today = fun and exhausting

today was such a fun, but exhausting day. the girls and i left the house at 8:00 this morning and didn't get home until 10:20 tonight! i had a dentist appointment in paola to have the permanent crown placed on my tooth (the last of the big dental work before i can get braces! :/) so, i dropped the girls off at my friend sarah's house and was off to the dentist. now, this tooth that was being worked on was dead due to a root canel done way back in the 7th grade so he didn't think i'd need to be numb. he said 90% of the time it isn't necessary - i looked at him and said i'm pretty sure i'm in the 10%. sure enough, i was. here came the shots (3 or 4, i can't remember), painful! i told the hygentist (who's due with baby #1 in two weeks) that getting an epidural is less painful (and i wasn't kidding!). anyhoot, it's a good thing he did numb me because the stinkin' temporary crown would not come off. he had to cut it in half and take it off in two pieces. lots of shoving and pushing the permanent crown in and 45 minutes later i was out of there. i went back to sarah's house and we had a lovey time chatting about all sorts of things. we can talk for hours and never run out of things to talk about...

lunchtime came and it was time to go. the girls and i tried out the new gambinos pizza buffet. it wasn't too shabby and the best part was the worker didn't charge me for the girls. he said his thoughts were that kids 3 and under should be free because they don't eat much (well, he doesn't know my kids!). ha, molly ate 3 pieces of pizza, a cheese breadstick, and regular breadstick plus had some fruit cocktail. sophie actually had a bit less than normal, only eating 2 pieces of pizza and a breadstick along with fruit cocktail. the worker was in the back, so he didn't see how much food my children were consuming for free!

we made a quick stop at our paola home to grab the hand weights that were left in our coat closet and check the status of the airfresheners and then we were off to sam's house, another wonderful friend. we spent the afternoon gabbing and settling disputes amongst our children who all wanted the same toy at the same time. these kids even fought about picking up the toys and who would pick up what! they were all in much need of naps.

the girls and i left a little before 5 to get molly to gymastics. she did really well tonight and got to do lots of beam work (her favorite). sophie was also very well behaved there (a rare thing) and played nicely with the cars and watched molly. after gymastics we headed to my parents for dinner and to let the girls spend some time with grandpa and grandma. molly pretended to put on plays and so we had to sit in the dark for quite a bit while she seranaded us in a very high pitched voice (yes, it gave me a headache!). sophie was exhausted and spent a great deal of the evening crying. we left and headed home. i carried the girls straight to bed and they are sleeping soundly.

matt should be home in a bit....i'm exhausted. goodnight blogger world!

nothing to blog about....so bathroom cleaning

i hate cleaning bathrooms. if i could give up any chore, it would be cleaning the bathroom. they're disgusting and well, i just don't like to do it. it's tuesday though, so that means it's bathroom cleaning day. ugg....i'm currently taking a break. i'm down two, one to go. this is probably the most uninteresting blog i've written but hey, this is my night tonight! on the topic of cleaning bathrooms, anyone have opinions on cleaning walk-in showers. i like the shower to shower in but am not a fan of cleaning them. i think they're quite challenging to clean mainly because you can't turn any water on without soaking the bathroom. so, i spray the shower, start to wipe it down, then have to go to the sink to rinse the magic eraser, and come back. i wish i could rinse it better too. i can turn the shower on but unless i'm in there i can't truly rinse it. my mom used to use the clean shower spray each day so that may be my next attempt to keep a cleaner shower. so there you have it, my bathroom cleaning dilemmas and thoughts. woo-hoo, how exciting!

today

it's been awhile...so here's an update about today.

it was quite an enjoyable day. matt left early to play golf before work so we invited our friends over to play. we had fun playing and then went to eat at a local chinese restaurant. we've gone before together and get a quite a laugh. 3 moms, 6 kids, all 3 and under! we joked with the owner today that he'll need to get us a bigger table because we're all pregnant and will soon be bringing in 9 kids! the molly and her friends are so cute when they eat together. they make faces at each other and giggle and laugh the whole time. precious memories!

molly and sophie played really well on their own today and i let them. i guess i should have played with them a bit more, but they were having fun and i was enjoying the down time. i sat. it was nice.

during sophie's nap, molly and i made two cards. she loves to be crafty and gets excited to use my stuff and help. after naptime, i finished up a sewing project i should have finished two months ago and i must say i'm a bit rusty in the sewing department. i made too many mistakes.

this evening we took a walk and tested out what it will be like when baby girl #3 gets here. molly rode her bike the mile around our subdivision while i pushed sophie. i think i may have to buy a double jogging stroller...molly's fast! thank goodness she's scared to ride down hills and breaks every five seconds or i'd be in a dead sprint to keep up!

after our walk we went to the park around the corner to play. sophie generally goes down this slide with molly but tonight i let her go down by herself. she loved it! now, it's really high so i go up with her to make sure she doesn't fall down the stairs and molly stays at the bottom to catch her. and after 4 trips up, her little legs get tired but she's determined to keep going!

we came home, picked up toys, vacuumed, and ate cheese sticks and the girls went to bed. i

needed a day like today...it was nice!

how do you tip a trashman?

i'm being serious on this question! our trashmen are the best! they've saved us numerous times from keeping our trash a few days longer or now, a week longer when we're just a bit late getting it out. today was recycling day and we got up too late last week to put it out. we almost missed it again today. i opened the door to peek down the street to see if any neighbors still had there bins out and they were stopped just a few doors down. quickly i ran to get our bin (which was overflowing) and as i was opening the door and stepping outside, they were driving past. out trashmen have great eyes though and saw me coming. they stopped the truck a little past our house and met me in the yard. then a gust of wind came by and blew paper from the bin around the yard. they helped pick it up! so how does one properly thank a trashman? saying thank you for rescuing me time and time again just doesn't seem like enough. and it's not as if i can't promise them stinkless trash on tuesdays!

going green

our trash service recently stopped picking up trash two days a week. now, however, it's picking up trash one day and recycling the other. they 're really encouraging people to recycle and have provided recycling bins. i was very excited about this when we got the letter in the mail. i know, i'm a bit lame and it doesn't take much to excite me but i've really never been a recycler. i recycled paper every so often at school but not consistently. the recycle bins were just down the street from us too but now, they come to me!

i challenge myself to see how little trash we have each week. i recycle just about everything i can. i will admit, it's a pain - rinsing everything that i used to just toss. but, a little extra work to help control the landfill population isn't so bad! here's our first week of loot!

on your mark, get set, go

well, i've taken up running - if you can call it that. i'm pretty slow! i've never been a runner. even in high school when i used to run 2 miles every other day in the summer, i was at the back of the pack. and today, nothing's really changed. i even found out that my dad runs faster than me! now there's some motivation! :)

you may ask why i'm running if i loathe it so. well, it's like this. first, it's great exercise and gets my heart rate up in no time at all. second, it's the fastest way for me to shed these extra baby pounds, and finally, i really want to be a runner, i think!

i do enjoy some aspects of running like the fact that i generally think about nothing as i run and the sense of accomplishment when i'm finished. i do like to push myself to run a bit faster each time too. lately, that's been working. i run anywhere from 2-3.5 miles at a time. saturday, september 11th is my big debut - i'm running my first 5k with a group. my goal is to not come in last. i guess if i do though i must remember my initial words - i just want to run one. i don't care if i get last. i'm thinking i'll be able to do it a bit faster than my daily runs because it's on the high school track (extremely boring, yes) but there aren't any hills. my town is a hilly one, so it's great for practice, but i'm glad my first attempt will be on flat ground. plus, i get a t-shirt out of the deal. the whole reason to run, right?!

who knows, maybe one day i'll run a 1/2 marathon. probably not, but it's fun to think i will. but maybe i will, if i become a runner!

an emporia must see!

if you ever visit emporia, one of the must-sees is a special house that is uniquely decorated. it changes with the seasons and holidays - christmas time is especially entertaining when the statue moves to the front of the yard to play santa!

this house provided me with much entertainment the 5 years i lived in emporia. you just never knew what new item they were going to add or rearrange, or what color they would paint the house. today i snapped a picture (i can't believe i never did before). i hope it's still around when molly and sophie are old enough to appreciate it!

lucky to have a dad like you

i feel very blessed to have a dad like i do! he's the greatest and such an important part of my life. my dad, since the day i was born, has made it his priority to see that i was raised in a godly home and grow up to serve my God. my dad has set such a great example of how to live for Christ and have Christ as the center of your life. i not only learned about Christ through my dad's life, but through his ministry in the church. i was blessed to have him be my youth leader and pastor throughout middle and high school, and now still get to hear him preach on many occasions.

throughout my life, my dad has always been there for me and goes above and beyond what he has to do. he made a point to get to as many volleyball and basketball games, track meets, choir concerts, and other performances i had throughout school. i'm truly grateful to have a dad who was there for me, supporting me, even when sometimes i just sat the bench. i'm thankful for a dad who traveled down to emporia while i was in college numerous time because of car trouble and then lent me his car, as well as drove in a terrible ice/snow storm when i had intestinal flu and had to go to the e.r. he got a hotel room for us that night and then took care of talking to my professors and rescheduling my finals for the day.

my dad has been a part of the big events in my life as well. he was on the school board when i graduated from high school and gave me my diploma and probably the most memorable one was when he married matt and i. not many brides get to have their dad marry them. it was a very special time.

growing up i always complained that my dad was too strict and had too many rules. life wasn't fair between the ages of about 13-18 in my book. but, now that i'm a parent, i look back on all the rules and consequences of breaking the rules and i see how important they were and are. i know it's because of those rules and strong christian up bringing that i was able to stay out of trouble in high school and college, make good decisions and not fall into the wrong crowd. had my dad been a little looser, who knows? so thanks for making my life seem miserable at the time! it was worth it! : )

now that i'm old and married, okay, not really old, i still know that i can always look to my dad for advice and guidance and know that he will still do anything he possibly can for me and my family. and he has and does. there have been many times he'll come out to help fix things around the house, watch my kids, feed us dinner, and so much more.

my dad is a wonderful father and grandfather. my girls are lucky to have a grandpa like him. happy fathers day dad! i love you!

everyone needs a daily dose of ardis

ardis is this little old lady that lives in our neighborhood. she's super sweet but a bit peculiar. she walks daily if the weather allows and likes to collect random sticks, leaves, bags, or other items she finds along the way. usually though, she never has more than two things. matt and i enjoy seeing her walk past our house and seeing what item she's collected. she also stops to look at the pig in our neighbors yard each time she passes it! we decided it's these little things that help keep her alive! we snapped some pictures of her so we wouldn't forget her when we move!

we got a new camera!

thursday we bought a new camera - the nikon d5000. fancy, huh? it has all the bells and whistles and we're no where close to figuring out all it can do. it was a spontaneous purchase - one that we've wanted to do but were thinking about waiting until christmas to make. but, we were there, looked, and liked. funny thing though, we spent probably 45 minutes looking at cameras and talking to the sales lady, testing all sorts, but never once the one we bought. i guess we figured it would be great - and it is! we've had lots of fun playing with it. matt enjoys taking random photos of cars and trucks driving in the road. we take these from in the house and they're so clear - absolutely no glare from the window! this picture is pretty neat because the truck fits perfectly where our blinds are pulled up!

one of the best things though - the batteries won't die after using it for a day and the battery it comes with only takes 1 hour and 40 minutes to charge! we can take our own portraits now too! although we've got awhile to go before we make it big in the photography world. here's our first self family photo. don't look too close though - we had just taken a walk in humid weather and it was the end of the day. matt always picks the best times to take pictures! :)

fresh scents of summer

i love summer! i love that i can wear my favorite type of clothing all the time (basketball shorts and a t-shirt), flip flops, warm weather, flowers and plants in bloom, green grass, birds chirping, and grilling. these aren't all though. i love the scent of freshly mowed grass - definitely one of my favorites! another favorite is clothes dried on the clothesline. well, not so much clothes because they get stiff and marked with clothespins and tend to loose their shape, but sheets, towels, and blankets! yesterday was a big laundry day and i washed all the bedding and towels and hung them out to dry. they smell so good! i love that i walk into my bedroom and can smell the fresh outdoor scent of my bedding! it's refreshing....aaahhhh. i look forward to next week when i wash the sheets and towels again! you know, it's the simple things in life that can bring so much joy! who would have thought that smell of sun-dried sheets would make me smile and feel refreshed?

the sign

the church across the street from us has been constructing this huge sign. this sign has been a big part of matt's and my life. why? because we were constantly wondering what they were going to do and how it was all going to turn out. at first it was a big mystery because it was kinda strange looking. made of a wood frame with the church's name on the front, an open back. we thought they might fill it with concrete. then their white sign was attached to it and finally a marquee thing was added to both sides. they covered the rest in white, now it's black minus the pink at the top. we're still not quite sure what the finished product will look like. matt made the comment that he doesn't know what we're going to do when it's finished because we talk about it so much. one afternoon we were entertained by the guy working on it. he brought his daughter and she looked bored out of her mind. at one point she was laying in the van with her head hanging out the sliding door! the best part about this sign, the time and temperature flash by! i know this is a boring post but hey, it's what's going on at the drake residence!

it's been awhile

whew! i finally have a chance to sit down and blog. i have so many things i have wanted to blog about lately but haven't had time to do it so i'll just catch everyone up with a short synopsis of things that have been going on.

i finished molly's shorts for her pajamas - those of you who don't know, i'm attempting to sew curious george pjs! the shorts turned out really well i thought, especially for my first pair! molly was so excited she put them on for the remainder of the evening and wore them well into the next day! but the best thing about all this was her sincere appreciation. about 30 minutes after i finished making them she came up to me and said, "thank you". made my day!

friday afternoon we switched sophie's medication for her acid reflux. she's now taking prevacid which should block the acid completely. it's been interesting giving it to her since it is in a disolvable pill form. we've figured out a system now! is it working you wonder? we're not sure. she spit up the first few doses (this was before we figured out the best system for administering it to her) and now she has a cold so this causes fussiness too. grrr....we're trusting this new medicine will do the trick though.

we celebrated my grandma's 75th birthday on saturday. it was fun getting together with family for good food and fun!

we surprised my grandma with a scrapbook full of memories!

molly had fun playing with all her cousins, especially sue.

sophie hung out by the fan with grandpa and grammy gayle to stay cool and quiet (it was a loud

fan so the noise soothed her, i think).

matt entertained us by rollerblading with skates that were too big and loosing control more than once.

we got a sam's club membership too. it was fun to walk around the store. i remember hating walking the store as a kid. my dad had to look at everything. now, i'm doing the same thing and find it fun. molly was annoyed (but she hadn't had a nap so she just might like the store)! we purchased diapers, energy bars, pork chops, strawberries, walnuts and water filters, and dishwasher soap.

sunday was spent at church and watching a great movie called the pianist. it based on a true story during wwii about the concentration camps and one man's journey to escape the nazis. very good! we love netflix!

probably the highlight of the entire weekend was that sophie rolled over! it was a struggle for her but she finally made it. i was shocked that she rolled over so soon - 2 1/2 months! and it wasn't a fluke - i can't count the number of times she's rolled over since. pretty much, if you put her on her back, she's on her stomach! fortunately she hasn't figured out how to roll on the couch yet (since it is her second favorite sleeping spot).

we went swimming yesterday also! the water wasn't too bad and molly enjoyed walking around in the pool, sliding on the frog slide and playing in the little fountain. sophie was great and just enjoyed being held as i walked around the pool and talked with the lifeguard who was a former basketball player of mine.

last but not least, story time at the library started up again today. oh how we've missed it. i say we because not only did molly miss it, but i did too! it's my time to gab with friends and catch up. molly was so excited to go and thoroughly enjoyed herself. she listened so intently to the story, danced the freeze dance with daddy, had the biggest grin on her face during the parachute and led the group in the marching band!

you sound just like your mom!

matt tells me this quite often! and, well, it's true! i find myself becoming more like my mom now that i'm a mom. i find myself doing things that she does such as grabbing a billion napkins when we're eating out (you can never have too many), taking a jacket with me, worrying that my kids are going to be too cold and therefore dressing them in pants instead of shorts, etc. all this is not a bad thing though because my mom was and still is the best. she went above and beyond to do things with us as kids and made sure we were content and healthy. my mom fostered the creative side in us by doing various projects with us, she took us to the park to play, read countless numbers of books, made three meals a day and always took care to see that we had homemade cookies each week! as we got older, she made sure to be at every sporting event, music concert, awards ceremony, picked us up dropped us off at friends' houses, practice, and church events. oh, and we still got three meals a day and she added in helping with homework and school projects, volunteering in our classrooms and with pto, and during the gap between aaron and alex, she worked! super mom, i think so! :)



with all that i said above, my mom did so much more also (but i won't name it all for the sake of making this into a book!). rarely did my mom go to bed before midnight. i never understood why she stayed up so late after we went to bed until i became i mom myself. she had too - it was the only time she could wash the dishes or finish the laundry, read a magazine, or whatever else she needed to do. her day was consumed with her family and for that i am ever grateful!

most importantly though, my mom, is a godly mom. she always makes time for number one in her life, her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. she spends time in His word daily, prays for us, and taught us many truths about God growing up. she leads her life as an example. i have very fond memories of my mom tucking me in bed at night and praying with me before i went to sleep. it was on one of these nights that i accepted Christ as my Savior.


i truly do aspire to be a mom much like my mom. i can't remember my mom ever raising her voice (though i'm sure she did) and well, i've already failed in that department. my mom always seemed to have an abundance of energy even though she may have only slept 3-4 hours. how? i don't know because i have yet to figure that out. but it's true - she managed to be in a good mood everyday and provide a positive environment for all of us. she was caring, kind, and always supportive. she loved us unconditionally and always looked out for our well-being. she trusted God in everything and was a testimony to us. i love you mom! happy mother's day! :)

now that i think about it, i'm glad i'm not june cleaver

june cleaver, noted as t.v.'s model housewife, is not all that she's cracked up to be in my book. i was thinking about this as i was mopping my long-overdue kitchen floor. you ask why i was thinking about june cleaver? i'm not really quite sure except it might have something to do with the fact that i couldn't remember the last time i mopped my kitchen floor and she mopped daily, i think! well, as i was mopping, i thought to myself, she may have had a perfectly clean house and meals were always right on schedule but she spent zero time with her kids, unless it was at the table. i came to the conclusion that while june cleaver may have been the ideal wife, she was not the ideal mother. a good mother spends time with her children and forgoes other activities to be with them. think back to the show - wally and the beaver were always in their room or out and about. never really interacting or spending time with their parents. is this my justification for a not-so-clean house? for now, yes! i choose to spend time with my kids rather than obsess over whether the dusting's been done for the day or i've folded all the laundry.

it's the most wonderful time of the year!

i love christmas and all that it brings. first and foremost, it's the time when we remember the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and why he came to this earth. leaving His throne in heaven to become a man, die a horrible death on the cross to take the punishment for our sins, and then rise again on the third day. don't forget the true meaning of christmas this year while enjoying the other wonders of the season!

the tree! i love christmas trees, especially real trees. i love going out and picking out the perfect tree, bringing it home, struggling to get it to stand just right, and the way it smells! we always seem to get a tree that's bigger than we thought once it enters our house. this doesn't make matt the happiest camper and has him thinking again about buying that artificial one. he only briefly spoke of it this year and then moved on to a plan next year for selecting a tree more size-appropriate for our house. personally, i don't think it's too big. yes, it's a little wide (you can only sit on one spot of the couch to see the t.v.) but it's pretty and looks great! i had so much fun decorating it too. molly helped a bit but couldn't figure out how to hang the ornaments and it was too prickly for her also. she did enjoy looking at all of the ornaments, especially hers!

the music! christmas music is music you can never tire of during the season. radio stations always seem to play the same songs over and over, day after day without a lot of variety. it drives me nuts! but, christmas music is okay. i love the catchy tunes that stick with you throughout the day.

decorations! along with the tree, i love decorating for christmas. i don't go all out and do my entire house, but my living room is full of the christmas spirit, especially snowman! i love snowman and have plenty that i can leave out through the month of january too!

presents! i love christmas shopping. finding the deals. fighting the crowds, wrapping the gifts, giving them. it's so much fun! this year, i'm almost done and it's just now december!

movies! christmas movies are the best. there are many classics i haven't seen that i plan to this year. white christmas is one. i know, it's hard to believe, but i've never seen it. i've got a blockbuster reusable coupon for 1.99 rentals anytime through the 17th and lots of free evenings to watch them.

family! can't forget family. i love spending time with family, catching up, reminiscing, laughing, and eating!

there's so much more - this is just a peek into the christmas i love. more to come as the season continues i'm sure!

sewing!

matt surprised me with a sewing machine today. it was supposed to wait until christmas but he said he wanted me to have it in case i wanted to make anything for the upcoming holidays! isn't he sweet!!! : ) when i got home from the awards ceremony at school he told me to go and look at what domino had done on our bed. i was scared to death thinking something was wrong with my cat. matt sensed my panic and assured me domino was just fine; it wasn't bad. i walked into our room and he told me to lift up the comforter - and there it was!

for those of you who know me well, in the past i've been nothing of a sewer, much less liking anything femine like sewing. scrapbooking was about as crafty as i would get. in fact, in middle school when i was forced to take home ec i did terrible on my sewing project. sure i got an A but my mom did most of the sewing because she got so tired of having to rip out all my seams! i've never sewed since.

when i started reading the instructions on how to thread the machine i thought it looked extremely complicated and doubted my abilities to do this easily. molly went down for her nap and i hunkered down on it. i got it right on the first try and sewed a straight line! (well, for the most part - i need some pins to hold the material still!) it was much easier than i thought.

my first project - an apron! i've been wanting one and get tired of grease splattering on my shirts. i always mean to buy one but never do so now, i'm going to make one! then i'm going to make molly a little one to wear when she cooks at her kitchen and helps me! if all turns out well, i'll post pictures. not sure how long this will all take.

thrifty shopping

i'm not usually one to shop at thrift stores. it's not because i'm against them, used items, or anything like that. i just don't go very often. and usually, when i do go, i find nothing but junk and come out feeling like i need to take a shower in bleach! well, today i ventured into the little thrift store in town (it's disgusting but i thought, why not try it again). i'm glad i did because i got two things - one i'd been needing and the other just for fun. molly has been in need of a booster seat for our kitchen table. we don't use that table except for coloring with markers, painting, and play-doh so her booster/highchair is hooked to our dining room chair. molly usually sits on a pile of old sheets and blankets or stands in the chair. not safe, i know but i'm always right there. molly found it actually and sat down in it. she was thrilled to find a little chair. it looked clean enough and didn't have stains or cracks and was only $2. then i spotted the playschool busy ball toy that has a fan that blows the balls up a tube and they travel back down. molly's loved this toy in the past when we've been at friends' houses that have it and so i asked how much. they told me $.99! i said i'll take it! even if it didn't work with new batteries i wasn't going to lose any money. got it home, cleaned up and it works like a charm. the only thing wrong is that it is missing 2 of the 5 balls. oh well, 3 work great! while i was at wal-mart this afternoon i checked the price. currently, brand new it's on sale for $17 but usually sells for $24.97 and i got it for $.99! i know molly will soon not be interested in it at all but our new little one will get lots of use out of it.
so maybe i'll frequent the thrift stores a little more often. who knows when i'll get another great steal!

at least we're in the cool!

all in a day....so much happened. for starters, i cut 5 inches off my hair. crazy? no, i was hot. this d0 is much cooler. my hair rests just above my shoulders. i'm excited to shampoo it tonight - oh the ease, i can feel it now! i then proceeded to make matt's dinner, a new chicken pot pie recipe. i love chicken pot pie and was really excited about this one. you make it in the skillet so there's no heating the house up with the oven. turns out it was a disaster. i should have doubled the cream of chicken soup and went a little easy on the biscuits. it was just a bit dry, okay, it was really dry. basically, i made biscuits with some pieces of chicken and some veggies. poor matt, he was a good sport about it and took it to work for dinner. i'm a little embarrassed though. my meals have been wonderful the past few weeks and now, well, i send him with this. oh well, lesson learned - not a good recipe choice , or if it is, i need to do a lot of tweaking. i cleaned the kitchen after matt left for work and then got busy playing on fb and checking email. molly woke up from her nap early and that's when i knew i was in for a long afternoon.

she did get her whale pool i wrote about yesterday - i'll write about that later. we went out to swim and as she was swimming the a/c kicked on and made this horrid noise. i listened for a while and it never quit. so, i went over to investigate and saw that there was a wire hanging down, hitting the fan blade and shooting sparks. panic!!!! not to bad though. i called the a/c guy and he told me how to disconnect all the power to the unit outside and how to fix it. so i tried...it was way to hard with molly. i called my dear friend, renee, and she came to my aid to play with molly. after sweating profusely, i thought i had it working. i taped the wires up and plugged the power in (aarrrggg, ahhhrrrgg - tim taylor grunts). it was quiet and sounded like it was running properly so i sent renee home. a while later i went out to see how it was looking, feeling pretty proud of my work, and discovered that it was running but the fan was not. i guess i won't be going into the HVAC service anytime soon.

next phone call to my dear daddy. i knew he'd know how to help. he graciously drove out to our house and worked away. fixed an hour later! turns out i didn't tape the wires correctly. he rigged it up better too so they won't fall down again. now, i'm sitting in the cool!

"in the cool" makes me laugh. i'm reminded of a pastor at my grandparents church who, after a funeral, during the family meal said several times, "at least we're in the cool."

okay back to the day. sorry for the brief walk down memory lane. after dad left molly and i played and then enjoyed a dinner of macaroni and cheese (remember, mine was horrible!). i finished the grocery list and went to the store (this was supposed to be done this afternoon -threw the evening out of whack). going to the store near bedtime and with an already tired baby is not fun. molly proceeded to cry several times throughout the store. i gave in and picked her up and carried her. i hate doing that because she wins and gets her way but what else am i to do in the grocery store? let her scream and cause a scene? we finished the shopping and molly got to the highlight of the shopping experience - getting her sucker. well, tonight she thought it would be funny to drop it on the floor several times. it broke and we threw it away. she reached for another but didn't get it. i'm sure the checker and sacker thought i was cruel but she must learn.

home sweet home and i'm putting away the groceries when i hear a spill. molly's taken the almost empty, mostly crumbs, cheerios bag out of the trash and spills the dust all over the floor. it was at that time i finished up and gave her a dose of tylenol, put her pjs on and gave her a bottle. she went right to sleep. poor girl was exhausted.

i was able to clean up very quickly and for that i'm thankful! now i'm relaxing and enjoying the quiet. good night dear readers!

busy, busy, busy

i never realized how busy i would be staying at home. when i entered into this adventure a month ago i thought i was going to have to find things to keep me busy (random cleaning and such) however, this has all changed. i'm busier now than when i worked all day - child caring, house cleaning, and cooking consume so much of my time - so much that i haven't even had time to update my blog.
here i sit, taking a break from my evening sweep of the house - which tonight must be a more thorough sweep because we have two real estate agencies coming to view our house tomorrow. trying to sell a house is quite a chore. the upkeep is amazingly difficult- especially when you live with a 14 month old tornado! it is a wonderful feeling though, always having a clean home and coming home to a clean one. dirty dishes are a rarity now days and the bed is always made (except today because i did take a time out and take a nap because of my constant wakings in the night with molly coughing). i'm going to attempt to keep this same approach when we move into our next home - i think it will be a good discipline for me, tough but good.
i always thought i'd have extra time for reading - not true. i sneak it in while molly's napping sometimes. but only when i feel i've picked up a good portion of the house and i've figured out groceries and menus for the week if it happens to fall on that day. video games collect dust (yes i do play some - i love my old school nintendo!) and my scrapbooking sits on a closet shelf. one day, perhaps i'll have time for this play!
in conclusion, anyone who thinks being a stay-at-home mom is easy should think again. men wondering why we didn't get something done during the day, well, it's because the baby only napped a short time or maybe a project (cleaning closets) took longer than expected. whatever it may be, we don't loaf around all day. the saying is true - a man may work from dawn till dusk but a woman's work is never done!