get out of my head man!

It seems like everywhere I go lately I hear the song "Secret Agent Man" and I swear it sounds like he's singing "secret Asian man"...drives me crazy. Now watch, next time you hear the song you will think of this and the song will forever be ruined for you! lol sorry

yay

My best friend from N. Dakota, Jana, found me on MySpace today. I'm pretty excited...and since my page directs people here to my blog, she will see this. Hi Jana! lol

It's been quite awhile...got your Christmas postcard from 2006 so it had to be before that I think. But that is always how it is with me and Jana...usually I find her though ;)

camping out

I took this pic of my children's really dirty feet yesterday while they were playing in the tent. It was funny to look out the window and see this...I had to be super quiet to sneak up on them and take the picture. lol

So Emma asked me if they could sleep in their tent last night. I said sure thinking that when it came down to it, they would be too scared to actually try and sleep in the backyard. No such luck. They were serious!

They took their blankets and pillows out there and all evening would come in and out of the house. They had no light outside and I didn't have the right size batteries for their new flashlight. But they still insisted on sleeping out there.

So Aaron and I get ready to go to bed and go out to check on them and they were sound asleep! I accidentally woke up Emma and asked her if she needed more blankets and she said "yes, thank you Mommy, thank you". Awww she is so sweet. So I brought them 2 more blankets and then a blanket to cover the bottom edge (it doesn't close). Emma had already put 2 blankets on top of the tent to make sure they stayed warm.

Aaron was not pleased with this at all. He stared out our bedroom window for like 20 minutes before he tried to go to sleep. He was cracking me up because he was being so overprotective. The coolest part was the fact that our dog Caleb stayed out there with them. Normally he sleeps on the floor at the end of our bed. When I had gone out to check on the girls he was sitting right by their tent and he stood up but wouldn't leave the spot.

Everytime we checked on the girls Caleb was right by the tent. He is such a good dog and I really proud of him. But, they didn't stay out there all night. Around 5 Sara woke up and wanted to come inside so she woke up Emma then crawled in bed with us. Emma made herself a bed on the couch (don't know why she didn't just get in her bed).

I don't think that it will be a regular habit. Aaron got a horrible night's sleep. He said that Caleb woke him up barking one time and then he got up 2 other times to check on the girl's. I told him just wait until they are teenagers and want to date! lol

Proposition 3*17

Guinness is working to make St. Patrick's Day an official US holiday. In order to pass, the brewers of Guinness need 1 million signatures by midnight on March 16th. This is the only way that it will make it to Congress. In order to vote, go to http://www.proposition317.com

Of course I support this being Irish and all. You can't have a maiden name like O'Brien and not want St. Patrick's Day a holiday!!! St. Patrick was awesome. He totally ran around spreading Christianity. Okay, there is more to his story, but you can Google that for yourself.

And don't get me started on the Catholics right now. Changing St. Patrick's Day to the 15th this year! I seriously have a rant about it and both Aaron, his Asst. Manager and my mom had to hear it yesterday. I won't go into it here, but let me say for the record that St. Patrick's Day is March 17 and it always will be!!!

ham

Sara just asked me what ham is made out of and I told her "pigs". She said "no, bacon is made from pigs, ham is made from fish skin....but I like it" ROFL!! She is too funny!

new tent/playhouse

Since the girl's spend the majority of their day in the backyard I thought it would be cool to get them a "playhouse". I found this tent on clearance at Target for $12.50 and it came with a tent, sleeping bag, flashlight, headband and water bottle all in a cute little backpack.
When Aaron got home from work the girl's had to surprise Aaron with it. Boy are they Daddy's girls!
This is my attempt at taking a picture of the butterfly on top by just holding the camera in the air. I tried 3 times and this was the best one! lol
Emma asked if they could stay the night in the tent. I said sure but I know that they will be too scared to really sleep out there.

finger puppets

Since I had to go to Frisco yesterday I went by Ikea. I got a bunch of cool stuff, but I will show you all that later once I have it put up in the girl's room.

But I had to take pictures of Sara and Aaron playing with the new finger puppets. They are so freakin cute! I got them both sets, one of sea animal and one of wild animals, plus a cute little green bag to put them in.

The sea animal set has a crab, octopus, squid, turtle, 2 fish, a whale, shark, seahorse and starfish. The wild animals set comes with a lion, panda, bear, parrot, moose, giraffe, monkey, frog, elephant and bird.

I found pictures on Ikea's website of the sets...and the bag I got to put them in. I picked a green bag because I am totally into green right now. But I want to go back and pick up a red and blue bag too since they are so soft and the girl's really like it.

lizards

I went out to the car to get something and on the way back in the house I spotted this mama and baby lizard. The mama was actually pretty big, about 7 inches or so. I went inside to get my camera and tell the girls, then when I moved in for a closer shot, the lizards started running and me and the girl's started screaming. lol

Backyard picnic

Now that we finally have a house again, the girl's spend the majority of their time everyday in the backyard. They have their blue Ikea table and stools out there and of course an umbrella for shade.

Today they decided to have a picnic. They did everything themselves, including making their own sandwiches (well Emma made them). They also have "little weinies" (Vienna sausages), Goldfish crackers, water bottles and Sunny Delight.

It's hard to see in the picture, but they neatly lined up their shoes in the corner. They have created their little getaway right in the middle of the yard. I can't wait for spring to really hit and the trees get leaves. We have 2 mature trees in the back yard and they are perfect to play under. There is even a big stone under one of the trees where fairies live. Well, at least that is what I told the girls!

We Moved

I have been holding off on posting about our move because I had no desire to blog whatsoever. What is adding to that is my camera batteries are almost completely dead and a piece of the charger came up missing. And it's $40 to replace. I will work that out soon....can't live without pictures.

So we moved 2 weeks ago. I am still nowhere near unpacking (it's soooooooo boring!). The movei tself was horrible! We rented a 26 foot truck, got our stuff out of storage, went to Budget Suites to get the rest of our stuff (but didn't put anything into the truck), decided to unload at the house then come right back, drove to Watauga (like 25 minutes away), unloaded half of our stuff.

Once we got to Watauga, we decided to load up Budget Suites the next day. Before we had left BS, we had left Anthony there to play on the computer. When we got back 4 hours later (and at 1o at night) he was still there!! Poor baby, I thought my mom was pciking him up and she thought he was with me. He didn't care, he got to play on the internet forever!

So we grabbed Anthony and our pillows and blankets and went to our new house. Then the next day, Ashley was supposed to help me finish packing and moving, but she didn't feel good so it was just me and Anthony. Aaron went ahead and came over to help and my mom came later to help us unload the truck at the new house. It actually took me and Anthony 7 hours to finish at BS.

Okay so we are unloaded, and I hook up my washing machine and dryer. My beautiful, wonderful, front loading washing machine....that doesn't work!! AHHHHHH!!!! So we have a 4 year warranty on it and I call Conn's and the soonest they can get anyone out is 5 days away. Fine. He came out , fixed it and told me that the machine wasn't getting any water out of one of the faucets.

So later that night I went next door (the owner's son lives next door) and told them that I need water to use my machine. So he comes over and starts fixing it. Well, whatever he was doing made water come up under the cabinets and it was leaking from under my fridge. I freaked out! We just bought the fridge when we moved in and I thought it was leaking. But no it wasn't and he fixed the problem with the water.

So about 2 hours later our toilet wouldn't flush and the water was backing into the bath tub! EWWWW So it was 9pm and we called the owner of the house and told him of the problem. He said that he would call me right back. An hour later we hadn't heard from him and decided to just go to bed, we didn't know what else to do. Then the owner showed up with a plumber! I thought that was so cool, what a nice guy to make sure it was taken care of. So they fixed that and it was roots in the pipes.

So 3 days later, my washing machine breaks again. I call Conn's 4 days wait to get someone out here. So when the guy comes out, it is working fine! This is so frustrating!! But he ordered a replacement part to make sure that it wouldn't keep happening. He's a nice guy and he is supposed to be out here later today to install it.

So for those of you who don't know me, I drive an old 1988 Jeep. I love my Jeep but she isn't running right and is sitting at Aaron's work. So we only have Aaron's car (a cute Saturn that someone gave us...yes literally gave us a car because they didn't want to hassle with changing the battery!!!)...well now the starter, struts and brakes are all going out! I don't know what the heck is going on with us, but we are just bad luck right now!

So there is our moving story. I have dreaded to bring up all this again but since I blog the smallest stuff, I couldn't leave out the big stuff. There, now I'm done...yay!

Ultimate Blog Party

UBP is basically a cool open house for your blog--share the URL with your readers, link it in your blog, introduce yourself, add yourself to the link list and browse the list for new fun reads. And even better, give & receive comments. And you all know I like comments!

You are supposed to tell a little about yourself. I am a stay at home mom to Anthony, Emma and Sara. We are in our 2nd year of homeschooling and we love it. Someday I will leave Texas and move to Washington state! I like to read but I never seem to make time for it. I also love to BLOG!! That's pretty apparent considering I have 4 of them!! Yeah, y'all only know about 3 of them because I don't advertise the other....makes you wonder what it is, doesn't it? lol

Well...the cool thing about this party is that you can win prizes. So here is my list of prizes I would like to win (I am trying to get some hair bows and a hair bow holder as a prize).....

#119 Personalized lunch box by Girl, That's Cute!
#128 Yoga for Christians by Kathleen Marie
#80 Scripture Doll by Live, Laugh, Blog

new games for the kids

So yesterday Ashley and I took the kid's over to CCA (thrift store). It's their anniversary so pretty much everything in the store was 50% off, including toys and games. I got all of these games for the kid's and the most I paid for any of them was $1.55!!!
Today my mom and I went back and got even more games. Then we went to Half Price Books and I helped Emma pick out these two books. They are so pretty. Every page has glitter on it and the illustrations are pretty enough without the glitter! And the glitter is sealed so it won't rub off, that's a bonus.

This is the book for Sara. It has pull out tabs that change the story.

pasta again

Well Emma got pasta again for lunch. But this time it is mini cheese ravioli. I mixed in a little shredded italian cheese, then she has strawberries, veggie mix (corn, green beans, peas and carrots) in a heart shaped cookie cutter to hold the shape and 1/2 of a mini bagel (cut in half) with a little butter on it.

new stuff from the internet

I got a couple of things form the internet. I love that both Amazon and Ebay don't require me to have my credit card on hand to order from them...so if Aaron takes the debit card....I can always just shop online.

I actually got some cool stuff though. I ordered these 2 videos for the kids from Amazon. They had good ratings and the kids need more physical exercise. Of course I did order these before I knew we were moving so I have a feeling that I won't need them....we will have a backyard and that means freedom...and peace and quiet...it just keeps getting better and better! lol
Okay, someone on the message boards raved about this dog brush. They paid $70!!!! for it and said that it worked great. Well Caleb is a shedder and I hate it! Dog hair everywhere. I found mine on Ebay and won the auction at $21 and paid $5 for shipping...I saved $44! See, the internet is good for something!
This is Aaron about to leave for work this morning. I wanted to take his pic and instead of being a nice obliging husband, he gave me this face...which of course I didn't notice until the camera took the picture. For those of you who don't know Aaron....the problem with the pic is that he is oversmiling....yes you read it right...oversmiling. And he's doing it on purpose!
So he did this for the next one!~ He actually stuck his tongue out at me 2 different times, but I only caught one on camera. For that I said, I'm going to blog it. lol He doesn't understand my blogging obsession and it's now become a threat....if you don't I will blog it....that was funny, I'm gonna blog it....let me take a pic for my blog....he hates it. I tell him that someday he will appreciate that I saved such trivial memories.
Then he just outright refused to let me take a good pic of him. Whatever, go off to work and make some pizza's pizza man!

moving

Okay so we are finally moving! We have been here for 6 months and we have all developed cabin fever from the tiny space. What is funny is that the house we are moving to isn't very big at all. Not at all....940 square feet!!! But we are getting a pretty sweet deal, so I'm okay with it.

It's gonna be a change moving from Lewisville to Watauga...say Watauga 3 times fast! What a horrible city name. We will be right on the border of Watauga and North Richland Hills. Right up the street from the brand new library they are building and will have open mid-April.

The house is little but has a HUGE backyard! First thing on my list is a swingset for the kids. And a bench for the front porch. The kid's are going to have so much fun being ableto run free in the backyard. And for Anthony, Watauga has a skate park. He will be in heaven.

Plus my friend Ashley wants to move nearby and her mom lives in North Richland Hills. And has a pool! Ashley is going to be babysitting her 8 year old brother this summer and has decided that me and the kids are just gonna swim all day and then we can get tan. Works for me!

Aaron will only be about 10 minutes away from work. We could buy the house if we wanted to but we have decided to just rent. Looks like Washington is a few years down the road...yes I said a few years. How heartbreaking! The only reason we stayed here for so long was because we were planning on moving out of state. Some people knew that and others didn't so it was confusing to people as to why we would live here when we didn't have to. Oh well.

Hopefully we can move next Thursday.....a backyard and my own space...I'm beyond excited!!

Emma's lunch Feb 21

Here is Emma's lunch today. She loves pasta and veggies together and I'm so proud of her for making healthy food choices.
She has cantalope, strawberries, and a mini corn muffin (with honey on top of the batter, it made it so crunchy and sweet). Then pasta salad. Today's pasta salad was made from whole wheat rotini pasta with ranch and italian dressing, chunks of chicken, shredded italian cheese, and a veggie mix of corn, carrots, peas and green beans.

Lunar Eclipse

So there was an eclipse last night and we took the kids outside to see it. Really it wasn't that spectatular. And when the kid's asked us what an eclipse was, we had no idea. Some teacher I am...lol We haven't gotten that far in Science yet! I used night vision on my camera and this is how the pics came out.

yesterday's bento lunches

Here is Emma's bento lunch from yesterday. She wanted it in her new Hello Kitty bento box.
She got leftover spaghetti with parmesan cheese, broccoli, strawberries, yo-go's and there is ranch dressing in the little HK container.
Here is Sara's lunch in the Minnie Mouse bento box. She has cheddar cheese, heart bologna, pineapple and a teddy bear shaped mustard sandwich....that goes on top.

Emma's breakfast

Nothing too inspiring here but the kid's want any excuse to use their new bento stuff. It's just strawberries and rolled up pancakes.

dinner in new bento

Here is Emma's dinner last night. Grapes, cheese chunks, strawberries and then pasta salad. The pasta is made up of whole wheat penne pasta, a little bit of low-fat ranch, Olive Garden Italian dressing, shredded cheese, baby corn, broccoli, snap peas and carrots.

Sara just had pineapple, cheese and grapes.