Little house of horrors

Hannah has become good friends with Anne, one of our neighbor girls.  She is a little older than Hannah, so of course Hannah idolizes her.    She has a chameleon, a tropical fish tank, and she likes to grow carnivorous plants.  Not only is she older and has a ton of interesting stuff, but she is very knowledgeable about plants and animals and loves to share her knowledge.  That's great because Hannah has plenty of questions.  She has sparked curiosity in Hannah, and now she is growing her own carnivorous plant and is looking forward to the time when she has saved up enough money to buy a green anole lizard.

I love her love of beauty

Hannah is constantly amazing me with her ability to observe and appreciate the world around her. As we rush through life to get things done, she is the type of girl who not only stops to smell the roses, she touches them, studies them, photographs them, draws them and carries them with her all day long. I have come to appreciate the sunrises and sunsets much more with Hannah around to point out their beauty. I hope that she never loses her desire to capture the beauty of the world around her and share it with others. Here are a few pictures that she has taken in the past few months.

And here is a picture that I took of her after she played a prank on me. So here is a challenge: Among this mess, can you find and appreciate the beauty of it? It's hard for me too.

Another 7 years of bad luck for me

The other day I stepped on a mirror that one of the kids had left face down on the bathroom floor. As I heard the crack underneath my foot, the first thought that popped into my head was, "Oh no! Another 7 years of bad luck!"

By the time I was ten, I had racked up about 42 years of bad luck by breaking mirrors. How do I know this? Because I had two older sisters who have the memory of elephants and kept track of every thing that I had ever broken in my life. It's not my fault that we had an incredible amount of portable mirrors in our house, or that they were so fun to look into while walking around the house. It is very disorienting to look into a mirror while walking around, but very fun. I may have also used other methods to break a few mirrors, but this is the only one that I remember. I know that I have broken a few more hand mirrors since then, because I am very good at dropping things, but I stopped keeping track years ago.

I will explain my take on superstitions through a story about Madeline: On June 6, 2006, I was at a routine doctor's appointment, and I was nearing the end of my pregnancy. That morning had seemed a little more intense than usual in the contractions department, and I mentioned it to my doctor. He checked a few things and determined that since she was breech we needed to get this baby out before she decided to come out on her own. It was perfect timing, she was past the premature stage, and the hospital schedule was wide open, why? Because it was the dreaded 6/6/06. To that, John replied, "we don't care, give us the room under the ladder with the black cat and the open umbrella, we want to have this baby." That evening, I was very thankful that we had gone through with the scheduling because the contractions were strong and less than 2 minutes apart by the time I received my spinal epidural for my c-section. I have never regretted that our sweet, funny, Madeline was born on 6/6/06.

I just think to myself, if this is bad luck, I'll gladly have it for the rest of my life.

Guest Bed

In February we finished the Guest Bedroom, well everything but carpet and fluffy things to make it seem comfortable. On the day after we painted the room, my mom came to spend the night. I, being 50% crazy, decided that she must not sleep in there until she had a head-board. I wish that I would have taken more pictures of the process, but this is how it went, give or take a few hours ;) (actually the times may be way off, but the order is right)

5:00--mom shows up at our house, we are happy to see her.
5:30--I show her the guest room, and tell her that I wish the bed had a headboard.
5:45--I go into John's work room and find some plywood.
5:50--I measure the bed, wall and board. Then draw a symmetrical design on the wood.
6:30--Mom visits with me and is a very good sport as I recruit her to be my helper.
7:00--Mom helps me hold the wood while I cut the design with a jigsaw.
7:45--I use Maddie's old comforter as the padding for the headboard, mom helps me stretch it across the headboard and patiently holds it while I staple it to the board.
8:30--I find some material that I was going to use to cover some lampshades, it fits perfectly so she helps me stretch that across the top. She stretches and holds, I staple.
9:00--We position it above the bed, and she helps me hold it in place while I nail it to the wall.
9:30--We make the bed. Mom is tired.
10:00--Good night mom, I love you!

How lucky am I to have a mom who supports me so well in all of my hair-brained ideas? Very lucky. We have quite a few more fluffy and functional things to add before it seems comfortable, but we are happy to have a real bed for our guests to sleep on now.

I added some fabric covered buttons and covered the nail heads with them. It looks pretty darn good for a cheap homemade job. It works for now, and I will always remember my mom sticking with me through the whole project.

There's a comedian in the house!

There is something about John's sense of humor that our children love so much.  I don't blame them, he makes me laugh too.

The way to my heart is through my funny bone

So it's a good thing that I married John, one of the funniest people I have ever known. I love his random notes. They are very sweet, make me laugh, and make me feel so special. Thanks John.

A table covered in wheat has never seemed so sweet ;)

On St. Patricks Day we have a tradition of making some sort of a treat to lure the Leprechauns into a trap that we make. We have yet to catch one, but we sure enjoy making the treats. This year we made some rainbow cake and put it in the trap. John snatched a piece and taped it to the mirror with a gold leprechaun coin and a note. Yes it was messy, but it made me laugh, and for some reason it makes me feel even more special that he can muscle through his overwhelming disdain of sticky/messy things just for me.

I don't even know what to title this post...

but these pictures make me laugh. All of these pictures were taken in March, and seem to describe my life as a mom right now. Maddie told me that she likes sorting things, I remember at the time thinking that she did a great job at it. If you look closely enough you can see why she put certain things together. She makes me laugh.

I don't know why this picture is sideways, it is the right way in our file. Anyway, we have been clamping down on T.V. and computer on Sundays, so this is how Hannah spent her time during one Sunday in March. The upper picture shows what we shouldn't do on Sunday (use a blowtorch) and the lower picture shows what we should do (sleep). Though I love the drool coming out of her mouth, I think that maybe John and I should stop taking such long naps on Sunday.

Hannah and her friend, Gabby, have been feeling very crafty lately. I have a bin of scrap material in our basement that they can use, and they have spent hours making clothes for Hannah's webkinz, girly utility belts, hats and capes.

My handsome Borg husband...

Lucy doing yard cleanup duty in the rain with her latest favorite outfit. Her tutu swimming suit and rainbow leggings. She she was worried about the balls getting wet, and she needed an excuse to use the umbrella.

I'm not even going to try to describe this one, but notice John in the background. Haha! Don't give up hope John! He is still young, there is time. The look on Johnny's face looks kind of tortured, maybe he is just realizing that he may regret me taking this picture someday.

April 2, 2011

April 2, 2011
Today I let Johnny slam the door to his room, and I didn't say anything about it. Later he told me calmly that he was mad and why, I think that we are making some headway. I love that boy.