Movie Night

Last Thursday, Isa wanted to "buy" her movie night with popcorn. I agreed, so after dinner, we packed Teo into the stroller, walked to Walmart (see, I'm serious about this walking stuff), and she picked out a movie from Redbox, which she has named Bluebox since it's blue.

We returned home with Gnomeo and Juliet in the basket of the stroller and with Isa too tired to walk, so I pushed both of them home.

Once home, I parked momentarily in front of the A/C to dry my sweaty body cool off and popped a bag of popcorn while Isa got the movie started. I pulled the recliners together so Jose and I could be side by side, and the kids crawled into our laps. About a quarter of the way into the movie, Jose was snoring. About halfway through the movie, Isa decided to lay down on the floor. About ten minutes later, she moved to the couch. Immediately after, she was asleep too. So, Teo and I stuck it out and watched the entire movie, then they headed to bed.

It was nice. I honestly don't remember a time when we stopped what we were doing here at home, put down the laptop and the cell phones, pulled together and spent time with one another. It was awesome!

I am loving the "No Bummer Summer" concept. And it has helped (slightly) with her attitude and mouthy ways. We'll keep working at it. What's your favorite family together time activity?

Weekend In Wisconsin

A couple of weeks ago, we made a 6 hour trek to Wisconsin. The highlight (or, as it were that Friday, nightmare) of the trip is Chicago. It's traditional for us to snap a photo as we approach downtown.

We arrived really late Friday night, but nevertheless, the kids were bright eyed and bushy tailed early on Saturday morning. After a quick breakfast, we headed to a nearby park to spend the morning playing.

After the park, we ran to the ShopKo to buy a new shirt for Jose (the one he packed was crazy stained) and to get dress shoes for Teo. Then, we dressed up and headed for the wedding ceremony. Unfortunately, between the insanity of the trip, the invitation that was forgotten at home, and the issue of time change...we were late and missed most of the ceremony.

They had a few hour time span between the ceremony and the reception, and since the kids were already dressed, we decided to "sight see" which is a slight joke since we were staying in a fairly small town. We did find their namesake fort (which was interesting, because we are from a fort city too) and explored there for a little while.

(By the way, the outfit above was what I was wearing when I was asked when my baby was due...)

After the fort and some driving around, we went to the reception, where we had a fun time. The kids ran around like crazy and we were able to celebrate the new unity of my father-in-law and his wife. Here they are, cutting the cake, Art and Amy.

And, we tried to get a photo of the newlyweds with Jose the kids, but Teo wasn't very cooperative. 

After the wedding, we went back to the hotel and swam, hung out, and slept. The next morning, we went swimming again, checked out, and went to spend the day with Art and his new family.

Amy has four kids (together, between them, they now have 12 kids) and it was good getting to know them. The best parts were Isa playing with her new aunt, Lilly, who is four. And Jose's new brother sitting with us at lunch, asking Art if Jose was his cousin. When he told him that he was Jose's dad, the kid didn't miss a beat before asking Art, "Why are you so short?" Haha! It was great and we really enjoyed it. I wish them the best of luck in their marriage and their life together!

Late Sunday night, we drove home. There was only one near mishap when a car swerved into my lane on the expressway in Chicago, but I managed to miss getting hit and miss hitting the car on the other side of me. Jose insists that I should take a stab at being a stunt driver.

We arrived home around 4 AM and I slept all day the next day. It was a great weekend, all in all, and although it didn't work as planned, it was good to get away.

Just MOVE!

The other day, we were living in walking through Menard's, like we often do.

We had just gone through the pool toy area, so we were standing in an aisle with the kids, trying to get them to put the things in the cart, stop hitting each other with the noodles, etc.

This man with his cart came towards us and I was trying to get Isa to move so he could get through while also trying to make sure that if he passed us, he wouldn't get assulted with any inflatable or foam items.

However, the 1.49 minutes that I was trying to get our family of four out of his way was obviously too long and too much of an inconvenience.

How do we know?

The foul words under his breath, the very audible shout of "Just MOVE!" and the crash of his cart being abused in his anger was the most obvious way.

Obviously, the five feet out of the way that we made him go, in addition to the nearly 2 minutes that he wasted, was painful for him. I guess we ruined his day, or something.

Either way, we have made non-stop jokes by yelling, "Just MOVE!" at each other whenever applicable.

And, we didn't even correct Isa at Menards after the fact when she twirled her finger around her ear and called him "loco"....

Here's My Reason For Being Absent.

This, my dear friends, is why I have been MIA for a week.

It all started with pulling weeds. Actually, it started with painting the house. I helped Jose as much as possible, but I'm afraid of ladders, so that help was short lived. So, while he spent the week priming the house, I decided to be productive as well. So, I began to pull weeds. And trim the bushes. Then, I began to cut down some bushes that were ugly and out of control.

It should be noted that since moving in in 2007, we have done little to nothing in regards to landscaping. We just had more projects with higher priority. I think that one time, maybe two years ago, I pulled weeds, but just enough to make it presentable. Nothing more.

So, the pulling weeds and trimming took over two nights (Monday and Tuesday) of last week. There was something, I think it may have been parsley, growing ridiculously in the bed. The root system of it was chaos. And trimming the back two bushes was a lot trickier than you'd think...because they are covered in thorns. I had to pull about a dozen thorns from my hands, and that was with gloves on.

The next night (Wednesday) was consumed by digging out unwanted trees and bushes along the side. One of my bff's, Jamie, came over to help and together we were able to remove two bushes that I had cut down to nubs and about four trees that were growing along the foundation. The stupid trees were hidden by untrimmed bushes for the past few years and were about thigh high. So, it was definately an all-night job.

Thursday is my tv night, so I didn't dedicate much time to the yard, but Friday night, I began to see my final plan in my head. However, we had other plans and didn't end up working. The threat of rain and sprinkles coming down contributed to that as well, so on Saturday, Jose and I spent the entire day outside working while my mom had the kids.

I dug out an entire bush to transplant. For about three hours, I dug a hole and carefully dug around the bush as to not damage its roots. Finally, with some man help, we were able to move the bush....two feet away to its new home. My mom laughed at me, but I wanted to be able to have the flower bed line up with the side of the house and the bush was too far over. So, we made it circle around and put it in an empty spot. I also finished up the area, spread the dirt out, pulled the rest of the stray weeds, and removed the rocks that were there.

Yesterday, we did nothing in the yard. It rained all day and we just needed a break. And I took a super long nap, which was amazing.

So, today, we took a trip to Lowes. Bought 63 little bricks (about 50 cents each), 3 bags of mulch (about $4) , 2 bags of planting soil ($2.50), and 4 containers of flowers ($1 each). And ta-da! Lined the area, mulched the area, planted the flowers (and put some in planters by the door), and done. Oh yea, and I planted grass seeds on the left where the flower bed used to be, but where we want grass to grow. And threw our chairs in front, for now.

And, Jose's got the house all primered and will be painting soon. I do believe that maybe, just maybe, we will be done with these large projects (painting the house, replacing the doors, and the front landscaping) by the end of May. That would freakin' rock! Stay tuned!

A Pant Rant

My hubby has worked at his current place of employment for around four years (which is super long for us)...and he has the same uniforms he got when he started working there. The same exact articles of clothing. Which is fine, but recently they have began to fall apart. Normal wear and tear stuff, especially since he's been wearing the same five shirts and five pants for approximately 200 weeks now. Do you think your clothes last 200 washes (at least)...?

Either way, he was going to take them in, piece by piece and get them swapped out for some new articles. But his boss told him that they were thinking of switching uniform companies, to wait. If they switched companies, everyone would get new uniforms, so it wouldn't make sense for him to swap his out now. So, he waited. That was a couple of months ago.

Normally, I wouldn't care. It's his clothes. He's a big boy. Blah blah blah. He can sew a button when he needs to, patch a tear, etc. However, it's different now. I have been wounded by an article of his clothing and I'm laying down the law...somehow.

The other night, I was doing laundry and I went to pull the last bit of clothing out of the dryer, but my husband's work pants were stuck. "Oh crap," I thought. "The dryer has began to eat things." I thought the pants somehow got caught in the dryer as it was spinning. That wasn't quite the case.

On this particular pair of pants, the metal piece on the zipper, the part you pinch to zip and unzip, had broken off. Being the creative and useful man that he is, my husband "fixed" it. He took and hooked a key chain ring to it. Well, over time, the ring began to become unround or something, and what ensued was that his pants, were stuck by the zipper because the key ring was untwisted enough that it became wrapped around the vented sheet of metal that is the back of our dryer. I tugged, but didn't want to rip his pants, or worse, break our dryer. So, I reached in and tryed to uptwist it.

Somehow, the metal piece whipped around and sliced through the pad of my thumb. Ugh. I did end up freeing the pants, although the key ring wasn't so lucky to survive. And, I had a heck of a time moving the next load from the washer to the dryer and starting another load with the blood running down my thumb.

Does this weird crap happen to normal people?

Wedding Memories

I have a terrible memory. Seriously.

But recently, I have been working on our wedding scrapbook, hardcore. (I'm only 4 pages away from it being done. Whoo hoo!)

And, sadly, there are many things that I don't remember in detail from our big day, which was nearly six years ago. But as I look at the photos, I fall in love over and over again with my hubby. And, I am reminded of some of the small details which make up our wedding day.

• My soon-to-be husband was late. Yes. Seriously, we has planned to have many of our individual photos taken before the ceremony, but instead, we only got to take mine. Jose was not there on time.
• The ceremony is mostly a blur, but I do remember that quiver in Jose's voice as he began to say his vows. The quiver was holding back tears of joy.
• The photographer was a professional, but she was just starting on her own. Her skills were...okay. However, she failed to understand the proper pronunciation of Jose's name. Instead, she continued to address him as Josie (like the girl name) through out the entire time.
• Jose remembers the neverending demand of "kiss her" from the photographer and now points it out when looking at the photos, how all the kisses were forced and fake.
• Our reception was to be dry, as in no alcoholic beverages. However, half of our guests failed to understand the importance of it; therefore, during most of our reception, a crowd was gathered in the parking lot drinking, including my dad and Jose's dad, and half of our groomsmen.
• I didn't dance very much. I was super tired (being five and a half months pregnant). And Jose doesn't dance.
• Going pee in my wedding dress (I only went pee once the entire day after getting my dress on) was crazy insane. I do believe there were half a dozen people in the bathroom with me and my dress alone filled the stall. More photos were taken of me in the bathroom than I care to know. And it was wonderful preparation for having a baby...with everyone seeing what was under my skirt.
• Jose continues to tease me about the amount of food I consumed at our reception.
• I have no clue what song Jose and his mom danced to. I had two father-daughter dances. My dad and I danced to Michelle by the Beatles and my stepdad and I danced to the song, "I Hope You Dance."
• We barely speak to half the people that attended our wedding. We have grown so different since then. That's one of the reasons we have considered renewing our vows in the future.
• A fight broke out during our reception between two of my uncles. It started with my mom saying something to a little girl about her behavior towards my neices (who were our flower girls), who's dad then got mad at my mom and started running his mouth, only to have his brother-in-law stand up for my mom. It lead to them going to the parking lot and punches being thrown. Needless to say, they were both drunk (hence the reason we didn't want alcohol at the wedding to begin with).

You Have A Photo Message!

As a fun lil' diddy, here's some photos from my phone, for your entertainment purposes...enjoy!

When my hubby got his new phone and it's cool new case, he kept. taking. photos. of. me. So, I did it back. Here's Jose!

[Turn your head sideways.] One of the times we went to Chuck E. Cheese recently, I wandered around looking for Jose and Teo...and here's what I found. He is so cute!

Guess who learned to tie her shoes?! Finally!!! She's so proud!

Sometimes, I even surprise myself. This was so yummy that I sent Jose the photo to make him jealous while he ate crummy food at work for lunch. Hehe!

As I cleaned, this tote grew more and more full. This, my dear friends, is a tote full of fun glass pieces and other things to paint. Now, I just need to figure out what to paint on them.

My babies! I never guessed that I would be so excited to see these little sprouts pop up! Lettuce, peppers, and khlorabi, OH MY! Yay!!!

And, here's yours truely. :) Have a great day!

Super Duper Craptastic Day

I had a super duper craptastic day yesterday.

From crappy dreams right before waking up,
to feeling like I need to make things better but not knowing how,
to trying to make ammends and getting a virtual slap in the face,
to being tired,
to fighting to put a facebook badge on a website that wasn't cooperating,
to having juice spilled on the new rug,
to cleaning up said juice with two rags and having Jose sit and watch me,
to trying to help getting ready for dinner and having Jose be a real butt head,
to flipping out and showing him exactly how he comes across (which he didn't like),
to crying through dinner,
to Teo deciding that painting means swinging the brush around and getting puple everywhere in a 4 ft. vicinity,
to feeling like I just don't matter,
to starting to fall asleep last night and getting texts,
to waking up in the middle of the night because (I found out later) neighbor kids were shooting fireworks off in the middle of the street.

Yesterday was a super duper craptastic day.

I really hope today is better.