull up on...she will poop anyway...wherever she happens to be.

4. She is not shamed by peer pressure...ie other kids noticing a stinky bottom.

5. My daughter will run past 3 bathrooms to find a quiet place to do her business.

6. When watched like a hawk all morning, she will wait until nap time to do the deed.

7. When we took the nap away to be able to better train her, we ALL became grumpy.

8. Potty training without success makes Jerry and I snippy with one another.

9. Lily is obviously NOT ready to poo on the potty.

10. Jerry and I've decided this might be the best tactic yet for not allowing her to date until she is 30...how attractive will she be...still wearing diapers and all?!?

This break coming to a close without having success with Lily has really made me whiny. Can you tell? I know the Lord is trying to teach us through this process, and it has been hard. And to top it all off, Easter didn't even feel like Easter...mainly because we did not get to worship the Risen Saviour. We earnestly tried...TWICE! We go to The Village Church, which is unfortunately known for having to turn people away due to space limitations. There are six services, which helps, but there is one that is particularly hard to get into....the 11:00 AM on Sunday. Which one did we choose to go to? On Easter weekend? THE 11:00 AM Sunday. Stupid, I know. But we had a long day of celebrating ahead of us, and although we usually sacrifice Jade's nap schedule for church, we thought she needed her morning sleep on Easter, so we aimed for the 11:00. We got there 20 minutes early, got a parking spot (good sign), got both kids in nursery (good sign), got back to the lobby and saw line of over 50 people waiting to get in (not such a good sign)...they squeezed the first 10 or so in and the rest of us got turned away. Not on Easter! Worshipping on Easter is so special. Not a day I want to miss...especially not after I got two kiddos into their Easter best and out the door not just on time, but early! So, we thought quickly, grabbed the kids from nursery, trekked back to the car and decided to drive over to another church we had considered visiting whose service didn't start until 11:15. Well, I thought I knew exactly where we were going. Don't you hate it when roads change names through different towns, or are sometimes called by a number and other times a name? Well, I didn't recognize the numbered road to be the place where we needed to turn, so by the time we got there it was WAY too late to get two kids into nursery/Sunday School and settle into worship. So yesterday didn't feel like Easter to me at all. Sure, we had been talking to Lily about the true meaning of Easter for weeks, but when it all came to pass, the 5 egg hunts we participated in probably outweighed all of our talk when she didn't get to experience worship Sunday morning.

So last night I was really feeling sorry for myself. Disappointed. Tired. Defeated by a 3 year old. And then I went to one of the blogs I enjoy reading and saw this post. And watched this video. After many tears I realized I needed a new perspective. This couple had come through such a trying experience with their faith unshaken. Would I have remained positive through it? Would I have relied solely upon God, knowing He was with me during a time when no doubt you'd feel forsaken? My faith is tested by my three year old not pooping on the potty! Come on! I'm sure they would have loved to have even had that challenge with their little Eliot.

I am crazy not be so thankful for this week. So maybe it wasn't relaxing or restful. Maybe we didn't accomplish everything we set out to do. But we did have fun. We spent time with family. Went to the zoo. Dyed eggs. Hunted eggs. Ate. Ate some more. Lily even learned how to ride a bike (with training wheels, but hey...that is still a lot to learn!).

Wow this post is getting long. Sorry my thoughts are so scattered. I'll end with some pics.

I love this one of Lily riding the bike. She has the look of confidence all over her face.

It was a second hand one from a garage sale. Somehow in conversation it came out that it was a boy's bike. Shortly thereafter Paw bought her a new girl's bike complete with princess helmet, elbow and knee pads. Here is her expression when she saw her new bike.
We were shocked at how quickly she picked up her new skill...she's already doing stunts.
Here are my girls on Easter morning. If I hadn't taken these maybe we wouldn't have been turned away at church!Apparently my baby bunny has been eating too many carrots!She should stick to the purple eggs!The best family pic I got of us on Easter!

I feel myself wanting to add too many other pics of the week...and foresee myself getting frustrated with blogger...so I am resorting to the slide show. Enjoy this mix of Spring Break/Easter 2008! Just run your mouse over the pictures to read the captions!

If you haven't gotten a chance to watch Eliot's video, please do. It will change you.

Potty Training Boot Camp!

We are on the third day of my hubby's 10 consecutive days off from work! Yippee! How are we going to spend our time? Grand vacation? Trip to the beach? No, oh, no...none of those things would do. We are instead running a Potty Training Boot Camp! We already have our very first enrollee...Lily Grace Gibson! And considering our success with potty training in the past, we've decided one student is all we can handle. So, sorry folks, enrollment has been closed.

You may be wondering why we are just now attempting to potty train our 3 1/2 year old. It's actually been going on for some time now...about 15 months to be exact. Oh the excuses we could give...we have been on track several times, and then Jade was born, and then we realized there was a medical issue too. I won't go into all of that...I really don't want to relive it, and plus who wants to read details like: chronic constipation, will not poo in potty, Miralax, will not poo in potty, abdominal x-ray, will not poo in potty, rectal exam, will not poo in potty, mineral oil, will not poo in potty, deinnervation of the rectum, will not poo in potty, absolute frustration, will not poo in potty, serious prayers, will not poo in potty, more rectal exams, will not poo in potty, visit to Pediatric Gastroenterologist, will not poo in potty, Benefiber, will not poo in potty...All of this while we have poo poo prizes, charts, videos, treats, rewards, and THREATS (just kidding) in place.

So anyway, we now have an "All Clear" from the Pedi GI, so we are pulling out all the stops this week...let the Potty Training Boot Camp begin!!

I promise no pictures...even if we have success! Wish us luck though...better yet, say a prayer for us!! We are dealing with one "precocious" little girl...as the GI said over and over and over again.

Egg Hunting While Avoiding the Easter Bunny

Lily and I walked down to the park yesterday for our town's egg hunt. It's kind of hard to get a lot of eggs and candy while keeping one eye on the Easter Bunny to make sure he's not getting any closer! She did contemplate getting a picture with the "girl" Easter Bunny, actually got close enough to get a piece of candy from her, but then chickened out. She was very worried about whether the Easter Bunny talked or not. It was really cute. Below you'll see pics with her neighborhood friends Mia and Emma, but none with the bunny!

Afterwards she settled in for a sweet afternoon nap with Daddy! Awww!

I Just Ran Over My Purse...

Twice! I wish I could say it was with the stroller, but no, it was with our SUV.

First the excuses...my hands were full, Lily had asked for a banana just as we were running out the door, I had Jade and well...my purse. So as we got to the car I set my purse on the ground, went around to put Jade in, came back to Lily to put her in and peeled the banana for her. It was that darn banana...got me all off track!

Got in car, reversed...bump....bump....huh? I looked over at the passenger's seat and immediately knew what I had run over when I didn't see my purse sitting there. Sure enough there it was in the driveway. Cracked up all my compacts and lipstick. Cellphone? Nope, thankfully it was safe inside the house. Well, sort of safe. It was in the unlocked house.

I have recently lost my keys...AGAIN!! Last time they were missing for 3 weeks. When I finally went to sweep under the couch...jingle, jingle...yay...I found them. Tells you how often I do that chore! Lily was the culprit on that one.

Well my cracked up compacts match our newly cracked up tail light! This one was courtesy of Jerry. Who knew getting gas at Wal-Mart would prove so eventful. It was packed out so he got us in the shortest line at a pump that actually was on the other side from our gas tank...thinking that the hose would stretch. Well, wouldn't you know, it didn't! So he had to do some quick maneuvering, backing up and turning around, while lines of cars waited around us. In the process he backed into a rack of items for sale near where you pay the cashier. We were so glad to have such a huge audience during this event. Ironically, there were car care items for sale on this rack...including tail light bulbs. Unfortunately, we are going to need more than that.

One more car issue to share and then I promise I'll stop. Skunk! Our car totally smells of skunk. We don't remember running over one...but the smell came on quick and strong when we were out last weekend. Did we just get close and it sprayed us in fear? Anyway, I'm on the look out for a car wash that has it's undercarriage wash stocked with tomato juice. Know of one?

Lily-isms Continued...

This morning as I was getting Lily up I rolled up her shade as usual. She did the routine check of the weather outside and this conversation followed:

L: Did it snow again?

M: No, it's just foggy this morning honey.

L: Oh, what are those white things called again?

Realizing what she was looking at...and they did look white and fluffy...

M: Oh, those things, those would be our dandelions.

Guess we need to weed and feed.

==========================

I have often told Lily that she needs to hurry up and eat her cereal before it gets soggy.

The other day she came across a limp french fry at lunch.

L: Mom, look at this french fry!

M: Oh, that one is soggy.

L: I guess somebody didn't eat it.

I smiled and laughed to myself.

I Have Got To Remember This...

No more talking on cell phones while driving in school zones in our town. Sounds easy enough. I keep forgetting though. I'm in good company too. I was talking to my sis the other day, when suddenly the phone drops. Not a dropped call, just a dropped phone. Hello? Hello? When she picks back up she apologizes that she had to drop her phone quickly because she forgot about the new cell phone ban in school zones.

Maybe these new signs or just simply typing about it here will help it sink in.

I'm really hoping to avoid a big ticket. After all, I am the elementary teacher who received a ticket for speeding through a school zone on my way to work...at the elementary school. Ouch, that was expensive!

Is your town considering a similar ban?

Weekend In Review

We had a great weekend. Sort of felt a little like a vacation...probably because we were barely home and the only two meals I prepared all weekend were breakfast. I really did go all out for those, so I don't feel too bad...cinnamon rolls, biscuits, gravy, eggs, bacon...good coffee...you get the gist. Other than that we enjoyed Mexican food, Potbelly sandwiches, Flips burgers, and even some good Japanese food. Not having to cook...awesome...having a clean kitchen(not b/c of cleaning it, but due to lack of use)...priceless!

There were a few outings worth mentioning too:

Papa's Pack: Minus 2 Plus 3!

It was time for Papa's Pack to meet again...Unfortunately Avery had the flu, so that took her and Kelly out of the action. But one of my great aunts (Mona) and two great uncles (Fritz and Ken) were in town from up north, so they gladly stepped in. We had fun bowling. It was a day for the record books...my hubby beat my dad...I don't know if one of them was having a bad day, or if the other was having a really good day...actually I do know and am just not saying!!!

Afterwards we did the usual Flips burgers and then everyone came back to our house. We got to looking at some old pictures my grandma had recently sent. Fritz and Mona are two of my grandma's younger siblings so I was on the hunt for some of them. I came across these two:

Here is my dad with his favorite uncle (Fritz) in front of my great grandparent's house in Madison. I recently inherited the hat to that snowsuit he is wearing...my grandma saved EVERYTHING!

Here is another of Fritz, my dad, and my grandpa inside of that same house.

I am guessing these were taken around 1945. Wasn't my dad a cutie!?! It was so good visiting with them.

No Babysitter Required:

All of the activity hadn't really allowed for naps. So, seeing that it could be a long evening, we tried for a last minute babysitter. No such luck. So instead, we packed up the stroller, bags, and kiddos and went to the new shopping area in town. Barnes and Noble was our destination. At B & N the girls entertained themselves (kind of) with books, while Jerry and I sipped sugar free Cinnamon Dulce Lattes. Either the starbuck's barista forgot I said sugar free, or their SF Cinnamon Dulce Lattes are OUT OF THIS WORLD! We managed to get out of there only buying a princess manners book (couldn't hurt) and a read-along Little Mermaid CD/book. How many versions of the Little Mermaid can Lily own? That question remains unanswered!

Next it was a short walk to PotBelly for some delish sandwiches. I was having such a good time that I managed to overlook the large glob of jelly that had escaped Lily's PB & J and landed on the inside of her coat! Seriously, I think they need to ration the jelly portion next time!

Then we strolled over to Nestle Tollhouse. I am embarrassed to say that I had no problem downing an entire chocolate coconut macaroon. I knew that'd be a safe pick since Jerry despises coconut. He and Lily both had leftovers from their cookie choices. Not me. I decided to believe that the SF Latte was not a mistake and consumed every morsel.

Peter and the Wolf:

Sunday afternoon we took the girls to see Peter and the Wolf. It was complete with orchestra, ballet, and as much free popcorn as you could stomach. I forgot my camera, so all of these are courtesy of my cell phone!

You can tell Jade, Jerry, and Lily were all enthralled!

Here is the birdie in action:

Afterwards Lily would pose for pictures with anyone OTHER THAN THE WOLF!

Here she is with the bird, duck, and cat:

The comments that I want to remember from Lily are:

To Peter afterwards: "You can talk? Why didn't you talk during the show?" (The play had been narrated)

To the Duck: "The wolf ate you?"

After pictures they had an "Instrument Petting Zoo" and a station to make your own instrument. We left with a strangely decorated box-of-kleenex-banjo type thing...and one very tired girl.

Jade, however, was wide-awake-hyper-delirious-no-nap-girl, so we decided to drive to a local college town for dinner, hoping she would fall asleep in route. We also drove by some old houses. This is always dangerous for us...I've already been on Realtor.com once today. After a brief house hunting we found a Mexican restaurant on the square worth going back to. Not for a long time though...it's time to mess up my own kitchen for a while!

Snow Day: Round Two

Well, we've now had two March snow days within 72 hours. That wouldn't be so odd if there hadn't of been a near 70 degree day in between.

I realize two posts about the weather within one week is really pushing it. But I have NEVER seen snow chunks come out of the sky quite like this. It was like little snow balls falling straight from heaven. Seriously, it was one of those days when you picked up the phone just to call a friend and say, "Are you seeing this?"

I tried to take some pictures, but my camera just isn't doing them justice. Here are my attempts though:

Notice in the top left corner of the picture above that our Bradford Pear tree is blooming...it just isn't supposed to snow in March!

Lily was in her room "napping" when this was all going on, but since she was having a hard time falling asleep, I decided to let her in on the white stuff falling outside her window. She was excited:




















Thankfully daddy got home soon and she was able to play in it. Their snowman could have used some help (it's watermelon mouth kept falling off), but they had fun:

















Call me old, but I just didn't feel like getting cold and wet. Jade and I enjoyed watching them from the warm indoors. I love watching Lily interact with Jerry like that. He gets her so riled up...then I'm the meanie saying, okay, let's calm down, time for dinner, etc. Here she is giving her daddy a high five. They are congratulating each other for putting their cold hands on mommy's back. This is what he does to my little girl! What if we had boys?

Don't you love the rainbow legwarmers, pull-up, and snowflake shirt combo? Nothing but class around here.

It is so fun observing our neighborhood on these rare snow days. I love seeing everyone come out of their houses to play with their kids. Life goes at such a fast pace, that often we don't see the people who live within 30 feet of us. I guess with high temps predicted for today, we all felt like we should get out and enjoy it while we could. I wish I had that sense of urgency more often about the important things in life. Another observation I had today was how I love the look of clean white snow. Even the cleanest whitest car or house looks dirty when it is covered with snow. I guess that is what the Psalmist meant when he said, "Wash me and I will be whiter than snow." Only Jesus can get us that clean!

The 4 or 5 inches of snow even made our yard look pristine. You can't tell that it is full of weeds and in desperate need of a mowing. This was before anyone walked in it. Do you remember that feeling as a kid when someone else walked through YOUR snow? Horrifying!


My mom commented that she was surprised I hadn't had Jade out in the snow yet. So, here you go, MOM! I snapped this quickly on our way out to her Kindermusik class this morning. Can you tell I've been into polka dots lately?

What is this white stuff? Only one way to find out...I'll eat some!

Hmm...not bad, cold, but not bad!

It's not gonna hurt my waistline, so sure, I'll have some more!

I promise not to post about the weather again. Promise! Anyways, I'm ready for the weather not to be the news for a day. Channel 4 keeps saying...watch us when the WEATHER IS THE NEWS! Please! "WINTER STORM 2008 coverage is continuing!"...No, please not during Oprah...and again this morning during GMA! I'm sure any Northern transplants to our area are really laughing at us.