An Unwanted House Guest

As most of you know, I am TERRIFIED of spiders. Something always seems to happen when Steve is away, and this time these two mixed. I was going outside to take the garbage out this morning and right on the corner of our back gate as I opened it up- a huge black widow mama with her egg sack. Let me tell you, this ain't no googled image either! I freaked as I saw her move. I jumped to get the trash can, then ran through the gate to set it on the curb. Now.... mission: get this spider. So I ran inside shaking like a leaf and grabbed a bottle of bug spray. I went back out to spray her and she was gone. I immediately look down at my feet and stepped around frantically to make sure its no where near me. Then I saw she went further in the corner. I "snapped" on that thing to say the very least, and stood their compulsively blasting it over and over until the bottle was about empty. Well it died of course, but what was I going to do with the egg sack filled with like 400 eggs? I wasn't waiting until a bug person could get out here. All I could think about is that if I wait, they could all hatch. Didn't want that. So I got the sack with a pitch-fork and set it on the rocks and torched it. However when the covering of the sack burned off, some of the eggs just spilled into the rocks... so I had to saturate that part with more spray we had. Then I marked the area with fluorescent spray paint for the bug man to look at first thing Monday morning. Aahhhhh, what an eewy morning!! I have to admit too... I got chills writing this!

Fort Fun

The boys decided to build some forts to sleep in last night. Since my oldest started Kindergarten and my younger one is back to preschool, I have been pretty relaxed on Friday's and let them loose in the evenings after their long and hard week. So they gathered up all the pillows in the house, drug out all the blankets from the closets and made their little sleeping forts. Big brother wanted his fort in the loft, and little brother next to my bed. Well... after big brother worked so hard on building his fort he fell asleep on the couch! When little brother was tired I woke him to potty and he insisted on going to his fort to finish his rest for the night. It was funny because he literally layed right down and closed his eyes in sleep that moment.

While big brother was fast asleep, I helped little brother spice up his fort with his "mamas" pillows. He felt very special. However, my little boy has been very talkative and inquisitive lately. He is in the stage where he is trying to figure things out and asks about EVERYTHING. So instead of sleeping in his fort, I got a series of questions thrown my way as I was in bed next to him getting ready to go to sleep. He was so darn cute, here was a few of the funny things he raved on about:

-"Mom, when you were a baby, did we play together?"
-"Did you sniff your blankie like me too?"
-"We both have blue eyes, but that would be cool if yours turned pink, because you like pink, huh?"



After coming up with some creative answers for my interrogating 4 year old he told me, "Its too hot over here". So he threw his blankie out of his fort to try to make it cooler. Then he told me hes just going to sleep with me tonight, because he likes it when the fan blows on him. So in with mama... where he fell asleep.

The Princess & The Poodle

So, I always love hanging out with my Mom. The older I get, the more I love to be around her... she really is my best friend. Another person who I absolutely love is my sister. Even though shes in her cool and sometimes moody teenage years, I take great pride in the fact she likes to chill with her nerdy sis. So yesterday we were all together at my Mom's place enjoying the day and watching the Olympics (GO MICHAEL PHELPS). My mom had this great idea of me perming her hair. So of course going to get supplies at Sally's with my sister, my sister decides she wants to go blonde. I knew it was going to be a fun night doing these jobs. Now, I have never given a perm and have always thought that perms were so 80's... but that's what my mom is- an 80's chick and a cute one at that. The lady at Sally's was a retired beautician so she gave me the low-down on how to give a perm. To be quite honest, it was pretty simple and I had so much fun doing it! Her whole house smelled like sulfur and everyone kept asking... "ewwww who pooped" every so often. I was coloring my sister's hair after the stinky perm and as I was half-way through and realizing how thick her hair is I knew we were going to run out. So my mom had to rush back to Sally's and buy some more color so I could finish. Her hair turned out F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S! We did forget the gloves so I am suffering 3rd degree chemical burns on my fingers today! :) After we were all done my beautiful girl couldn't stop looking at herself in the mirror as she was styling her new blonde hair. I'm so pleased with how they turned out- knowing that these jobs really could have gone sour with my inexperience. I do know that perms are so over-curly when they are just done, and my Mom's was!! I have to say that it did resemble a poodle...

And The Witches Stand

Lunch With Brother Bear

Since my oldest started Kindergarten, I have gotten to have lunch with him twice in the cafeteria at his school. What a treat!!! My Mr. Man loves seeing his mama and it is always a joy to take a break during the day and visit his world. The first time I went, sympathy was the persuader in the event. It was the second week of school and my lil' guy was having a hard time that Monday morning. He woke up tired, and realizing that Kindergarten entails long days and a long week. After his first week at K, he told me "Mom, its Friday and that means I get a whole summer break now from school" (since he has come to grips with the reality of Kindergarten). I dropped him off at school that Monday and he comes darting out his class running to me and crying and just jumped on me and told me he was going to miss me today. So that's when I decided that this was the day I went to lunch with him. Well, I enjoyed it sooooo stinkin' much that I decided today my little one and I were going to visit brother bear (what I call them) and have lunch with him today together.

It was pizza day, which was always my favorite in Elementary School too. This was a virgin experience for my baby, so his big bro totally took the lead and showed him the cafeteria etiquette. When we were done eating we got to play on the playground for recess, and oh what a great dessert that was! My big boy has a very special friend in class that we have known prior to Kindergarten. Its a blessing that they happened to be in the same class this year. Well he absolutely LOVES my guys' little brother. The three played so well and then the whistle blew... Before lining up my Kindergartner gave his brother a sweet hug and they looked at each other with tears in their eyes. My little boy said "I will miss you brother" which naturally brought a tear to my eye as well. It was such a moment to look at them looking at eachother with love. What great friends and playmates these boys are... (Its really a love/hate relationship though). So I was told by Mr. Bossy Sprocket that we need to do this every week!

A Place For Homework

So, I got this bright idea to refinish some old vintage school desks for the boys. I found some real junkers on Craig's List... I saw potential. I thought it would be pretty simple to do- just stain the wood and spray some paint on the metal right?!! Well the more I looked at it and realized how much rust and peeling paint there was it turned out to be a lengthy project to say the least. Oh, plus some of the wood was cracking as well. So I discovered wood filler and wood glue... ahhhh loved that stuff. The boys were so excited to have mom complete the jobs, I heard over and over "Mom, are you finished yet?"

Here is a before and after of them.

I LOVED the way they turned out, and it was definitely well worth the 4 liters of fluid I lost due to sweating in the hot garage working on them. Especially to see the kiddies so happy to have their own "space" to do their crafts and school work. They filled up some of that empty office space we had too. :) I really like the way old school desks are made, I'm glad the boys get to have a piece of the antique world.

Kitty's Birthday

My youngest woke up this morning and decided it was Kitty's Birthday today. Kitty is his favorite black and white stuffed animal, he takes her everywhere. He told me this morning she was turning "4" today. I just thought this was the cutest thing, so I told him, "Honey, why don't we have a party for Kitty today?" He immediately said "Oh, and shes gonna have a Wall E. cake, wif cherries on it." So after dinner today, we decided the party was on. My little one colored paper cakes, but decided she wanted strawberries instead of cherries now- so he made red blotches on paper circles. I made the invites. I tried to make a Kitty face on them, but my older son thought they were monsters. My sweet boy spread his banky on the table and set each one of his cakes he made out for every person. I made ice cream, we sang, and Kitty got kisses from us. The boys hauled all their new toys down for presents and pretended Kitty was so excited.... it was cute and fun. Happy Birthday Kitty!