Why my boys are the most awesome.

They will zap you with laser spoons.

They will contort their faces into odd looks of disgust.

They will steal my camera and take pictures of themselves making monkey faces.

And then they will make cute faces when Mommy steals the camera back.

They will pose together… so long as one can make fun of the other.

They are adorable when they pout.

They get way overly excited over simple things.

They know how to rock a kickin giant afro wig.

They know the importance of a proper pose.

Lastly….

Because they are the most awesome boys in the world and nothing YOU say will change that.

A quick photo contest entry.

…or two.

lol

First my FOOD entry for The Paper Mama blog:


If that photo could talk it would say “Dat mine ry ca’e momma. Mine.”

And next…

My WINDOWS TO THE SOUL entry for A Sorta Fairy Tale:

**Gulp** Wish me luck, never entered any of these before.

Trish likes to journal.

I was given great advice ages ago when I was about twelve and freaking out at my mom for her reading my diary, “If you don’t want it read, don’t write it down.”

Now that philosophy is one I draw back on a ton now. When I was little the only real writing like that kids did was in journals, but nowadays kids have blogs, texting, Facebook, Twitter and so on. Some of the things I see younger kids write (I have a ton of teen and preteen friends on Facebook from kids I know at church and through my younger siblings) I have to stop and think “Really? You want the world to know that?” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to call my younger sister (14) and tell her she might want to rethink what she just posted to Facebook. One time she actually posted her cell number and said she’s bored and home alone she was open to anyone calling. I seriously went off on her for that.

As some of you might know, my brain filter – you know the one that says “Trish shut your freaking mouth!!” – it ain’t the best. lol I tend to speak/type things and then think of the consequences that might arise. Most of the time, I don’t care. Really, I don’t. I too get phone calls from relatives about things I should not post to Facebook. For example, my grandmother called and gave me a long lecture on why I should remove my status update that jokingly said I was going to beat the boys if they didn’t get to work on their room. For the record – I don’t beat my children. It was a joke, even ended with “lol.” Nor do I think any of my friends would take that remark seriously from me. But to make her happy I removed the update. 

There’s a down side though to people thinking they should filter their every thought and word.

I’m not sure how many of you know, but I’m like addicted to digital scrapbooking. I’ve been doing it for a bit over three years now. I think it’s a great way to be creative, preserve your memories, and express yourself. One of the main things I hear people have problems with is journaling on their pages. (For those not in the know – that would be writing the story that goes with the page.) That always stumps me. HOW can you have a problem with doing that? You just write down what you remember about what happened, or you write down the thoughts that go along with the idea of the page. But people have gotten so censored in what they think and do, wondering “Is that too sappy? Will it anger someone else? Will people think I’m a bad parent because I laughed and took the picture before I corrected my child?” That they can’t seem to do it. And yes, I do think this thought censoring is the problem scrappers have with journaling.

I don’t care what people will think when they read what I write on my pages.

I don’t.

I just want to be able to look back and remember WHY I wanted to record that memory. Why I chose THAT picture. WHAT that picture or event made me FEEL. I don’t make the pages for everyone else, I make them for me, thus, I don’t care what everyone else is going to think. Do I care if everyone and their momma might read what I wrote? No. It’s not because I’m brave (which I get told in comments on my pages - “Oh how brave of you to write all that down/share all of that!”), it’s because that’s who I am and what I think and I’m confident enough in myself to not care if someone else thinks it’s stupid, cheesy, or wrong of me.

Yeah some filtering of your thoughts is good, and yeah, there are some things you should not share, but sometimes you need to remove that filter and just be yourself.

Sniffle, Cough, and Two Crock Pots

The Belly and I be sick.

Yup, again. It seems we live to be sick around this house. It’s our crowning moments.

We’ve (the Belly and I) been spending a lot of time like this the past few days. Until yesterday she’d been running a pretty impressive fever, along with a nasty cough, and even nastier green runny nose. Fever, thankfully, is gone so long as I can keep her calm. Cough and nose, however, refuse to leave. I think she may be teething too. No, scratch that. I know she is. Her bottom teeth are finally catching up to the top. So, as can be expected, she is a holy terror at the moment. Did not nap at all yesterday. I was one tired sick mommy. As for me, I got the low fever, nastier cough, and huge congestion. I was feeling ok until late yesterday morning when it hit me. Major suckage since I have a TON to get done around the house, and between feeling miserable and dealing with Belly being miserable I have accomplished nothing, and it’s kinda driving me slightly nuts since I got in the nasty habit of actually getting things done around the house in a timely fashion.

Onto the two crock pots now.

I got the second one from my mom right before I went out of town. She finally broke down and replaced the one she has had for years upon years, (One with green rim around top) and gave her old one to me since it’s a 1/2 gallon bigger than mine. This came in very handy today. I made a roast in mine the other night, knowing John, Belly, and I would not be able to eat the whole thing so that I could make vegetable beef stew one night this week with the leftovers. I got out the chicken Sunday night to start defrosting it to make fried chicken last night. Yeah, I was not up to making fried chicken last night, I nuked some frozen pizzas instead. Boils down to I had TWO things of meat that had to be eaten today. Thus, break out the second crock pot. Tonight my family will have a choice between vegetable beef stew and chicken noodle soup. Then I will just freeze whatever is left of both. But hey, my house is smelling incredibly yummy at the moment.

We won’t talk about that.

Yeah, the trip… it was a nightmare, so we won’t get into that. Not one little bit.

I missed the kiddos like crazy (though not why trip was bad), and by the end even Zach was missing me too. It was painful talking to Ryan at bedtime each night, he always sounded on the verge of tears. I got home late last Thursday so the boys didn’t know I was home until they got up Friday morning. Ryan cried a little, told me he missed me so so much, and kept hugging me. Zach just kept saying “I can’t believe you’re finally home!” I saw Belly later in the morning when I got to my mom’s. I don’t think the trip was too good for Belly. She’s been very clingy, was even more so before she got sick. (low fever, green snotty nose, and cough – same as me now) She freaks out if I even walk out of the room without her, and bedtime and naps have gotten to be a terror. She screams – a lot.

But I am so happy to be home with John and the kiddos, I missed them way way way more than I thought I would. I called John Monday night crying saying I was ready to come home. And not just for the missing them factor, the whole trip was just bad. I haven’t decided if I’ll share any pictures from it yet. Hell, I might just delete them all and rid myself of the memory.

(Oh the video is from this afternoon – I just felt like sharing it lol)

And another oh – just a little blog hop. :o)

Run by KdBuggie Boutique, be sure to check out the blog hop post on her blog and learn about this week’s featured spotlight blogger!

An evolution.

 

Pat myself on the back for a job well done.

Secrets and bribery.

(This conversation takes place as the boys were supposed to be cleaning their room. Zach is in the bedroom with the door open and Ryan is in the bathroom going potty with the door open. I have the hallway door open so I can hear them “clean.”)

“Hey Ryan!”

“What?”

“I’ll give you these two men if you clean the room by yourself.”

“OK!”

“But it has to be a secret. You can’t tell Mommy.”

“OK!”

“Boys, you know you’re yelling and I can hear you right?”

“Never mind Ryan.”

“But Mommy! I want the men!”

“No Ryan.”

“That’s not fair!”

“Neither is Zach taking advantage of you.”

“It’s not like I was going to make him do it for free.”

(conversation from October 20, 2010, picture from October 4, 2010)