We didn't go to the pool on Thursday because we needed a break. I had a lot of other things to do and we were there Tuesday, Wednesday, today and probably going on Saturday so that's more than enough pool water for me. Instead on Thursday Preston and I headed to Home Depot, what seems like our 2nd home lately, because we are always needing something from there. We bought potting soil, shrubs and a new faucet. My mission was to finally move some things around in the front flower beds. I planted a few things since we moved in and some things were already here. The things that were already here drove me nuts and I mean that every time I passed by the front door with windows I would look and wonder why..why. Call me crazy but I like unison, I like everything in its place even in the flower beds. I think the previous owners of the house liked her things sporadic. No rhyme or reason as to why things are planted here and there. Yesterday after putting Preston down for nap, I hooked the baby monitor to my britches (that's one of my favorite words, saying britches drives my husband crazy but I love the southern sound of it), and headed out to bring back the harmony that my flower beds were craving. I moved things around, put in new shrubs and grouped everything where I felt they belonged. Afterwards covered from head to toe in dirt I was finally able to view my flower garden with awe. Except that now I can only see that we need mulch. Im closing my eyes now and going back inside.

Upon becoming a mother I thought about what my days would be like. It would be full of laughter, playing with my son, baking cookies, cleaning, taking him to the park, playing ball, swinging, learning his ABC's, tickling, jumping on trampoline, swimming, and talking walks while pulling him in the wagon. I never imagined that I would be reenacting the street fight scene between the Hulk and Abomination with my son who insist that we do it several times a day.
One of the days maybe he will let me be the Hulk.

(copy and paste in your browser to see what Im talking about )http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhHIZAMs7wA&feature=related

The "NO" game

If I hear Preston tell me "NO" one more time Im going to scream, shout, run around outside in complete hysteria, stuff orea cookies in my ears, shove myself down the laundry shoot. Ok I cant fit down the laundry shoot but the cookie idea isnt half bad. I must have told him to stop doing wrong things atleast a dozen times yesterday. Such as stop cutting line at the water slide, stop splashing me, etc. etc. and yet I got the same answer NO. I made him get off the slide and stay off the remainder of the time at the pool in hopes that he would learn his lesson. While at home he got a time out for telling no when I told him to pick up his toys, he got a swat on the butt when he told me no when I told him to stop throwing grapes. I would be satisfied if I never heard him say no to me ever again. I was so frustrated that I talked to my mom on the phone who asked me if I ever learned my lesson and if I ever stopped saying no to her...my only honest answer was No. Enough said!

Conclusions of the week:
-The dollar store has great buys such as everyday cleaning products that work just as well as the stuff that you pay 3x as much at other stores.
-Not so good is that the dollar store also has lotion that is creamy petroleum jelly that smells just like a goodyear tire. Yeah I tried it and smelled like I had worked all day with a road crew.
-Popsicles are good no matter what age you are.
-Pizza is Gods gift to women who dont feel like cooking.
-I will miss being a stay at home mom once Preston goes to school. Translation going to work all day instead of the pool or movies with my son is going to suck.
-Ornamental grass is sharp and you should wear long sleeves and pants when transplanting.
-Sweating while moving ornamental grass after not wearing long sleeves and getting cuts all over your arms and legs really does HURT!
-I will never be as tan as my son. This is what he looks like after one month at the pool, by month two he looks like I adopted him from the desert.

-I came across wall words while at Hobby Lobby and they are much easier to put up than trying to stencil. I put this up in our kitchen above our stove.

Fun Wednesdays

Our local movie theater during the months of July and August have kids day at the movies on Wednesdays. It starts at 10am and for $2.50/person you get a movie ticket and free popcorn. Not a bad deal which means that Preston and I both can see a movie for $5. I stashed drinks in the diaper bag and we munched away on our free popcorn while watching Horton Hears a Who. Whats nice about it is that its cheap, its SAHM (stay at home moms) and lots of kids so if your kid acts up, who cares because so are all of the other kids. Each week a new movie plays so we have a chance to also see Nims Island, Bee Movie, Kung Fu Panda, Kit Kittredge:An American Girl, and Space Chimps in the new few weeks.

4th of July

This 4th of July we spent the weekend at my inlaws. We bathed and put the kids in their pj's and headed out Thursday night to watch fireworks. They were really good but Preston is still scared of them. He isnt scared of the fireworks itself he doesnt like the noise so once I covered his ears he did just fine. We also took the kids to a movie. It was Prestons first movie and my first movie since Id been pregnant. We went to see Wall-E and it was very cute. I would recommend it to all ages.

Cant buy me love, gas, groceries or anthing else for that matter with prices like this.

Gas Prices at our local Krogers today.

Underoos-so cute they need to come in adult sizes

Prestons favorite underwear are the hulk ones that we told him he cant pee on otherwise the hulk will get upset. Now when he goes to potty afterwards he says look mom the hulk didnt get big and get me, he is still small and on my butt. He is so going to need therapy when we are done with him. If they made underoos in adult sizes I bet that they would sell fast, who wouldnt want to secretly wear the hulk or strawberry shortcake under their business attire.

Hulk and the Hesitant

Preston loves his hulk shirt, his hulk figurines and to watch the hulk movie trailer on the computer. He wants to watch the trailer 10x's a day even though it scares him. He knows when the scary parts come on and he runs to the other room and then runs back when he knows that part is over. Yep, my kid likes to be scared. On a few occasions he has run into the bathroom afterwards and said the hulk scared the pee right out of him. I think he has a good future in the haunted house business.

snooze and sirens

Snoring along in the middle of the night only to be woken by tornado sirens at 12:30am, I can tell that this isnt going to be a good night already. Im pretty used to the tornado sirens since Ive moved to Ohio because we live close to the city so sirens are everywhere and they go off about 4 times a year and warn you to get to a basement. In case your wondering everyone in Ohio has basements although Im pretty certain the main reason is because the winters and needing to have a furnace down there. Anyways, for some reason I felt safer in our other home this is the first major storm in our new house. Maybe its because our old house was a safe ranch with basement and in between many other homes. It was close to the ground and a tornado would probably just skip right over it like hoping over a jump rope. Our new house all of the bedrooms are upstairs so we are up one more story, we still have a basement but I feel so open here, so exposed. The back of our house backs up to a field so there is nothing to slow it down before it gets to our house. The siren by the way is on top of a water tower that is only 1/4 a mile away from the house so yeah we hear them really well in fact we can actually hear the squeaking of the siren rotating, somebody needs to get up there with some WD40. At 12:30am we are adding items needed to the basement just in case. We already have water, flashlights, candles and matches but who doesn't love a box of club crackers. I grab my diaper bag that doubles as my purse because the last thing I want to do is to lose my license in a storm and spend 3 hours at the DMV to renew it, clothes because we are in our pjs and if Im going to be rescued I dont want to be in my pajamas, shoes and cell phone. At 1:30am they stop the sirens that had been going off for an hour and announce it safe and over. At 3:30am the house shakes from the aftermath storm that has now made its way on top of our house. Preston is now back into our bed because the storm, lightning, rain and wind is actually louder than the tornado sirens and it wakes him up immediately. In fact if my parents were in my house I would of climbed in bed with them too. I sense that a much needed nap is in our future today.

Things I love:

• Being a stay at home mom and taking the kids to the pool.
• Meeting new mommy's at the pool and having our sons get along really well.
• Preston behaving long enough to make friends at the pool.
• Prestons 3 year checkup tomorrow and no shots needed.
• My family in TN, my family in OH.
• Friends
• Talking to my Mammy on the phone, who is in her mid 90's, and hearing the happiness in her voice that is soothing and calming and puts a smile on my face.
• Watching my hubby and son together and realizing that they really are 2 peas in a pod and will soon gang up on me.
• Caffeine

When you have a 6 year old girl and a 3 year old boy in the house you automatically lose when it comes to the television and you soon realize that Disney now runs the show. Over the past week I have watched 20+ episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place and Camp Rock over and over. I even thought Camp Rock was better than High School Musical, did I just say that? I need a life!

The shutters and front door of the house were faded and we werent a big fan of the color so I painted them a dark sage so now the front of the house looks like this. Why do I put so many pics of our new house in my blog your probably asking. Well my entire family lives in TN and not all of them have or can visit so this is my way of sharing my life with those that cant travel or those that havent come to visit us yet. Hint Hint Uncle Moose and Aunt Mandy.

As the prices of just about everything goes up my thankful lists changes just a bit.

• Im thankful for even the slightest bit of rain so that I dont have to water my flowers.
• Im thankful for the breeze that we have had for the past 2 weeks and for the 70'ish degree weather that has allowed us to be air conditioner free for 2 weeks.
• Im thankful that the grocery store is just 2 miles away from the house.
• Im thankful that I enjoy cooking and we save going out to eat as a special treat.
• Im thankful that we have moved to an area where the kids are never bored and there is so much to do right at home.
• Im thankful that the gas prices is pushing everyone to want to do something better that will benefit my children as they get older and maybe even be better for the planet.
• Im thankful that we are surrounded by wonderful farms that sell safe fruit and vegetables for my children to eat.

I was tagged by a friend to answer the following so here it goes:


What was I doing 10 years ago? Who can remember that far back, I cant even remember what I was doing yesterday.

Five Snacks I Enjoy: Chips, Grapes, popsicles, popcorn & anything chocolate

Five Things on My To Do List Today: Grocery, clean house, take care of 3 year old son, laundry, make beds, take my son to potty 15 times throughout day for potty training, pick up toys 5 times a day, make breakfast, make lunch, make dinner, paint shutters, etc. etc. and the list goes on and on!

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:Pay off house, invest, have more children, share the wealth with family, own a krispy kreme doughnuts shop.

Five Jobs I have had: nurse, assistant, marketing analyst, project manager and mother

Five of my bad habits: eating to much junk food, spending too much money, gossiping, spoiling my kids, obsessing over the small stuff.

Five Places I have lived: Cleveland TN, Burns TN, Knoxville TN, Nashville TN, Columbus OH

One Tough Summer

I believe that I have a much harder job raising our kids than my hubby's job where he goes into the office, sits in a nice comfy chair, drinks his Starbucks and has 8 hours of being whine free. However during the summer months I have to admit that he may just have a tougher job than me but only because during the summer the kids and I spend our time at our local pool which looks like this. Its a tough job but somebody has to do it!!! Enjoy your Starbucks honey.

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY PRESTON!!! Its hard to believe that my little boy is already 3 years old. May you always love trucks, dinosaurs and trains.

Dining Room Complete:

My husband finished up another room while Preston and I were in TN. He laid hardwood floors down for me. My mom and I worked on the curtain while in TN so when I got home I had a new room and a new curtain to put as well. Project complete...next project is doing some work on the outside. Pics of that to come.

Before pics and after pics.

Whats on your bedside table? I think that a bedside table can tell a lot about a person. I also think that it would be fun to view other peoples bedside table to see what they have on it, Im not saying open any drawers or anything but just take a look at whats on top. I put more thought into whats on my table vs. the kitchen counter where I throw the mail and my keys. I have the following items on my bedside table: Whats on yours?

• lamp
• tissues
• picture of my hubby and me
• bible
• book
• baby monitor
• sippy cup that seems to reappear each night no matter how many times I take it downstairs.
• toy dinosaur
• chap stick
• mentholatum rub-I'm addicted to the stuff and put it under my nose when I'm stuffy and under my eyes when I have sinus problems.

Pucker up

This is my son with my brother and sister in law. My brothers name is Christopher, we call him Moose, my sister in laws name is Amanda, we call her Mandy, their dogs name is Bass, we call him Hyper Bass, the pond that they are fishing at we call it Ford Pond because my sister in law accidentally drowned my brothers new Ford truck in it.

You know your in for a rough day when the temperature gauge on the back deck reads 99 degrees and the cable is out all day due to an outage in Columbus and surrounding areas. Hot and no TV are not a good combo when you have a toddler.

I havent written in a while because we have been out of town for the past 10 days. We went to TN to visit the family and celebrate Prestons 3rd birthday. Here are a few pics of the things we saw and did during our visit.

Girly time

Last weekend Trinity got invited to a princess birthday party. The boys stayed home so it was just Trinity and I and about 16 other little girls along with some of their moms. It was a fun party where they did the girls hair and makeup. I have to admit its been a long time since Ive been around so many girls but I had fun and so did she. While the girls played I got some time with other women to just sit and relax and talk about the important things such as whats on sale, our husbands and the best chocolate cake place. I know that as Preston gets older he will be stuck to his daddy's side and it will give Trinity and I a chance to do girly things. Girly things like shopping , talking about boys and eating chocolate cake in between the shopping, all the finer things of womanhood!

You have got to be kidding me..

There is nothing more annoying that being woken up at 1am from a much needed sleep by a beeping noise coming from 1 of the 7 smoke detectors in the house because it has a low battery.

To the manufacturers of smoke detectors, just a question for ya, but is there a reason why you cant make the green light turn red when its the one with a low battery so you can distinguish which one it is.
Very annoying when 5 of our smoke detectors are upstairs and within feet of one another and no way of telling which one is beeping.

I give up on this week....

This week sucks. Monday starts off with a car wreck outside my house caused by a 15 year old, Tuesday we get locked out of our house, Wednesday Preston is really sick and no one gets any sleep, and today on Thursday I fall. Yep I fell once again on steps at our house. As you recall the last time was down our basement steps. Im not normally this clumsy and I know how to walk up and down steps but for some reason steps and I have a battle going on and Im definitely losing. These steps werent just any cushiony steps either oh no, these didnt have a nice padding of carpet on them these were the steps to the front stoop on our house so it was good old concrete that broke my ass's fall as I fell backwards. I went out to get the mail and just didnt have my footing and down I went from the top landing bouncing once on my butt really hard and then falling back and hitting my head. My head I can deal with my broken butt is another issue. Im right now at this moment sitting on the couch with a heating pad on my ass that is numb from the pain. Im going to have one good old bruise and Id take a picture of it after it comes in really nice and purplish but I will save you the drama of seeing my big bruised ass. I give up on this week, it sucks and instead of being a pain in the ass I have a pain in my ass. If Friday is anything like the rest of the week I am moving to Australia, surely they dont have days like this.

I had to ask....

I had to ask what Wednesday would bring and it brought sickness. Preston's cough has gotten a million times worse and now he can barely speak from a sore throat. He is on the verge of getting Bronchiolitis, he gets it once a year. Its a common illness of the respiratory tract caused by an infection that affects the tiny airways, called the bronchioles, that lead to the lungs. As these airways become inflamed, they swell and fill with mucus, making breathing difficult. Yeah I so copied and pasted that.
He has an inhaler that he has to use when he does get this yucky stuff but it doesn't seem to help much. He has been sleeping in our room on the floor because he is coughing so much that he actually gags and gasp for air. He sleeps under the humidifier but he ends up in our bed before the night is over. The sleeping arrangements are with Lowel comfortably sleeping on his side of the bed with plenty of room to roll and stretch out and Preston is suppose to be in the middle however he is all up on my side pressing his bony knees, elbows, feet and hands in my back and me with less than an inch from the side curled up hanging on to dear life trying not to fall out of bed and wake Preston up. Needless to say my body aches and I haven't slept in 2 days. What about my husband you ask? Well he is Mr. Sunshine with plenty of sleep and his skin is glowing from all of the beauty rest he has gotten and he skips into work while whistling Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah. He is probably milking a Starbucks Latte as we speak while I am using a bulb syringe trying to get the yuckies out of Prestons nose. Tonight I'm sleeping on the floor.

Krogers card more than just groceries

Monday I dealt with a wreck outside our house and today I dealt with being locked out of the house with Preston. We decided once it warned up around 11 to walk over to the park so I grabbed my garage door opener as usual and when Preston insisted on shutting the door from the garage to the house I didn't think anything of it until we tried getting back in and the door was locked. I was forced to make the one call that I did not want to make to my hubby from work , he was going to have to come home to let us in and he wasn't happy about it. I tried all of the doors and all of the windows with no luck, I decided to try my luck at picking the locks on the door, nope. I then found a Kroger's card in my glove compartment and tried opening the door that way and what do you know, bingo, it opened. I guess if all else fails and we have to resort then I can always become a burglar, just me and my Kroger's card. Cant wait to see what Wednesday has in store for me!

Not what I imagined a Monday would be like

Yesterday started off as any old day, Preston and I went to the grocery store like we do every Monday and then came home and since it was cold outside we played inside. After putting Preston down for nap somewhat early because he was coughing a bunch I sat downstairs and within minutes heard the loudest noises that I had ever heard. It sounded like a house blowing up so I ran outside and realized that two cars had collided at the back corner of our house on the street. Had the cars not collided one of the vehicles would of been in our back yard and over the top of our swingset. I was the first one out there so I checked on everyone and they were conscious but not moving very well. Another neighbor called 911. In the end both people involved went to the hospital , the one girl driving was only 15 and was not wearing a seat belt. I stayed with her to keep her calm and kept checking on the older man in the other vehicle. He had his seat belt on. Before the ambulance took both of them off the young girl asked how much trouble she was in and if her parents were going to be really mad at her. I told her that her parents will be glad that she is alive and not hurt seriously. After I walked back to my house I wondered how would I react as a parent and I had no answer other than my first thought would be are they alive and ok. I would kick their ass later of course. It made me think about how grateful I was that no one was seriously hurt, that Preston and I weren't outside playing, and that I wasn't 15 years old again and careless. Her father stopped by the house this morning to thank me for staying with his daughter and started crying when I filled him in on the details of the wreck. He said that his daughter told him all about me and how I held her hand the entire hand. At the time I didnt think about it but after he left it made me think about my friend that passed away in a car wreck and I wondered if someone had been there to hold her hand and even though I dont know the answer I want to believe that someone was.

Preposterous

This is the first time I have ever used the word preposterous because any other time I would say that something is full of shit! However to get my point across I'm going to use the word preposterous when describing our local gas prices and I'm going to use the word preposterous as many times as I can during this entry and this will probably be the last time I use the word preposterous because lets face it the word shit is much easier to type and much more fun to say. This is a look at today's local gas prices, aren't they preposterous?

This is Preston standing in the bathroom this morning trying to sink the cheerios.And this is Preston explaining to me why he cant get anything to come out and his explanation is because mommy cut all of his hair off last night. I was not aware that Preston had strength in his hair such as Samson and when I cut it off I also cut off his power to pee. Duh mommy!

Things you will and wont find on a box of cheerios

Cheerios Bee happy-Bee healthy

• can help lower cholesterol
• has 13 vitamins and minerals
• has cute bee if there is such a thing
• Low fat
• Good source of calcium
• Good source of whole grain
• Helps reduce the risk of heart disease
• Excellent source of iron
• Works well with potty training
• Makes a great target
• All boys big and small should use them
• does not sink when you pee on them
• a box of cheerios is less money than a box of diapers

Its official the entire downstairs of our house has now all been painted. This is a before and after of the family room.

Choo Choo

If given the choice Preston would choose going to the old railroad depot vs. going to the park so yesterday thats exactly what we did. We played on the trains. I know that this is a boy thing and all boys big or small are attracted to trains and while I sat and watched my son play I thought about how much fun my dad would have playing on the trains as well. Dad when you come to visit we will skip the playground and just play on the trains.

Beauty and the Curse

The trees in our backyard over the past 2 days have changed from this to this....and now my sinus look like this.

Another room painted...still more to go

Prestons old room and now his new room

Coming up new

When you move you never know what your going to get, thats true with landscaping as well. You never know what has already been planted, what spring will bring and you wait to see what will pop up out of the ground next. These are one of my favorite things in our backyard and they line the backyard and side of the house. They smell wonderful and are beautiful. I believe they may be some type of cherry blossom but not 100% sure. Im waiting for one of my 3 moms to tell me what they are (mom, stepmom, motherinlaw).

We bought rubber mulch this weekend for Prestons sand box because we arent fans of sand and he just pushes stuff around with his dumptrucks and bulldozers anyways and we are now looking into putting this around the house for mulch instead of the real stuff. This rubber mulch says its nontoxic, repells insects, wont fade for 10-15 years , wont blow away, no mold and looks just like the real stuff. They have it in several colors so we are looking for the black now. Its 100% safe for people and plants so Im all for it if I dont have to replace my mulch every spring.

Finally the tables turned

My hubby somehow has managed to never get peed, pooped, or thrown up on by one of the kids...that is until now. Preston has been sick for several days and while I have been covered in poop and throw up, yeah its gross but its life, my hubby has managed to stay clean and smelling like a daisy. What do I smell like...regurgitated 4 letter word that was my grandmothers favorite saying and it starts with s and ends in t. The other day, however the vomit fairies were looking out for me and spared me and turned the tables around on the hubby. Who by the way, way overreacted and jumped up in horror and disgust. Its just throw up. As I was cleaning up the couch, floor and everything else and sent the guys up to the shower I was secretly thinking its about darn time you got a taste of what I always get. I had a smile on my face but only for a second because its really hard to smile while cleaning up throw up. If my hubby ever took my job as a stay at home mom for granted and thought that it was easy I think for that mere minute that he wouldn't want that job for anything in the world and appreciated all I do..even if it was just for a minute, it was a minute of being puke free for me.
P.S -Preston is starting to feel better now.

Fun website

I love this website: perpetualkid.com and I think this item is pretty funny LOOKIN' GOOD FOR JESUS LIP BALM. They also have PLAY-DOH COLOGNE SPRAY, BOYS ARE SMELLY SPRAY, UNDERSTAND YOUR MOTHER BREATH SPRAY and BACON BANDAGES.

Still even more work in progress

There are no before pics of the finished basement but it has been painted as well because it was a very ugly orange and not the beautiful, wonderful, talented Tennessee orange color either.

Still work in progress

Trinitys room color stayed the same but it went from this to this...

Work in progress

The living room / office has now been painted.


From this to this.

Life in the new house is taking some getting used to. First of all my allergies are killing me, the house sat empty for a while before we moved in therefore there is a lot of dust and moving just made it all come to surface. I have cleaned so much that I cant smell anything, my throat is sore and closed up and I cant feel the skin on the tips of my fingers, thats what happens when you scrub down an entire house with brillo pads.
The first day I fell down the steps to the basement but Im recovering from that and the numbness in my back is finally going away and all that is left is a few more bruises that are taking their sweet time going away. I think the fall scared my mother in law more than me. Probably the thought that if I was really hurt that she would have to take care of the little ones kicked in so that would be enough to scare anyone. Note to self, we now have 2 sets of steps and the kids love to play and leave toys on them so look before you step.
This weekend we had beautiful weather on Sunday with temps in the lower 60's. We havent had that type of weather in a long time. We were able to put the trampoline up for the kids, finally get our cars into the garage, we walked to the playground that is one block away and let the kids tire themselves out, and later Preston terrorized our new neighbors while driving the gator down the road.
All in all it was a good weekend and the house is starting to look like a home. Come visit.