Day 92- Down By The River

Today was Mr. Wright's day off, so he forced me to leave the shelter of my house AND wear shorts. I apologize to anyone who had to witness this lapse in my judgement. Tanning gift certificates are being accepted... and razors. In retaliation I made him wear his wedding ring which came off just days after our wedding 6 years ago.

We drove to a spot with shallow but fast moving waters and the kids had a great time throwing rocks into the water. There was a puddle that was no longer connected to the river filled with baby salmon, so Sweetie Pie made it her mission to save as many lives as she could. We dug through the trash that Mr. Wright had left in his car, and armed with a stick and a Carl's Jr. malt cup we collected 8 fish and transferred them back to the river.

I must admit that I did have fun leaving the house, though I (and the world) could have done without the shorty shorts!

The tiniest salmon ever!



My monkeys fishing with a cup



An Alaskan view



As we drove away Little Man and Sweetie Pie were thrilled with the fish lives that they saved, then informed us that the fish needed to grow bigger so we could catch them and eat them. Mrs. Wright doesn't eat fish, but my kids LOVE "fish chicken nuggets". They like chicken nuggets, only fishier! :-X

Friend Making Mondays

This week's edition is guest hosted by Shawn from Seriously.

What are you doing this July 4th?
I have no idea at this point. Mr. Wright has to work, but I'm sure someone in the family will have a BBQ. At least I'm hoping... I'm sure there will be potato salad there!

What's your favorite dish to pass while attending a 4th of July party or summer BBQ?
I'm usually pretty lazy about making stuff and I like to come just to eat, but I love red, white and blue desserts and have a special one in mind for this year.

Do you have any July 4th traditions?
Not really... fireworks suck in Alaska since it never gets dark enough in the summer so we usually just have a BBQ.

Share your favorite July 4th picture:



July 4th, 2008
Yep, that's snow. We went up to my parent's house to go fishing last year, and took the old road over the mountain home. At the very top the snow hardly ever melts, despite the 80 degree temperature that day! The kids loved to play in the snow for a few minutes and then be able to leave it behind!

Happy Friend Making Monday!!

Day 91- Double Trouble

On Friday I went to town to run some errands and decided to hit a garage sale near my house on the way home. It was one of those dream sales where they were in it to get rid of their crap, not make money. I found a super nice heavy glass cake plate cover (the bottom had been broken) for a dollar and I started dreaming about all the cute stuff I could put in it on my counter. I also found an adorable white scalloped shelf that would look darling in one of my girls' rooms and a few shirts for Sweetie Pie.

The big ticket item was a bunk bed set. It wasn't the bunk bed set of my dreams or anything, but it was $75 and not covered in Pokemon stickers like every other one I've seen at garage sales. I thought about it for a few minutes but wanted to talk to Mr. Wright before making any decisions. The woman running the sale gave me her number and I had to run to the car to get some money for my box of goodies. I gave her the money and walked away... totally forgetting the box of my purchases. It was lunch time and the kids were all screaming so I had a lot on my mind.

Mr. Wright and I talked about the beds but by Saturday I had decided against getting them. $75 is a lot when you don't have it, plus we didn't have a truck to get them to my house either. I was too sheepish to call the lady and ask her if she still had my box of stuff and tell her that we couldn't get the beds, but my mom told me to get some balls (yes, exact words :P) so I called and left a message. She called me back Saturday night and said that no one had bought the beds at the sale and she really needed to get rid of them. She offered to give them to me for $50 AND deliver, so who could turn down an offer like that!?

Short story long, she delivered them yesterday (along with my forgotten box of crap), I pulled 384,985 muscles in my back getting them into the house by myself, scraped the paint off 45 new places on my walls, got them stuck in 4 different doorways, and made 2 kids very happy... that is until they needed to clean the room around their new beds.

Here is the room before (I finally took down the princess decorations from months ago when it was Boo's room) and I totally shoved the MOUNTAIN of toys out of the shot...



Here is the after, and the toy mountain is now g-o-n-e and we all couldn't be happier!



Now poor Sweetie Pie will have a bed to sleep on! She has a bed in her room but 95% of the time she slept on one of those foam kid couches on Little Man's floor. Now all I have left to do is make a chiropractor appointment for myself!

Day 90- My Favorite Things

I read a LOT of blogs, like a scary amount, so I've decided to share some links to my favorite things. Hey, it beats hearing about my laundry pile, right?


A cute 4th of July craft using your kiddos hands and feet!
http://seren-zipitydoda.blogspot.com/2009/06/little-red-white-blue-project.html


A mouse pad for the kids!
http://www.currentlycrafting.com/2009/03/make-mouse-pad.html


A cash wallet for Dave Ramsey/envelope system followers!
http://www.graceviolet.com/2009/05/cash-wallet.html


A cute printable meal planner!
http://tangarangblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/mondays-free-download.html


A skirt from dishtowels!
http://www.graceviolet.com/2009/02/how-to-make-skirt-from-dish-towels.html

I hope you enjoy a few of my million bookmarked posts!

Day 89- Housekeeping Update

In case you haven't noticed I like to write about other stuff than the current state of my house, usually for good reason. Luckily the last few days I've been keeping up with the dishes, and even crossing a few things off my giant perpetual to do list and getting some sewing in. I'm going to pretend that I don't hear Boo spilling beans all over the kitchen floor at this very second from this project and assume that it's still clean in there.

I'm wearing pajama pants, but at least I had the courtesy to put on a clean pair this morning. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Is it better to just not get dressed but wear dirty jammie pants, or is it better to purposely wear jammies all day that are clean? These are the tough questions that Mrs. Wright has to face on a daily basis. This is serious, people!

My kitchen is clean, my dishwasher is empty, and except for a giant pile of crap in one spot the counters are clear too. If only I could get motivated to clean that pile... On second thought Mr. Wright might think he came home to the wrong house if I change too much, so I better leave that be for a while.

My house could really use a good vacuuming and my windows have so many fingerprints on them that you can't see out, but overall I'm making progress, albeit slow. I have a bunch of homeless stuff down in the game room that really needs to be dealt with. Ideally I'd have a garage sale and make some cash off my broken crap quality pre-owned crap but I live in a less populated area and I don't really want to sit in my yard with all my stuff while no one comes by. Garage sales are way more fun with a friend anyway... I sure wish I had some of those!

I'll skip the good mom update and you can catch up with my awesome parenting moment of the week here. I think that pretty much sums it up for the week. I'm still waiting for those butt crack pictures to surface on the internet. Darn paparazzi!

Day 88- Dirty Little Secrets Friday!

Welcome to another edition of my confessions of a burnt out, unshowered, pajama pants wearing, literally staying at home mom. Who's ready for some juice?

-Sweetie Pie always has this nasty rat's nest in the back of her hair because I only brush it when we leave the house. In my defense I could brush it every couple hours and it would still appear after every nap.

-Boo pooped her pants twice this week and it made me really sad. I didn't want to be mean about it obviously, but "oh no, you crapped your pants again." didn't really get the 'please don't do this again EVER because it's nasty' message across like I was hoping.

-I forgot to take the trash out 2 weeks ago and last week's trash wouldn't fit in the trash can because of it. I went to put it in the can last night and there were maggots on one of the bags. *BARF* OMG it was sooooo gross, and then I had to fess up to Mr. Wright.

-I stopped the online timer for almost an hour yesterday so Mr. Wright wouldn't see. Here's to hoping that he stopped reading at 'maggots'.

-I made that huge 'to do' list and only mark one or two things a day off of it, if that. If I ever complete everything on that list it will be a miracle... like an actual real miracle with angels and stuff.

- I haven't cleaned my shower since before CHRISTMAS. Seriously. How hard is it to spray some Scrubbing Bubbles, wait 20 minutes, then spray it down with the wand!? Pretty hard apparently.

- I quit posting on Extreme Makeover, Me Edition since I NEVER work out, think about working out, or have the desire to workout. I miss those ladies, but I think they're sick of my 100 posts about how I still didn't work out this week...

- I put the stool to the trampoline up high because I was tired of putting the kids' socks and shoes on over and over again after they jumped on it every 3 minutes.

-I love the smell of bleach so much that after I (rarely) clean something with it I smell my hands a few times. I'm a junkie!

- I shove a whole cookie in my mouth all at once just so the kids won't see what I have in there and ask for their own.

Your turn! What's your dirty little secret? You can always post anonymously.

Day 87- Alaskan Experiences

Library day... I haven't been to the library in quite a while and I finally got sick of the kids whining every time we drove by. I wanted to go too, but I had $4.50 in late fees that I never got around to paying. The freaking library is stuck in the 80's and doesn't have a credit card machine, and I NEVER have cash unless pennies count. Sticky pennies of course. In anticipation of library day I gathered my money from all the random places that I had seen a crumpled dollar and shoved it in my pocket.

I get the kids in the car, checked my mail, and headed to town. I was a few miles away from home when I noticed something moving in my peripheral vision and zeroed in on a nasty spider crawling down the door frame towards the dashboard. I wanted to pull over but there is no shoulder on the particular road I was on, and no side roads for a while. I started to hit him with my mail while driving down the road and I got him pretty good with one of the swats. I kept checking for his creepy spider legs on the envelope and they stayed there for a while until he was gone. All this time I'm driving down the road TRYING to stay between the lines and not alert my kids to the fact that we may just die because Mama is so freaked out by spiders that she's having trouble watching the road. I saw him running across the dashboard so I started to hit him with the second envelope and finally squashed him to the point of no return. Take that spidey!!

We arrived at the library with all three kids salivating at the thought of bringing home weird books (they always pick the strange 'what do YOU think it means?' books) but I was already pissed. Let me start by saying that our library has 8 parking spots. Yes, 8. Usually people park in the "museum" spots that are right there too so that brings the grand total to 12, 14 if you count handicap spots. It is hard to park there any day, but on Wednesday all hell breaks loose. About 15 feet from the last library parking spot is a tiny historical block of town that now holds the Wednesday market. I actually remembered that it was market day ahead of time, but knew that it started at noon and I left at 10:30.

Unfortunately when I got there I learned that they changed the opening of the market to 11am, and it was now 10:45. I was lucky enough to get the last library parking spot right next to the market and we proceeded to the library. The visit was pretty uneventful except for me being "that lady" when my cell phone rang every five minutes for the entire 30 minutes we were there. Boo was getting tired and cranky so we got out of there before it turned into a screaming wrestling match to the tune of my ringing phone.

We got to the van and Boo snapped. She was screaming, hitting, and arching her back making it impossible to buckle her into her carseat. I had no choice but to gently shove her into her seat while I buckled her in, and yell over her screaming to command the older kids to sit down and buckle up. I was almost in a sweat and about to cry myself by the time I had all three buckled and halfway not crying. I back my butt out of the side door of the van and turn around to realize that a freaking TOUR BUS is parked 10 feet from my van and every person on board has witnessed my awesome parenting. They sure got their Alaskan experience alright and some scenery too when I was backing out of the van!

If anyone knows someone who took a Royal Celebrity tour in Wasilla yesterday please give them my apologies. I should really buy a belt!

Day 86- Boring Blog Post

Firefox has this little add-on that you can download and it will track the time that you spend online. I downloaded just to see what it was all about and I can now confidently say that this little bugger was sent from hell to make me feel badly about myself... it was off for a bit of the morning and it is currently reading FOUR hours and seven minutes. Part of that was Mr. Wright, but most of it was me. I love my e-mail and crackbook and my mommy board and blog reader, but FOUR hours!? That just makes me sad for my poor babies. Yes, they know all the hot entertainment news the moment it breaks (Matthew McConaughey is going to be a daddy again!) , but they don't know who Dr. Suess is...

I never really thought about it when I started this blog, but by using the "day 1, day 2" format and combining that with my selective OCD I locked myself into posting every.single.day. I couldn't skip a day because then my numbering would be all random and that just wouldn't be okay. Unfortunately my "content" (I use that word loosely :P ) has suffered. This will be my 102nd post in 86 days and I don't have any more secrets left... at least none that I really want to share on the internet.

I'm getting a little bit 'Kate Gosselin' on the subject (I totally just made that a verb!) and feel like I have to have experiences just so I can write about them. I'm not sure why I feel so strongly about people coming to my blog and always loving it, but I hate pushing publish when it's not something that I can read back to myself and laugh. I haven't decided if I'm going to post less often or just make a posting schedule where I don't have to spend an hour writing a brand new post every day.

Either way I've decided to ditch the 'Day whatever' format once I reach 100 days. I may even celebrate my first 100 days with a giveaway! That's what fun blogs do, right!? They give stuff away... I, for one, and glad to be doing away with the day thing since I can NEVER remember what day I'm on and have to look at yesterday's every time.

So what do YOU want to read about? My crafts? What I made for dinner? All the cleaning I DIDN'T get done today? Boo shoplifting from the store? What color my pajama pants are today? Leave me a comment so I can make my blog even better!

Day 85- To Don't List

Yesterday I woke up to find that Boo had left me a little brown potty training surprise in the night. Needless to say she went straight in the bath. Shockingly I started cleaning at 8am and yada, yada, yada I got all these chores done! I made a list to stay accountable and I'm hoping to cross more things off tomorrow. I'm not quite used to having to do SO much work just to cross one little thing off the list. Usually my lists look like this:
get out of bed
make list

I know everyone is itching to see exactly what has fallen behind in my home, so now, without further delay, duhn, duhn duhhhhhhhhhhhhhn...

My Master List!
Clear counters
Wash dishes
Fold laundry
Clean Boo's room & organize closet
Move changing table out to sell
Go through Boo's clothes to reduce amount
Clean Little Man's room & organize closet
Move princess decorations from months ago to the girls' rooms
Move kids' name letters to the right rooms
Rotate kids toys
Move games from hall closet to game room
Clean under bathroom sink and purge drawer
Clean kids bathtub after poop incident
Move shelf in dining room downstairs
Move dining room table
Clean out crap 'in-box'
Clean out junk drawer
Move emergency kit project downstairs
Purge cabinet contents
Get rid of crap pile on counter
Clean/vacuum tops of cabinets
Re-arrange living room furniture
Sweep/Mop/de-stink entryway
Vacuum stairs
Clean Sweetie Pie's room
Organize sad sickly stockpile pantry
Wash bed skirt and put back on
Make my bed
Do all the laundry all over my floor
Clean off dresser and nightstand
Clean shower and sweep/mop bathroom
Vacuum game room and hall
Clean off craft table
Sell high chair, exersaucer, poker table, changing table and other baby crap on Craigslist
Take all other donations to charity or have garage sale
Clean laundry room AGAIN
Make menu plan and grocery list
Make a list of lists :P

What's on your list?

Day 84- Sew Cranky

Yesterday was a good day potty training wise. I'll spare you the details, but Boo only had 2 accidents all day. She really gets it and makes a little sad face when she does have an accident. Hopefully I can give away my extra diapers later this week and never have a baby in diapers again. <---- This statement alone makes me want to jump for joy and scream with baby fever at the same time. I could probably do those things simultaneously but I maydefinitely need to stretch first.

I hope that Mr. Wright had a good Father's Day, but unfortunately he had to work for most of the day. I spent the day being a slave to Boo again, but it was great to see her progress. I also got to deal with these super cranksters who stayed up too late watching movies. When you're preschoolers are staying up later than you on a Saturday night you may need to get a life...



We had a barbecue to go to so the kids got to run around and tire themselves out. We pretty much came home and they went to bed, but Mrs. Wright was feeling crafty. I whipped up this little beauty with some scrap fabric that I had and I think it will be the perfect reward for Boo's new 'lifestyle change' of no longer crapping her pants.



I didn't get a thing done around the house the last few days, so I really need to focus on that this week. Too bad ALL I want to do is sew...

Day 83- Undie Count, 2009

I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing about how many times Boo can pee herself in a 24 hour period, but with the potty training consuming my life I don't really have much else to blog about. We are making s-l-o-w progress, but everyone assures me that most kids magically 'get-it' around day 3, but it could take longer. I really hope that we're almost done, and I'm sure that my carpet agrees. This will all be worth it even if she's potty trained in 10 days, but for now I get to whine about the constant peeing.

Here's the rundown of my day:
8:00am- Boo woke up damp, tried to pee, put on undies #1
9:03am- peed a tiny bit in undies, tried to pee on potty, put on undies #2
9:12am- peed a tiny bit in undies, peed in the potty, put on undies #3
9:55am-peed a tiny bit in undies, tried in potty, put on undies #4
10:03am- super peed a TON in dining room, tried on potty, put on undies #5
11:28am- tried on potty, left for Walmart with pee pad in hand!
11:35am- I smelled something stinky from the back of the van, hoped it wasn't what I thought it was
11:41am- false alarm confirmed
1:07pm- back from Walmart, tried to pee, changed into new Elmo undies (#6)
1:12pm- peed a tiny bit in brand new Elmo undies, tried on potty while crying "Melmo!! NOOOO!", put on undies #7
1:15pm- down for nap
3:25pm- woke up during nap to scream POTTY!, dry undies, tried in potty
4:01pm- woke up wet, peed in potty, put on undies #8
4:47pm- peed a tiny bit in undies, tried on potty, put on undies #9
4:49pm- (seriously!) peed in undies, peed on potty, put on undies #10
5:04pm- peed a tiny bit in undies, peed on potty, put on undies #11
5:25pm- peed a tiny but in undies, tried on potty, put on undies #12
6:35pm- tried on potty
7:10pm- tried on potty
7:25pm-7:30pm- tried FIVE FREAKING TIMES...ugg!
7:31pm- pooped in the potty!! Whoo hoo! I've never been so excited for that smell...
7:40pm- peed on the potty
7:45pm- in bed, in undies, for the night.
7:46 pm- I wash a BILLION pairs of undies to prepare for tomorrow, and forward this post to frisky teenagers who think kids are easy :P

Boo's made so much progress in the last two days that I don't want to stop and send mixed signals, but pee SUCKS. I'm just looking forward to less and less accidents and I'm so proud of my little girl. I never would have dreamed of potty training at 24 months, but she made the decision for me with all the diaper ditching. Here's hoping that the 3 Day Potty Training is literal for us!

Day 82- Potty Party

You know those things that you've never, ever heard of and then all of a sudden you hear about it 5 or 6 times in one day? That's what happened with this Three Day Potty Training. I had bought a book with Sweetie Pie that had a similar time frame. Unfortunately that whole method was centered around throwing a 'potty party' in the bathroom. I have toddlers so I'm no stranger to acting like an ass in the name of silliness, but throwing a farm animal themed party in my bathroom complete with balloons and streamers was a but too much for me. Needless to say I skimmed the book once (since it was really categorized by all the different weirdo potty parties you could have) and never touched it again.

Anyway, back to the Three Day Potty Training... I was worried that this was going to be one of those things where I have to set a timer for every 3 minutes and pretty much spend the whole day in the bathroom neglecting the older kids. Plus all that parenting would really cut into my computer time! Fortunately the potty training guru must also be addicted to the internet since her method doesn't require any timers, or pull ups, or Excedrin.

Basically you put your monster child (her method works for 22 months+) in underwear and ask them to keep their underwear dry. Instead of asking a million times if they need to go pee you have to ask them a million times to "tell Mama if you need to go potty". The guru also suggests that you stay home as much as possible for the three days. Of course I had one quick errand that I had to run, so I 'woman-ed up', but Boo in undies and headed to Lowes.

Once we were in the car I didn't really want to remind her to tell me if she needed to go potty since I don't own a potty chair and didn't want to stop, so I just kept asking her if she was dry. It's about 15 minutes to Lowes, and I must have asked her 20 times on the way there alone.

Me: Are you still dry?

Boo: (Grabs crotch like Michael Jackson) Yah!!

Me: Hooray!! Good job!

Boo: Hahahahahahah!

(wait 30 seconds and repeat)

Of course once I got to Lowes I stuck her in a giant plastic car cart that had rain water in the seat so she was soaking wet anyway, but still dry in the front. I zipped through the paint section to steal paint chips for this, but apparently they only have them at Home Depot. I'm looking like I have psychiatric issues at this point since I'm still quizzing Boo on the contents of her pants every two seconds in public, but I don't think I was every really in the running for the Mrs. Sane crown so I'm alright about it. I got my errand done, loaded the kids back in the car, and continued the inquisition all the way home.

I congratulate her as we walk in the door since we went ALL the way to Lowes and back without her peeing her pants (where's my gold star for that!?) and she's just glowing with pride. I was going to have her try to pee then since she had held it for a while, but the guru was VERY clear about trusting Boo to tell me when she had to go. I reminder her AGAIN to tell Mama if she had to pee, but she probably didn't hear me since she was up to her elbows in Apple Jacks. I made a phone call for 2 minutes, hung up the phone and noticed Boo 3 feet away from me doing the MJ crotch grab again screaming "butt, butt, butt!!". Whoops.

I cleaned her up and replaced her panties, but by then it was naptime. I figured she's already thoroughly marked her territory on her bed already this week so what's one more time. She actually stayed dry for her 90 minute morning nap- woo hoo! At lunch she started to pee but notified me as soon as it happened. Maybe she is hearing me every 5 seconds when I ask her to tell me! Little Man also alerted me to the presence of "lemonaid" on Boo's chair. She finished her business in the potty, which marks the first time she's peed in the potty ever. I won't even tell you how excited I was because it will reveal how lame the rest of my life is. She was just as proud...

The big question was naptime. She loves to sleep and drool like her Mama so she take a long nap in the afternoon. I tried to get her to go before bed but she just pretended to go and then spent the next 3 minutes flushing my stuff down the toilet. She didn't really sleep, I got her up a few times, but she still peed her undies. The evening was also quite eventful, but we're getting there. Hopefully we'll make some progress before I totally run out of clean underwear.

Tomorrow, we tackle day two... I'm already tired!

Day 81- Twisted

Yesterday was a pretty lazy day chore wise. I got the dishes done which was good since I was starting some interesting science experiments with some old milky sippy cups. Unfortunately Boo decided to do some more diaper removal during naptime. On a good note her blankie is the cleanest that it has ever been since I'm washing it 3 times a day lately...

One of my readers Tiffany commented on my post the other day and suggested that I put her in backwards zippered jammies with the feet cut off. I didn't really want to ruin a pair of her jammies so I tried just twisting the feet around and then putting them on backwards. It worked like a charm and she even sat through the photo shoot of her Kriss-Kross impression. Anything to postpone bedtime, right?



Unfortunately this morning I opened her door and she was buck naked. Yep, my little Houdini got out of backward zippy jammies. In the dark. There on her floor were her jammies layed out perfectly flat, still zipped AND snapped. She shimmied her boyish figure out the neck hole of those pajamas. That's like Babies Have Talent worthy. She could be a STAR!!



The kids were actually all pretty worn out from a birthday party that we went to last night. I got to hold a tiny newborn and rock her to sleep while my wild monkeys ran around crazy trashing my poor friend's house. I've been down with the baby fever for a few weeks now, but holding a sleeping newborn really kicks it into full swing. If only the old baby makin' factory wasn't closed... maybe Angelina wants to share with me.

I spent all day yesterday making a fabric travel art thingy for the birthday boy but I forgot to take a picture of it before we left. It turned out really cute if I do say so myself... my kids loved it so I guess I'll be making a few more to keep in my purse for the next time they all decide to meltdown at the same time while I'm waiting in line with $300 of groceries in my car shaped cart. Maybe I'll even do a tutorial and pretend that I'm crafty!

I'll get right on that as soon as I figure out what to do for Father's Day... nothing like waiting until the last minute!

Day 80- Mom Tips

*It's official, Blogger hates me! I keep getting signed out, my scheduled post didn't show up, and half my blog is crossed out. Must be a super mommy running the show that wants me to quiet down. Sorry for the technical difficulties!*

Oatmeal stuck on your arm then rubbed off is a great alternative to waxing.

If you ask your 2 year old to scratch the itch on your foot it almost feels like a foot massage.

Sometimes when everyone is screaming, the tv is too loud and I'm worn out I close my eyes and pretend that I'm at a noisy airport waiting to jet away somewhere... alone.

If you fill a sink with Pine-sol and water and leave it all day then drain it before your husband gets home it smells like you've been cleaning all day. This also works for mother in law's and general visitors. Of course I wouldn't know because my sink is never empty to attempt this.

Hide yummy snacks in the pantry behind the extra flour... no one will ever look there. I also find that frozen treats wrapped in foil and labeled 'pork chops' never move either.

When you're hair is in a bun you can get it wet, let it dry and it will 'curl'. White trash chic...

DVR was created for mom's who need to pause a show a.million.times to get juice/snacks then ghetto mop with windex and a paper towel when said juice/snacks are spilled.

Wii and wii fit are much more fun after the kids are in bed.

Clearance holiday candy lasts a LONG time. Even better yet you can tell your kids that holidays happen a week after they really do and catch the 75% off Target clearance. Score one for the parents!

If your kid thinks that a calculator is a cell phone and you're still jealous of their 'phone' you may need to update your phone.

Stuck up moms most likely have stuck up kids. Don't befriend the moms unless you're really really in need of one more person in your life to cater to.

Dogs will clean up almost any food mess. If they won't then try the vacuum. If that doesn't work then pretend you didn't see it. There's spaghettios all over the table!?

Black yoga pants and a nice top look almost identical to black slacks and a nice top. Not that I would know or anything...

Share your secret mom tips in the comments- I'm always lookin' for new moves!!

Day 79- Pee Brained

I mentioned in a post a few days ago about how I got Boo up from her nap to find that she had removed her diapers and marked her territory all over her bedroom. Apparently that wasn't an isolated incident but the beginning of a new pee filled stage of my life. For the past few days every time I've put her down for a nap or for bed she's woken up naked. I tried jammies with snaps... she can escape. Buttons.. no go. She just loves being naked. I don't think that her poor mattress feels the same way.

On a related note I've never done so much laundry in my life. The pee covered items started the trend, but I actually kept going after than. And don't freak out, but I even folded most of it and put it away. I know... something must be wrong with me. I also ended up making dinner, doing some dishes, and made my bed. The kids started asking me who was coming over. I really wish they wouldn't do that...

I even had some time this afternoon to get some sewing in AND call India Toshiba to get my computer mess figured out. I didn't really realize how productive my day was until I put it all on the table here. Oh, oh!! I even showered AND got dressed today AND ran errands. That's like the triple word score of my life. If every day was like today I'd almost call myself 'cured' but unfortunately I don't really know how realistic that is.

I always find it interesting how I have more free time for hobbies/crafts/plucking my eyebrows until I cry when I do more around the house. What the heck is that about? You'd think that I'd do a bunch of chores so I'd have a bunch of free time, but I'm stubborn and apparently believe that sitting on my butt all day letting the dishes pile up is the way to go.

It's obviously working SO well for me...

Extreme Makeover: Me Edition

I knew from Amber Filkins' little teaser that her weekly Extreme Makeover: Me Edition question was going to have something to do with the contents of my fridge. I was praying to the blog gods that she wasn't going to make me show the demons in my icebox, but alas, that was EXACTLY what she was planning on doing.

Super packed and messy fridge:


See why I need to hide my drumsticks in the icemaker!?


Of course today was the best day to do this because Mr. Wright brought home new ice cream and chocolate syrup today, plus I'm loaded up with sale chicken breasts so I appear to be on a very odd high protein & dairy diet... plus hotdogs. Hmm, I do see some carrots and onions in the drawer. That's healthy, right? Just ignore all the cheese and sundae products. My friend asked me to hold them for her. I swear...

I guess if I ever cleaned out the month old leftovers I'd have room for some healthy food. Or I could fit some potato salad and jello there instead. Decisions, decisions...

Since Amber kept me up so late to answer the EMME question I thought I'd share a picture that I took at 11:15pm. Seriously people, try getting your kids to sleep in this!

Day 78- Power Punched

I'm sure it is fairly obvious that I love my computer. I love my blog, I love my e-mail, I love Crackbook, and I love my bulletin boards and I love interacting with all the friends I've made online in the past few years. I can quite honestly say that I have more friends online than I do in real life. It seems so weird to people who don't have 'friends they've never met', but I don't see how standing in the same room as someone makes them a better friend than talking every day for over two years across the country.

Why the internet friend vent? I had a bit of a scare today with my laptop and all I could think of was how I was going to read blogs, post threads, blog and check my e-mail. My friends live in there darnit! It turns out that my power cord wasn't charging the computer even though it was plugged it. I tried a few different outlets and nothing worked. I turned the computer off and on hoping the icon was just 'stuck' and nothing. I was watching my computer slowly die and I didn't know when she would have power again. So sad.

After about 10 minutes of wiggling I saw the power light come on, then turn off again. Finally I realized that if I angled the cord just right it would feed power to charge up my baby. I literally held the cord in this position for 10 minutes before my arm got tired. I never claimed to have a life, but even I think it is pathetic to manually hold the cord into the computer while it charges. I finally was able to lay the computer on the floor and wedge Elmo under the cord just right to charge up without my help. I knew we had 15 billion Elmo's for a reason!

I called Toshiba after finding their number online on the desktop and of course I had to spend an hour telling the story over and over to all different Indian people named 'Jenny' and 'Lucky'. First they told me that I had to register the computer so I had to be transferred, then hold, then spell out my name and address s-l-o-w-l-y 5 different times. I got transferred again, held again, had to register again, blah, blah, blah. I know everyone is pining for more details but I may start rocking in the corner if I have to remember all the steps.

'Randy' set up a pickup for my sick computer and told me the wait time would be 6-8 weeks PLUS shipping. That's a long time to go without my laptop, even with my desktop to keep me somewhat connected! I figured that it would be best to run to the in-law's and try my FIL's identical power cord before I spent the next 12 hours backing up my 80GB's of photos and videos.

Luckily they're used to my brand of crazy and didn't even flinch when I asked to come over and plug my computer in without an explanation. I waited for the older ones to get up from their 'rest time' and went in to get Boo up. It was warm today so I had put her down for a nap in just her diaper. Any parent with a 2 year old knows what's coming next... she had tried to change her own diaper with a clean one that she had found, was apparently unsuccessful, then found some jeans to put on instead.

I didn't even think it was weird that she was wearing jeans since she loves to dress herself, but when I went to pick her up and her butt was soaking wet and warm I put it all together. I was trying to get to the in-law's and back quickly so I could get dinner started before Mr. Wright got home from work so I just gave her the classy "baby wipe bath" and left.

I show up at their house in yoga pants and a wrinkled shirt, Sweetie Pie is wearing the same thing she wore the day before, and Boo still has a bit of odor on her. I'm sure they were thrilled to smell see us. I plugged my laptop into FIL's power cord and it lit right up like I do when there's a sale on jammies. I'm glad it was a simple fix but now I have to spend part of tomorrow trying to track down 'Randy' to cancel the pickup and get a new cord shipped. At least I can spend my time on hold folding laundry... pssshh! THAT will happen :P

Day 77- Clean Sweep

I know that kids should be taught to clean up after themselves and develop good habits for the future, but these are MY kids were talking about, so there's just no hope for them. Every few weeks I go through Little Man's room (where they all play and leave their stuff everywhere) and have the kids help me clean up. Usually that involves me cleaning and them whining about how long I'm taking. Yeah, so I let Little Man's room get a bit out of hand and for at least 2 weeks I've had to make a foot wide path through all the crap on the floor just to kiss the kids goodnight. (Sweetie Pie insists on keeping her big girl room downstairs, yet she never sleeps in there because apparently she prefers to sleep surrounded by a bunch of toys on Little Man's floor)

Last night I finally got sick of inadvertently trying on Barbie's shoes every time I went in there but didn't really want to spend 2 hours trying to get the kids to help at 8pm either. While they were playing in the bath (don't judge, Boo was already asleep and I could see them from the room) I shoveled all the toys, clothes, stray animals, garbage, movies into a giant pile and started sorting. I swear a third of that pile was clothes... The good news is that I found their missing everything, but the bad news is now I have to wash it all.



I made all different piles for Barbies, Polly Pockets, books, blocks, garbage, movies and all the other crap and just started sorting like lightening. This mother of the year told the kids that they needed 5 more minutes in the bath to be "extra clean" when they asked to get out of the bath when in reality I just didn't want them messing up my piles. After I had stretched their patience as far as I could I transferred the piles as closely to their homes as possible and shoved the remainder into a corner of his room and instructed him NOT to touch it without Mama.

Is that wrong? I just don't need him to "help" clean his room when I already have it mostly done. We can always work on the sorting/cleaning/organizing habits next time, right? And until then all the Barbie shoes, Polly Pocket wigs (scary!), and tiny little pieces of anything are 'lost'. Oops! :P Sometimes it's fun to be the boss.

FMM 6/15/09

I'm so excited that Friend Making Monday wants some confessions this week so I can combine my favorite 'dirty little secrets' posts and FMM!

Hmm, I'll have to come up with something pretty juicy to justify having a Monday version of dirty little secrets.

I went to the store yesterday just to buy cheap cereal and ate almost a whole box yesterday alone.

I've had the same basket of laundry filled with the same clothes that never got put away from at least 10 days ago.

Sometimes if I don't feel like folding any more I put some clean laundry in the dirty pile. Shh, don't tell anyone.

I change Boo's diaper like, 4 times a day... seriously.

I dream about puffy cheetos and butterfingers at night.

I eat in bed sometimes even though Mr. Wright has a strict 'no food in bed' policy.

I put tv show premiers on my calendar just so I don't forget.

I also do all my 'stuff' ahead of time so I can watch Wipeout without interruptions.

Leave your dirty little secrets in the comments and click over to All That Is Good to read everyone else's confessions!

Day 76- Photo Finished

Mother of the year strikes again... while I slumbered peacefully just a few mornings ago my children were awake and up to no good. I had no idea when I came upstairs what my monkeys had been doing in the 15 minutes that they were unsupervised between Mr. Wright leaving for work and me hauling my lazy butt upstairs. I continued my day as usual totally unaware of their actions...until yesterday morning.

I love photography but don't have tons of experience so I was thrilled to get the opportunity to take some engagement photos for Mr. Wright's sister and her fiance. I spent yesterday morning getting all my crap equipment out and set up, charging my battery and clearing off my photo card. My photo card has been in my little point and shoot camera so I stuck it in my computer, hit import, and just about died.

There, in plain sight are some pictures that Sweetie Pie has taken of Little Man while I was snoozing the morning away. At first they were silly and then it got shocking. Let's just say that there is one that Photobucket would delete if I put it on here. I don't know why they felt that would be a funny picture, but they took it either way.

I didn't really know what to say to address it and I didn't want to embarrass them but Mr. Wright felt something needed to be said. I'm glad he went with the simple "Please don't take pictures without Mommy or Daddy" instead of the more direct "Please don't take pictures of your pee pee on mommy's camera and then don't even warn her" that I wanted to say.

Now I just need to find a place to hide all my cameras so I'm able to continue to sleep the morning away... those whole 15 minutes anyway!

Day 75- Trash Talk

I've always been pretty good about remembering to drag the smelly garbage can to the end of my long driveway, but this week it totally slipped my mind. Mr. Wright had even reminded me when he left for work but I was still fresh from dreamland with dried drool on my cheek and it didn't quite get filed in the 'remember this when you start to function' section of my brain. The next thing I know it's noon and the garbage truck is long gone. Normally we only fill our large trash can 3/4 full, but with all the extra garbage and packaging from Boo's birthday we were already trying to get too much stuff in there.

I'm Mrs. Wright, and I'm lazy, so when the main trash can in the kitchen gets full I pull the bag out and throw it on our balcony off the dining room... classy, huh? I could put it right in the large outdoor container but that would require a long walk down the stairs, going outside, and wearing shoes. Fairly often, I'm sure, I've been spotted wearing Mr. Wright's golf shoes, pajama pants, a tank top with no bra and messy, knotty hair trying to wrangle a bursting garbage bag that's dripping Spaghettio juice into the large container. It's a good thing that the paparazzi hasn't caught onto my awesomeness yet or I'd have some highly unflattering pictures in US Weekly. Anyway, to avoid the horrible tabloid pictures I just throw it out the sliding door... yeah, yeah, that's why.

This is way easier in the short term, but then on garbage day I have to collect all the nasty bags from the balcony, carry them through my house, and then out the front door to fill the large can. This is when Mr. Wright usually offers to roll the can to the end of the driveway if I fill it. I'm not sure why he thinks that's a deal that I'd be jumping for, but he keeps offering none the less. Sure honey, I'll do all the nasty parts and you wheel it out there... way to take one for the team. I mean, the driveway is long, but it's not like a mile long or anything.

Since he recently started reading my blog I'll post this special message just for him: That deal sucks, and you know it sucks or else you'd take up my offer to switch. Instead you just pretend that you forgot it was garbage day and then call me really early (where I have to run upstairs to find a charged phone) to tell me that everyone else has their trash cans out for collection. Don't think that I don't know what's going on here!

As if I'm not bouncing around with my garbage adventures enough I'm now going to ask you to remember the original story. I forgot to take the garbage out this week, even after Mr. Wright's kind reminder. I filled the can almost full with all the weeds from the front yard anyway, so I still have a bunch of birthday garbage on the balcony AND a full can. It was the worst week possible to forget of course. See, this is why I need an assistant! So who's bored to death!?

Day 74- Bad, Sad, Mad Day

Sorry this post is later than I usually like to publish but I've been having trouble putting words together today. I refrained from writing about my depressing duck murdering incident that had me all shaken up on Wednesday because I didn't want to bring the blog down- I like it better when it's light and fun. Unfortunately today has been a difficult day for me and my group of friends as we all lost our beloved "fetus niece" at just 9 weeks gestation. Her mama has been through so much in life, love, and loss and it kills me that she can't catch a break in life.



You can't help but squeeze your babies a little tighter when you are reminded of just how precious life is, and you can't help but be thankful for something that I take for granted all too easily. I wish I was in the mood to be silly, or tell everyone about my adventures of the day, or how proud I was when Sweetie Pie identified a "garage sale" that was really Yarbage, but I just want to send a hug to my dear friend Kate. If you're the praying kind please send one her way, and a few to her daughters in Heaven, Daisy and Parker.

Day 73- I Believe In Brownies!

I believe that this is better than than the depressing crap I kept writing on my previous attempts to blog today.

I believe that there should be an age limit on the Real World/Road Rules challenges. When you need to win the money because your kid is going to college in the fall then you're too old to be on the challenge.

I believe that children should come with an instruction manual, a nanny, and a built in wipe dispenser.

I believe that my minivan should run on garbage and old french fries.

I believe that birds and rodents are creepy.

I believe that laundry should fold itself.

I believe that if folding laundry was a traditional male chore self folding clothing would already exist.

I believe that paying $10 to see a movie is ridiculous, especially since you can wait 6 months and own the DVD forever for the price of 2 tickets.

I believe that good ghosts of loved ones visit us to make sure we're okay.

I believe in God and the healing power of bawling your eyes out.

I believe that life is too short for mopping.

I believe that my kids could have an amazing childhood with nothing but the library and a sprinkler.

I believe that we own 3 tons of toys that they don't need.

I believe that there should be a 25th hour of the day when you're not allowed to work, clean, cook or run errands.

I believe that you should have at least one person in life that you can say ANYTHING to.

I believe that you can make honest, real, non-weird friends on the internet.

I believe 2 minutes of makeup can change your whole day.

I believe that poopy diapers should be worth money so people would fight to get to change one.

Day 72- Status Report

I keep trying to forget completely accidentally forgetting that I started this blog to track my progress in life, so I think it's time for a progress report. I've made very little progress, but it's better than it was so that's something.

Dishes (my nemesis)
I've tried to keep up by emptying the dishwasher in the morning and filling it all day, but if I get sidetracked then I'm screwed. It's too easy to stack the dirty dishes in the sinks, then the counter next to the sink, then the island. And I wonder why we never have any spoons!

Laundry
I'm doing horribly with this one. We own a LOT of clothes, so I can get pretty behind before we even 'feel' it and even then it takes a while to get everything washed, dried, folded and put away. My family pretty much knows that there's a mandatory 48 hour waiting period for clean laundry at least! so that's definitely something to work on more.

Clutter
I'm slowly getting my crap together in this area {pun intended} and I'm so happy that I finally dumped that dead weight at goodwill last week. I still have a huge pile of baby clothes that need to be bagged up and taken to the consignment store along with all my other normal 'can't-let-go' clutter.

Good Mama
I suck at this one, but in my defense the kids have been sleeping poorly and are cranky and not fun way more often. I love living in Alaska, but when it's just as light at midnight than it was at 6pm it's hard to keep little ones on the right sleep schedule. I have tons of ideas for fun activities, but for now we've just been doing basic coloring, playing outside, and watching too many cartoons.

Good Wife
Uhh.... pass?

Getting Healthy
I suck at this one too since I've eaten a HUGE plate of nachos, a brownie, and some Wendy's today, but I washed it all down with Crystal Light so that counts as water. Thank goodness because I hate drinking water- don't tell my kids! I could drink a gallon of Crystal Light a day, but maybe a cup of water... 2 cups if it's ice cold with that cute little Sonic ice that no one has in Alaska. I love drinking Crystal Light all the time, and no, this isn't a post sponsored by them. I am trying to work this into my regular post so I can answer Amber's question of the week for Extreme Makeover: Me Edition without doing a whole other post. I'm lazy like that, remember?

I did add a new job that I need to do (since I was running so low on crap to fill my day!) and that is taking care of my yard. Have you even been out yard sale-ing and seen those mystery houses that have so much stuff in the yard that you think it's a garage sale but it isn't!? My sister Senorita Snarkalicious calls it "Yarbage" and I have a ton. My yard looks like a daycare closing sale with 2-for-1 weeds.

I made it my mission to do ANYTHING to make my property look better last night and I'm proud to say that I accomplished that. It took an hour and a half and a few four letter words, but I weeded part of my yard. Boo was even kind enough to help while Little Man contributed by 'accidentally' spraying me with the hose... four times. Nice, huh? I was kind enough to take before and afters since I know everyone was crying themselves to sleep at night due to my complete lack of B & A pictures in the last 6ish whole posts. It's okay my kind readers, the wait has ended.

My front side rocks weeds grass dirt collection before:



My front side rocks less weeds grass dirt collection after:



My organized Yarbage:



And just in case the neighbors weren't entirely positive how trashy we are I served my kids store brand fruit loops... outside... for dinner. What!? I was so tired from all that weeding!

Day 71- Phone A Friend

Anyone who has called me within the past 2 years knows that I have some phone issues. I either can't find them, they're dead, or more recently a combination of the two. Last year I blew my phone budget and got one of those sets with the extra handsets that plug right into the wall just so I could have a charger right where we sit in the evening. I figured there was no excuse to not replace it before we went to bed so it could charge all night. That didn't quite work out because I'm Mrs. Wright, and I plugged it into the outlet that only has power when the lights are on and the switch is up. Sooooooo.... when they are in the charger at night we don't have our lights on, so they never charged.

Finally I bought a splitter so I could have two things plugged in the 'always on' outlet at the same time and my problems were solved... for about a month. I've always been able to find our phones fairly quickly when they have gone missing, mostly due to the fact that they are usually in the couch cushions. I've never had to look anywhere else because they're always there- I don't even know where to look next.

The phone in my bedroom recently went missing and of course I didn't notice until the phone was too dead to page, and of course it's the only phone that we have downstairs, and of course people love to call when I'm still in bed so I have to run all the way upstairs for it. And then of course the freaking upstairs phone is missing... Anyway, missing one phone when you have three isn't that big of a deal so it took me a while to send out the search party (mainly me and my unbrushed hair). I looked in the game room couches when I did the big clean up in there a few weeks ago, but didn't find them... so, I gave up. Hey, 2 phones isn't that bad even if I do have to run upstairs- they're are people who would kill for those kinds of problems.

WANTED:


The two surviving phones mainly serve the living room and kitchen and its one open area so that doubles my chances of being able to find at least one of them when it rings. Unfortunately we had another casualty in the last few days and now we're down to one. Yes, I checked the couches. I have some clutter, but I wouldn't really call my house a bottomless pit that just swallows phones, especially in the living room where company is. So I have one little phone in a 2400 square foot house, and I'm the only one who answers it. And guess what? It decided that it doesn't want to hold a charge anymore. So now my ONE phone pretty much has to sit in the charger all day so that I can squeeze a 30 second conversation out when it happens to ring.

Of course I could buy a whole new setup which would be great since I have hundreds of pesky spare dollars around that I just couldn't get rid of, or maybe I'll buy one of those $10 beige corded phones that my mom had. That will be much more convenient when I'm holding Boo on the potty, Little Man is screaming for a drink, Sweetie Pie's deleting things off my DVR trying to turn on Spongebob and Muhammed Steve from India is playing 20 questions about my long distance satisfaction. I better invest in the 200 ft cord...

And FYI, I only had to run all the way upstairs twice during the typing of this blog.

FMM 6/8/09

I'm a total slacker but I'm sure you already knew that. I'm glad to be back doing FMM this week, and I want it noted that I actually did it on Monday, lol! Snaps for me!

All That Is Good's Friend Making Monday!

Today's questions is:

What are your favorite things about Summer?

1. Potato salad! No celery or pickles, extra onions.

2. Family reunions! The kids love to play with their long lost 'cousins'. And there's potato salad!

3. BBQ's! I love BBQ chicken and there's potato salad!

4. LIGHT! I live in Alaska, so it's pretty cool to eat breakfast and dinner in the daylight since that doesn't happen int he winter.

5. Birds! I'm not really a birdwatcher and I'm actually in fact terrified of those creepy feet, but the sounds are very serene.

6. Grass! We only see ours 4 months of the year, so it's fun to see the kids running and playing.

7. Playing in the sprinkler on a 'hot' day! We top out at about 80 and I get cold easily, so it's got to be a pretty nice day for me to be in the freezing cold hose water.

8. Scenery! Alaska is downright gorgeous in the summer.

9. Not have to drive through a ton of snow, while its snowing and dark and cold.

10. Did I say potato salad?

Day 70- Little Confused

I'm not sure how all boys with older sisters are, but Little Man has always had some...uhmm... confusion (not that there's anything wrong with that). He goes back and forth from all boy to quite girly, but recently when he and I were playing in his room when the game turned to Barbies. What happened next was kindly documented by me for future torture... maybe, I'm still not sure. You be the judge.

First we were playing blocks. We made a house with towers and a garage.


Then he decided that for some reason the Barbies needed to be naked and take a dip in the Elmo cake pan pool. The clothed ones weren't allowed in.


Then he stuck 1 guy Barbie in. I guess hanging with a bunch of naked Barbies is a man thing to do, but then he informed me that they were naked because they didn't have the "right" outfits on.



Then the guy got out... I'm just not sure how 'out' that doll is yet.


Then they upgraded to the Olympic sized block box. All the girls are sitting on each other's laps naked, but the guys are getting pretty cozy themselves...


Then they whispered some sweet nothings in each other's ears.


Then he decided he was done and started blowing crap up and running it over with his pirate ship. Back to square one... (that's Sweetie Pie's princess wand by the way!)

Day 69- Happy Booday!

In honor of Miss Boo's 2nd birthday and the fact that I slacked so much that now I have to race around like a chicken with my head cut off I thought I'd share some pics of her past 2 years. Enjoy all that hair! :P

Day 68- Cleaning Frenzy

Ok, so it turns out that I did the exact opposite of what I said I was going to do yesterday. I said that I was going to let the house go (like, further than it already had) and spend the day with the family. It just so happened that Mr. Wright took ALL three kids on a little adventure and I was ALONE in my house. It took me 5 minutes or so to decide what I should do with my free time, but I figured that it would be better to have a clean house when they came home than be passed out on the couch with soaps on and donuts crumbs all over my shirt... I'll have to save that for tomorrow!

I set my kitchen timer for 20 minutes and started with the dishes. In 20 minutes I got my dishwasher emptied, jackhammered the melted cheese off the dirty dishes, and got the dishwasher loaded and ran. The timer went off and I reset it for 20 minutes, this time focusing on laundry. I emptied the dryer, filled it with the contents of the washing machine, found the pile that smelled the worst and washed that. Then I folded the stuff from the dryer and finished just as the timer went off. It was great to know that I wasn't going to be folding forever, and actually kind of fun to see all that I can accomplish in 20 short minutes.

I reset the timer once again and started vacuuming the living room. It was pretty nasty but within 20 minutes I had the floorspace vacuumed and had moved the loveseat to get under it. The timer rang but I wasn't quite done so I gave myself another 20 minutes. I moved my sofa and spent most of the alloted time trying to remember when the last time we had apple jacks was... it was pretty scary under there! I got my kitchen vacuumed (because I'm WAY too lazy for sweeping and my Dyson does bare floors) and possibly even sucked up some crumbs on the table with the hose attachment. Don't tell anyone!

One more session got my stairs vacuumed and the entryway picked up. After a solid hour of vacuuming I was really hot and tired so I took a 'break' to fold the next load of laundry. Listen to me! I'm almost like a real person! The phone rang right then, so of course the family walked in right when I had finally sat down to chat, but even Mr. Wright noticed how nice the house looked. It couldn't have come at a better time since I'm still in denial about Boo's birthday party on Sunday.

I'm back to sitting on my butt now, but at least my house is way cleaner than it was before. That us until it gets trashed during the party!

Dirty Little Secrets

It's been a while since I've spilled the juiciness, so I'm long overdue. Be sure to share your own dirty little secrets in the comments- it will make you feel so much better! Remember you can always comment anonymously if its a really good one!

Boo dumped a bucket of water on the floor of the bathroom and I mopped it up with a towel. That towel is still sitting on the bathroom floor and the whole room is starting to smell like mildew- yuck!

That occurred during Boo's bath on Wednesday, and that was the last day any of my kids had a bath.

I love my dog, but I really don't like her. In fact, she's kind of a pain in the butt who barks all the time. I keep her around to eat the food that the kids drop.

I love to spend time with the kids, but I dream about having a whole day to myself to sew cute stuff. Probably stuff for the kids...

I don't like to eat when the kids are awake because they always want my food and I'm a bit protective. Sometimes I sneak a treat into the laundry room and pretend that I was doing laundry.

Sometimes when we're out of spoons or cups but the dishwasher is full of other clean dishes I just put the stuff that we need into the clean dishes and run the whole thing again.

I'd rather clean my kids' rooms for them and do it my way than have them do it their way where we can never find anything.

Alright... your turn!

Day 67- Life Lessons

One of my awesome friends-I've-never-met Austin Amy alerted me to the existence of this wonderful newspaper column written by Regina Brett in 2006. She was turning 50 at the time and wrote her weekly column on her 45 life lessons and 5 to grow on. I thought it was a wonderful reminder of what we're all really doing here and really drives home the "Big Picture" theme I was talking about in Wednesday's post. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and to celebrate I'm spending the whole day with my family today on Mr. Wright's day off. Hug your babies, call your mom, and remember that every day could be your last- do you ever really want to spend it obsessing over the house or wearing real leave-the-house pants??

You can read the original article here.

Regina Brett's 45 life lessons and 5 to grow on

by Regina Brett

Sunday May 28, 2006, 10:13 AM

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.

It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here's an update:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.

18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

36. Growing old beats the alternative - dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

42. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

45. The best is yet to come.

46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

48. If you don't ask, you don't get.

49. Yield.

50. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Day 66- Food Mood

At one point last summer I had a month's worth of menus planned at any time with all the ingredients purchased and dinners marked on the calendar. It was so easy to wake up in the morning, see what I had planned for dinner, and get the meat out to thaw. I fell off the wagon as usual, and when I don't have the funds to buy every item for a meal I just can't function. I can't make presentable meals out of the items in my freezer no matter how hard I try.

Today I planned out a few meals, some actually containing items I already had, made a list, then purchased the items. Sound simple, but that's a big deal for me! Senorita Snarkalicious even got my kids McDonald's and sat with them while they ate so I could screech around Walmart with that giant cart shopping. It was wonderful because I had a list, no kids, and some salty fries. Suh-weet!

I'm thrilled that it's 2pm and I know exactly what we're having for dinner, and even have the next 4 days' dinners planned. I bought enough food for 10 dinners and even got some staples for the pantry for $120. I bought diapers too since I've decided to creep over to the 'dark side' of disposable diapers, so that's pretty good for food in Alaska.

Sometimes I accidentally see an ad from the 'lower 48' and want to cry at the prices. It's probably a good thing that I hardly ever leave Alaska so I won't be tempted to fill my suitcases with bargains. There was this blissful week right when Target opened that they hadn't realized the prices of stuff here for some reason and I got a bunch of Spaghettios for $.66 a can not even on sale. I think I had a coupon too! Anyway, not more than 5 days later I went back to get more and they were the Alaska price of $1.10. They're still a bargain compared to the $1.45 at another local store but I just can't bring myself to buy them since I know how much they're going for everywhere else. Stupid Target. Way to pass the price gouging onto the customer :P

Day 65- The Big Picture

My home is in chaos today, but I'm eerily calm. My dishes are in the sink for the first time in 5 days, there's off-brand Lucky Charms all over my dining room floor from breakfast, I've got garbage on my counters, the floors are in need of vacuuming, there's stinky laundry in the washing maching and I'm cool as a cucumber. Why? Because today I was reminded that there's more to life than having clean floors.

The kids and I spent the morning at my in law's house and it was the best way to spend a summer day. The original Mrs. Wright and I sat outside while the kids ran and played all over the yard. It was 70 degrees with a cooling breeze and couldn't have been more perfect. Mr. Wright's Grandpa recently moved into my MIL's home and I swear I could sit there all day and listen to his stories. He's been through it all and he's still standing...

The second I met our new Grandpa just a few weeks ago I had an instant connection with him. I'm not sure if it was because I met him the day that my own Grandpa was buried or because he was just so darn sweet, but I'm thrilled to have him as part of my children's lives.

As I sat with my MIL and my children's great-grandfather and listened to him tell stories of the numerous experiences of his childhood and life I never once heard him mention anything about the cleanliness of his Mama's floors. :P

So today I'm asking myself the tough questions- Will my children remember how shiny my stove was? Would they remember us playing in the yard more? Do we have any ice cream? Will this matter in ten years?

Of course we still need clean laundry and dishes and dinner to live, but the importance of the little chores just don't seem to be as big of a deal as they did yesterday. Life lesson of the day- stop and smell the freaking roses people, and if you get pricked by a thorn I have 5 first aid kits!

Day 64- Elmo Search & Rescue

I've been trying not to think about it, but I think the time has come for me to acknowledge that Boo's 2nd birthday is on Sunday. I haven't invited anyone, bought anything except the plates, or planned out my week so I don't leave everything to the final hour. In fact, I still have a few decorations from Little Man's birthday up. Yeah... I know.

Like most 2 year olds Boo has quite the obsession with Elmo, or "Melmo" as she calls him. We happened to be at Target to replace my holey sheet when Boo took off screaming Melmo! Melmo! I found her 3 aisles down quivering like the addict that she is in front of a huge display of Elmo cups, bowl, and plates. There's no way that I was getting out of that store without buying the Elmo items unless I wanted her kicking and screaming so loudly that people start to question whether or not she's being abducted. Luckily I decided to forego the tantrum and use them for the birthday party.

Little Man also went through an Elmo phase around his 2nd birthday and I had searched high and low all over my town for one of those Wilton cake pans that makes the disembodied Elmo head. I was hugely pregnant with Boo and the hormones were just adding to the fact that everything had to be PERFECT for his party. My mom could see that my head was about to explode if I didn't get that cake pan in my sweaty sausage fingers asap and sent my poor dad into Joann Fabrics 45 miles away to pick one up. Papa saved the day and Little Man's Elmo cake was the perfect addition to the birthday party that he'll never remember...

That Elmo cake pan sat in my pots & pans cupboard for 18 months. You know, in case I ever got a craving for Elmo cake which I would be too lazy to do the intricate frosting on and just make a totally flat top on... Finally, in a moment of sanity, I cleared the Elmo cake pan out of my cupboard and added it to a box of donation items.

I bet it wasn't a month after that sucker hit the donation box that Boo's love for Elmo came about, yet it didn't cross my mind until recently that maybe I should start looking for that darn thing. Two weeks ago I decided that Boo would love an Elmo party and that I should find that pan. Of course it wasn't until yesterday that I actually got off my butt to do it... I also had some bags of already sorted and marked donation items that never got donated so I figured those were an easy target to make some room in there. A mere 30 minutes later I was holding the forgotten cake pan in my hands.

Here's the before picture of the scary mess that resides under our stairs. The space never got finished so it doesn't have a door, sheetrock or a light which makes it almost qualify for my "never go anywhere that's dimly lit with spiders" mantra. It's a good thing I'll do anything for those little monsters... at least on their birthdays!



The "I'm done for today maybe I'll work on it more again some other day" picture



The bags of crap that are no longer a part of my life!



Is anyone sick of the before and afters yet!? I'm getting pretty tired... and hungry... for donuts.

Day 63- Pantry Party

Guess who has a clean & organized pantry?? That's right, THIS lady! My brother in law happened to want to take Sweetie Pie and Little Man for the afternoon yesterday so I was able to put Boo down for a nap and get to business. I started by eating some nachos because, uh... hello, I was almost alone in my house!

After I finished my greasy treat I got to work by emptying the pantry and sorting the food into groups (baking, snacks, cans, dinner ingredients, etc.). Then I checked each group for expired food or food that we're never going to eat. Luckily (?) my pantry was pretty bare compared to how it normally is so it was easy to see what was in there. Then I played pantry tetris to get the groups to fit together on the shelves.

The longest job was sorting all the confiscated toys and returning them to their homes. This was difficult because if they all had homes then they probably wouldn't have been left out to be confiscated in the first place. I put 2 new containers for inevitable future confiscations but at least for today they'll stay empty. Please don't feel too badly for my children- they only get 10 warnings to pick something up before it gets a week time out. Unless I'm sitting down, then they get 11 or 12 warnings. 13 if I'm on Facebook. Anyway here's my before picture from an earlier post:



The during picture:



And the blessed after:



Once again you can check out more before and afters at I'm An Organizing Junkie's Monthly Round Up.

*I'm not sure what's happening with my pictures but I'm getting frustrated with them being all different crazy sizes and cutting off my hard work!*