I Am the Last Person On Earth to Join Facebook?

Here's a picture from my fun Friday night! It was my first evah Girl's Night Out! No kids, no husbands!

It was great to see these girls that I went to grade school and high school with. It was kind of funny, half the group keeps in touch with each other and the same with the other half. (does that make sense?) So 4 of these girls I haven't seen in 17 years! Yikes! I graduated from high school 17 years ago!

We had a great time reconnecting and catching up with each other's families. Hopefully we'll make it a regular event and add a few more girls for next time! Oh, and a hotel room so no one has to be responsible drivers!

They were all giving me crap because I wasn't on Facebook and that's how everyone got reconnected. So, today is signed up on Facebook! Now what do I do? Are you girls happy now? I'll fill out all the other stuff on there when I get a chance...

Go Ahead, Take It Away....*sigh*

Go ahead and take away my redeemable Mom-of-the-year award once again!

In the last sentence of yesterday's post, what did I write? Let me refresh your memory!

"Oh Tooth fairy! Are you out there? Don't forget to stop at my house tonight!"

Here's how our morning started:

LOB wakes up crying. I thought he was going to tell me that his throat hurt like yesterday morning when he woke up. So I ask what the problem is...

He says he's crying because the tooth fairy didn't come because his pillow fell off his bed. When he went to check the pocket of the pillow he took the tooth out and then dropped it and couldn't find it.

Oh geez! De ja vous! Just like at Christmastime and Nissy the Elf! Remember how much trouble I had remembering to move the elf?

So I quickly try to downplay the issue and say, "Big deal, we'll make a fake tooth and I bet she'll stop by tonight."

LOB then mopes off to eat breakfast.

I go into the bathroom and ask GOB why he didn't remember! He's laughing his butt off because as soon as he heard LOB crying, he knew!

So after GOB attempted to find the lost tooth, I started sifting through the shag carpet. 10 minutes later, I found the minuscule tooth under the bed! Hallelujah!

Then the neighbor girl comes over (like she does every morning) and sees LOB pouting. He tells her what happened and she's all "Oh, that happened to me too. I just put it on my bed the next night and she came then!"

Whew! Oh thank you Shari! Thank you for forgetting to do the deed just like me! It makes me feel SO much better that I'm not the only forgettful mom! You saved my butt!

So the tooth is safely in it's pillow ready to go tonight. I guess I'll put post-it notes all over the house in attempt to remember to do the deed! Why can't GOB feel bad that he forgot too! Oh no, only me! He says it's a "Mommy thing!" Pfft!

Now I have to figure out how to redeem that award! Hmmm, I know! Maybe I could just put $95 in the pocket of the pillow and leave a note that says, "Here is money for this tooth and the rest of your teeth. Love, The Tooth Fairy! ps. I'll be back when DJB looses his first tooth. Until then...don't forget to brush the new ones!"

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In totally unrelated news:

Guess who had herself a nice, HUGE, sugary donut hole breakfast? No, not me! It was the other female in the house!

Might As Well Be Productive...

DJB Dentist says: "We might as well be productive while LOB is home sick from school for day #2!

"Open wide Patient Snaggletooth! (said in your best evil villain voice) Mom says it's time for that puppy to go! It's been hanging there too long and Mom wants to puke every time you wiggle it with your tongue! Let's do it!"

"Ah ha! Success!"

"Oh Toothfairy! Are you out there? Don't forget to stop at my house tonight!" (as he jumps up and down saying he's going to be rich!) Me: "Um, I thought you were sick!"

Look I Can Text and Ride a Horse At The Same Time!

Kids these days learn the modern conveniences of life pretty early! Like texting while riding a horse! He better be careful, the mounted police might pull him over!

He picked up my cell phone and knew exactly what to do with it! I'm not sure where he learned it-I don't talk on my phone very often. And I never talk on it while I am driving! (tiny white lie)

Weekend Fun!

There wasn't too much excitement at our house this past weekend. We just played outside in our perfect 80 degree weather and hung around home. Friday night we ate outside and enjoyed a little fire in the backyard. We didn't have any marshfellows (as DJB says) but we did dip graham cracker sticks in Nutella! Yum, ever tried it?

DVB devouring his brat, beans, and banana...

DJB raking leaves by the firelight...

Taking a break to warm up by the 1/2 gas, 1/2 wood fire...

LOB shoveling leaves by the firelight...with a trenching shovel????

I remember when I was a kid in MN, we used to bury each other in HUGE piles leaves every fall. But these poor deprived AZ kids rake leaves in the dark from their one lonely tree in February and bury their dog...it's all messed up!

Today the boys and I made a couple apple pies (with your recipe Annalie!) with the 40 pounds of Pink Lady apples from our co-op ($14 woot woot!). I forgot to take pictures of the apple peeling project. The boys love to take turns spinning the apples and then eating the curly peel. The weird thing is, when they want to eat an apple, they always ask me to peel it first because they don't like it! Go figure! After our baking class, we delivered a hot apple pie to Grammy and Grandpa and ended up staying for awhile. The boys got to go swimming and Toni got to sniff butts at the dog park. Fun Fun!

Dishwasher and Jogging....

You won't believe who Sears sent out to remove our old dishwasher?

The handymen had no trouble removing the old one. But for some reason, it took those talented guys 2 trips to Home Depot and about 4 hours to get the new one installed! Good thing they don't charge an hourly fee! BTW, the oldest handyman wasn't too happy....that's the Get me a beer now look!

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LOB and DJB had a Jog-a-Thon fundraiser at school today. They are supposed to run as many laps as they can in 20 minutes. They are pledged per lap or one lump donation. I think LOB said he ran 9 laps and DJB and his class just ran in circles in the infield.

DJB and some of his classmates

DJB and his friend D (you know, the no nut-sniffing friend!)

LOB giving the mascot a high five as he flies by...

LOB enjoying a post jog popsicle with the GIRLS! One little girl was saving a spot for LOB!


LOB sharing his treat with his little bro...

DVB hanging out with his friend C who is DJB's buddy D's brother and LOB's buddy's R brother. Got that?

And finally DVB enjoying his treat with his no-so-enthusiastic friend K.

That's all for now. That's some pretty exciting news from our house!

It's Not What You Think It Is!

So GOB comes home last night and sees this sitting on the counter:




He's all WTH?! And I knew that was going to be his reaction so I purposely left it on the counter instead of putting it away in the bathroom after I bought it!


It's not a handgun, silly!





It's a new hair clipper kit! Sheesh!

He says: "Well I thought the case was a little too shiny...."

I'm Ticked!

You know, this bad economy crap is really starting to tick me off!


Here's the latest issue that is affecting our family: Kindergarten is going back to half day again in the state of Arizona because of budget cuts! Come on! Can you believe it's so bad that Kindergarten is getting the shaft?


I believe K is a huge foundation for the child's school career. What is expected for these kids to know even before entering K is incredibly amazing! Tying shoes, letter and number recognition are among the prerequisites. I just can't believe what is expected of these little four and five year olds and at the same time, what is being taken away from them. I bet they will probably start reading in preschool by the time DVB gets there. I better start working on his ABC's now before he turns 2 so he's on the right path for a successful preschool career!


How can a child possibly learn what he needs to know for 1st Grade with only 2 hours and 50 minutes worth of K a day? How much of that time is play time, or music, or PE or wrangling kids? It is totally amazing what LOB learned by the end of his full day K year last year. He's doing great in 1st grade. He's reading at a second grade+ level. Now DJB on the other hand, he's a smart kid, but I just know he won't be in the same place as LOB was at the end of K with less than 3 hours of school a day!


Oh sure, your child can go full day but that will cost $260 a month! Are you kidding me? I have to PAY to send my child to a public school? What are they going to do? Babysit him for the other half of the day? I don't need a babysitter! If I wanted to PAY for my child to go to school, I would have him in a private school! Yes, I know, it would cost way more than $260 a month, but still!


And the poor poor 1st grade teachers... How can they be expected to teach a mixture of kindergarten students with which some having had attended half day K and the others who were fortunate enough to have full day K? Can you imagine? What if my kid is one needing more attention or what if your kid is totally bored because the half dayers (it's not a word, I know) are so far behind? Would you want your child to be in that situation?


So I signed DJB up for PM K today. I hope I'm making the right decision. I am refusing to pay and if I'm making a bad choice and DJB doesn't learn what he needs to be successful in 1st grade, then the school is going to have to use their resources to get him up to speed and therefore use their time and money to fix it! Boy, that sure makes sense doesn't it?!


The Kindergarten Round-Up that's scheduled for next month should be interesting. I bet there are a lot of parent's ticked off like me. They better be ready for the she-ott to hit the fan!


Ok, I feel better now. The whole world wide web knows I'm ticked off at the State of Arizona! Think I'll go do some laundry now!

Weekend Fun!

Sorry for the lack of posts last week. I guess we didn't have any blogable excitement. DVB was sick all last week and wasn't in the mood to be cute and photogenic!

This is how he looked the entire week. No laughs, no smiles, just wine wine wine, I mean whine whine whine! Oh silly me, I had drink wine wine wine after all the whine whine whine!

We did have a fun weekend to make up for the miserable last week. The D Family spent the night Saturday night and we had hours and hours of fun! It sure is easier to let the kids run wild at someone's house rather than meeting up at a restaurant like we usually do. And it sure is nicer to let everyone have a few drinks when you don't have to worry about driving home!

Here's DVB enjoying what may be his first cupcake (he's the 3rd kid, I can't remember if it's his 1st!) with Aunt C. I should have taken a pic of all the pink frosting he wiped in his hair!

As you can see, Cousin S thoroughly enjoyed her Valentine cupcake!

Here are 3/5 of the Kissing Cousins! The other 2/5 decided not to cooperate for the photo op!


And we FINALLY found a drummer for the 3 Boys Brewery Band! And she's darn cute too!

Wordless Wednesday

Ok, I guess it's really not a wordless Wednesday. I have to explain the photos!


This is what happens when you leave the kid alone with Papa for a few hours. He gives DVB a rice krispie treat and he LOVES it!




This is what happens when you leave the kids with Grammy and Grandpa!


And this is what you do when it's raining outside and you are bouncing off the walls...make your very own spaceship!

It FINALLY Happened!

It finally happened!

It seems like we've waited for weeks and weeks! And how did it happen, you ask?

By opening a sticky syrup bottle lid with his teeth! Of course! How natural is that?

What do you suppose the going rate is these days for the first lost tooth from the tooth fairy?

Mind you, we did our research. We interviewed many experienced "tooth fairies". And would you believe $5 is the average? I'm serious!

How many deciduous teeth are in a kid's mouth? 20! Sheesh! That's a pretty simple way to make 100 bucks!

Doesn't the tooth fairy realize we are in a recession? I wonder what the rate will be when DVB starts loosing his teeth in 5 years?! Consider this: Grammy said she got a quarter per tooth when she was a kid!

Our Friday Night Excitement!

GOB got some exercise this afternoon after work. He was teaching DJB to ride a two-wheeler. He finally has shown some interest in learning! Whew! It was hard work watching GOB run up and down the street! He's now relaxing with a beer, eating pizza, and watching Dirty Jobs, GOB that is!

They had to do a bike change for the second round. The bigger bike was much easier...

Here's what Toni did while the rest of were watching DJB and GOB! Another Marley-like antic!

Maybe the next video will be DJB cruising on his own!

The Grand Opening of our Etsy Store!

Today we (mom and I) are celebrating the Grand Opening of our Etsy store. It's called Fabric, Feathers, and Frills. For you computer illiterate people, just click on the name of the store in the last sentence and it will take you right to it! Hopefully it'll be successful and we can add some more items here and there! Go visit us!

More Marley-Like Antics!

I'm still working on writing my book: Toni and Me! What should this chapter be titled?

I TOLD YOU ONCE...

AND I'M TELLING YOU TWICE! GO AWAY SCORPIONS!

Look what DJB found under the front door as we were coming home from dropping the big kids off at school! This big honkin' sucker was trying to GET.IN.THE.HOUSE! Oh no you don't! Guess what scorpions? I have the bug guy coming back again tomorrow! If he doesn't use his biggest guns, he'll be fired! I'm sure his big guns also contain some cancer causing agent, but I don't care!

NO SCORPIONS ALLOWED! Do I need to add a sign to my collection by the front door that says you are not allowed too? What's it going to take?

Do I need to propose manditory pest extermination to our home owners association?

Ya, that probably won't fly...in our failing economy, who wants to spend $80 a quarter on pest control?

Then maybe I'll sneak around at night and spray the cancer causing agent in all my neighbor's yards in a one mile radius. Ya, that sounds doable!

Good Game *high five* Good Game!

Ok, Ok, we know. We lost...BUT at least we didn't get our butts kicked and we made for some really exciting football. I bit off a few fingernails!

It's just amazing to see how far the Cardinals got! Amazing! Hopefully they'll keep all the new fans that just jumped on the bandwagon for next season. I saw an awful lot of Cardinal red this last week and I saw an awful lot of people sporting flags on their cars and snatching up Cardinal paraphernalia like mad mad people!

Here's LOB after the devastating loss...

He was actually crying because the Cards lost!

Don't worry Cards, we'll stay on the wagon. After all, we all have brand new shirts to wear!

GO CARDINALS!!!

"Would you boys just PUUUHHHLEASE just let me get one good picture! I need a new header picture! This would make a good one but I need some smiles!"

"Hey DVB, LOOK.OVER.HERE!"

"Can we eat this yet?"

LOB made a sign to show our homestate spirit! It says "Cardinals Rock!!!!"

GO CARDS! GO CARDS! GO CARDS! GO CARDS! GO CARDS! GO CARDS!