I just died a little

the scene:

In the kitchen, James had just asked me if they could have salami & cream cheese sandwiches for their snack:

J: It's soy cream cheese, is that okay, Gavin?
G: Yeah, I like all kinds of cream cheese.
J: (pause) I really like you.

6 year old boys are so sweet.

clothespins R us

Today is all about clothespins. I finished the pins that will go along with a clothespin bag purchase (top picture) and am halfway through some memo holders (bottom picture). Those will go in bags for the first 50 customers at the Craftacular on the 28th and have a nifty little coupon attached. I'm tempted to stop at 25, and I may, but I may also plow through the other 25 this afternoon. I didn't do this last year so it will be fun to see how many of these get used. (I'm hoping that at least 50 20 of them do)

James is having a little buddy over after school and I am kind of excited to see how it goes. I'm pretty sure Ruby will be excluded so I have a couple ideas of things for her and I to do together. (example: she watches me glue buttons together, she watches tv while I glue buttons together) (hehehehehee)

xoxoxo and sorry about the crappy photos

wee trees

I love making these soft trees. They make me happy.

I found the pattern here last year...you should make some!

Oh...wait a minute. Scratch that. These trees are SUPER hard to make and very nerve wracking, not relaxing at all.
Never fear, though, as I have suffered through the process for you already.
You can buy some from me at the Craftacular on the 28th.

;)

xoxo

ruby's tuesday & a random story

such a big girl/little girl.

(that's how she refers to herself now. A couple weeks ago she was balking at any big girl talk so I'm happy to see she has now embraced it in her own way. She will always be my baby girl, anyways.)

*****************************

Can I just say what a luxury it is to go grocery shopping with only one child? I'm sure next fall I'll be doing my shopping while Ruby is at preschool, again bringing my total child count to one. Bliss.

I dreamt about my most sickening ex-boyfriend last night (I guess he was my only truly sickening one) and as I tried to get myself back to sleep I composed an entire post about him in my head. The best part of the whole story of (rhymes with) STAN was that after he cheated on me (this came out of (seemingly, at the time) nowhere and I had really thought I'd marry that (cough, using term loosely) man) and couldn't decide where he wanted our relationship to go, and I was a total mess because I felt like I was just hanging there, waiting, I called to talk to his mother. She wasn't home but his Dad started talking to me and gave me the best advice. He said I would continue to be miserable as long as I felt like someone else was in charge of what happened. He said I was letting him be in control and I had to decide for myself if I really wanted to try and make things work with someone who had disrespected me in that way.

Isn't that the coolest thing ever? I think that was my favorite part of my whole relationship with STAN. (His Dad happens to be a psychology professor.) Loved that. Thank you, Dennis. (his real name...nothing rhymes with that)

So anyways. Don't you just love good people? People who are there for you in ways you would never expect? I truly thank God that STAN lied to me that day and that his Dad cared enough to take the time to talk to me and share that much needed advice. (because before that phone call I really was a true break up mess, had lost 15 pounds in a week from not eating anything...sad (but boy did I look good!) and after that phone call I decided I was done with STAN forever. And, oh boy, then the fun began!! :) Jolee, care to chime in?? just kidding, we won't go there but let's just say STAN didn't like my decision at all and stalked me for a good couple of months.)

And, that is my out of the blue story for the day. Time to clean the kitchen.

xoxoox

love

I stole this picture off of Erin's facebook page because I thought it was soooooo cute.

Aren't they both sooooooo cute?

We love you Uncle Thomas & Erin!

xxoo

thank you

Thank you all for the Poo love. That post was not easy to write but had been on my colon mind for so long that I just had to. You know, it was almost like an urge now that I think about it. Hmmmmm...

Anyways. Happy Sunday evening to you.

Saturday was a day set apart for me to have some time apart from my children. I started the day out with a little shopping, scoring a TRUCK LOAD of stuff at Old Navy (thank you Ann for that coupon!!) and returned home to a blissfully empty house ready to work on some crafty stuff.

And then the fun started. The jamming thread bungling sewing machine sort of fun that stopped me in my (shoddily sewn) tracks and moved me to assess the situation.

I set up a mock Craftacular table and saw that I am in pretty good shape. There are a few holes I need to fill with stuff still to be made (stuff that I want to work on...not inch thick hot pads that make me MAD) but overall I am doing just fine. Not pictured are a whole bunch of cookies and there will, of course, be more wine sleeves. (I need empties, local friends, maybe 5 or 6. Can anyone help??) I also have extras of a lot of the stuff shown. I'm going to paint the two white display pieces red, for a bit of pop, and iron my sheet tablecloth and I should be good to go. Oh, and signs of course but that can wait until the day before, when I will do this all again with my mother's help. :)

The children just finished their ice cream bars (I know, nice timing) so they are all sugared up and ready for bed.

Wish us luck!

Oh, I'm going to use my free morning hour tomorrow for crafty good so I won't be around here again until the afternoon sometime. (thus this special Sunday PM edition so you all know how much I love you and appreciate all your comments & congratulations and emails lately. xoxoxooxoxoxoox)

xoxo, officially

Oh, and one more thing, my ankles have started swelling up a bit in the evening. It's great!

you are not alone

I've put off this post for a long time, maybe years. It's not something that easy to talk about, or pretty to think about. It can be a hard subject to bring up with your friends and even your family but I think it's something many of us go through and shouldn't be kept a secret any longer. No, I'm not talking about depression again.

I'm talking about the Target Poo.

Do you know what I'm referring to? Have you experienced this phenomena? The Target Poo is the unexplainable urge to empty your bowels simply because you are browsing through your local Target.

My earliest memory of Target (aside from the mint brownies in the bakery case behind the checkouts) is walking around the Duluth store with a big lump of poo in my diaper. Already, at probably age 2, being in this shining mecca of consumer goods relaxed me and my tiny bowels. I was reminded of this on Tuesday when Ruby & I were there. About a half hour into our trip she let loose with her cry of, "I have to pooooooooooooooooop!" Now, Ruby has only been regularly pooping on the toilet at home for a month or so and she has never pooped out of the house. Leave it to Target to bring her out of her shy colonic shell. Ah, good old Target.

I have talked about this over the years with close friends and family. During these research sessions friendly conversations I have discovered something startling. The Target Poo does not only happen at Target. The Target Poo changes and adapts with you and your life circumstances. It can strike anywhere at any time. It is like a virus with no known vaccine.

A few examples:

A certain woman I know needs to use the facilities almost immediately after stepping into a particularly good thrift or antique store. Seriously, almost immediately!

Another has the urge to purge after nothing more than a phone call from her sister!

A man (no, they are not immune) I know recently let it be known (in a most unpleasant way) that the mere thought of having the house to himself one Sunday afternoon was too much for him. He could hardly say goodbye to us his family that was not us before they left the house.

If you're hearing about this for the first time you may have a great sense of relief, finally being able to put a name to this powerful experience. You are welcome. You are safe here. You are not alone.

This may all seem overwhelming to you....

or, maybe not. I suppose we should also talk about those who are quite comfortable with all of this. Maybe some have come to actually rely on the Target Poo to help keep things regular but you and I both know that is a slippery slope. Target trips are expensive, my friends, and should not be used for anything more than an opportunity to stock up on dry goods and the occasional new pair of shoes or piece of seasonal decor.

No matter what side of the Bullseye you are on, please continue reading....

I'd like to share something very personal with you now. Because we are friends I'd like to share with you how I have triumphed over this mighty urge, and I want to share with you how you can, too. It is not for the faint of heart but it can be done. The only known antidote to the Target Poo is this: Go to Target (or whatever your personal hot spot is) with at least one, preferably 2, small children. Almost like magic the urge disappears and YOU are in control of your own BMs again. Trust me, it works!

Please don't be lulled into thinking you have 100% coverage, though. The next time you arrive in a store by yourself...be prepared. The Poo is not shaken that easily. Oh no, she is a mighty Poo, and she will be back, with a vengeance. (You won't, however, have to try to poo while your toddler sits on your lap and your baby eats toilet paper off of the floor, so there is that.)

Thank you for travelling down this dark & stinky road with me today. I feel as though I've come out of a tunnel and into the sunshine, being able to speak of this freely here for the first time. And really, if I've helped EVEN ONE of you it is all worth it.

Now you'll have to excuse me. I have some, er, personal business to attend to....

rhymes with joy

It's a boy! :)

Just found out this afternoon and we are very happy and thrilled that everything looked good with our son.

I'm so happy to know this information and like him a lot already, this pokey little thing in my belly. Patrick is happy it's a boy because he said boys are less dramatic, even though he said either one would be okay. I was shocked because I was sure it was a girl. I kind of wanted a girl, which is hard to explain why because I obviously love having a son just as much as having a daughter, but I've already adapted to this new idea and am very very happy.

Now we just need to think of a name. oh boy.

xoxo

p.s. Ruby said she quit boys (she had really wanted a girl but will come around) and James is excited but bummed that we didn't get a pic of his mini package. (I had told him they had given us a pic of his penis at 20w and he thought that was v. funny.)

and away he goes...

Ruby's self portrait with orange hair, a baby in her belly, and a penis.

A note James left for Patrick. It says, "I love bla bla dad" (garble) "bla bla dade (daddy)" (garble) bla bla read note

The bla bla comes from some joke they have between them. I have no idea.

James also started writing his second chapter book the other night. (His first was about race cars but didn't go past the cover art) This one is about a Bullettrain and an Evil Dart. He's hoping to fit it all into 4 chapters as that is how much he has room for. I'd take a picture of it but he brings it to school with him so it doesn't get wrecked.

I am seeing an explosion of reading over here and it is the coolest thing. James has been reading simple words and doing other early reading stuff for a long time but I never really did much about it based on some good advice from a favorite teacher I know. She said if he is really good at reading when he starts Kindergarten then he will be really bored, and a bored kid in their first school experience is not a really good thing. So of course we kept reading to him daily and answering any questions he might have but just kind of let him naturally do what he was doing and didn't offer much more information. So now at Kindergarten they are doing their Kindergarten stuff...studying the letters and their sounds and simple words and copying lots of words in little books...and it's like light bulbs are going off all over his brain. He is trying to read signs & words everywhere and getting soooo many of them right, big ones even like Cougar. (I know...he's a genius!) He is starting to have the confidence to try and write little notes like the one above (more than the I LOVE notes he's done in the past) and to write these books. I just love it so much. I think watching him start to read & spell words is one of the most exciting milestones for me as I love to read and I am just hoping and praying that he will, too. (even if it is books about monster trucks and hunting.) (yes, he brought a hunting book home from the library. nice.)

Whenever my kids sit down to color I always hope that they ask for a plain piece of paper. Ruby still likes to color Dora pictures a lot but more and more often she is going for the plain stuff. Seeing what comes out of their little brains is so awesome to me.

So, yes, I am really enjoying James as a kindergartner. I love seeing him learn this stuff, how careful he is with his homework (they have one small project every Monday night), how his teacher told me she knows he always does his best work. The social part of it is fascinating, too. He had a boy who was saying rude things to him a while back and it was kind of baffling at first, and made me angry, but we talked about how he should handle it and he handled it really well. (at just the same time the school counselor was coming into their room to talk about 9 different things they could try to solve problems themselves...it really was perfect timing and the suggestions worked well for him.) I like to ask him, "Who did something you thought was really nice today?" and hearing what he says. This morning he looked at me and really seriously said he wasn't ready to get married yet. I said of course he wasn't, why would he even say that? Well, he said, Megan keeps saying she wants to marry him and when she found a penny on the bus yesterday (they bus them to another school for their gym, music & art classes) she gave it to him. Can you imagine?? :)

I don't like to write much about this kind of stuff (being all proud of him) because I always worry I sound like I'm bragging. I want to record this, though, as it's very exciting stuff and very special for me. I also believe that any other parent could share something equally exciting about their child, whether it's about reading or anything else. Every kid I know is amazing in their own way, and this whole process of them growing up is the most amazing thing of all. What a gift to be able to watch it.

xoxoxo