Probably the most depressing dinner fiasco I have ever encountered...

So tonight's dinner was gonna be UBER fantastic! I was so looking forward to it. Okay- not totally true. The main dish was a last minute easy meal, it was my side dish I was so excited for. I made Costco's Orange Chicken with rice, and the main side was...artichokes!

I. LOVE. ARTICHOKES. Not kidding. I love them! And I don't don't DON'T like sharing mine. Joe and I were married nearly 9 years ago (wow!). When I bought artichokes for us one night for dinner, I was NOT thrilled when Joe made dinner, and only cooked ONE artichoke for us to share. Ummm... no. :) He has since learned... Also- in my family, we have ALWAYS served our artichokes with mayonnaise to dip it in. Now, I am not necessarily a HUGE mayo fan, but it is (in my opinion) the ONLY true way to enjoy a good artichoke.

Now- back to the story. As I was putting dinner on the table I went to the fridge to grab the mayo. It took me a minute to find it as it had been pushed to the back of the fridge (as I said, not a huge mayo fan). As I pulled it out, I noticed it was VERY lightweight. Sure enough I opened it up and there was just a tiny bit in the bottom. Dang! So I checked my pantry- nope- no mayo. CRAP! So I dish out what little mayo I had into three little bowls, and tell the kids to go easy on it (Joe eats his plain). We all took one bite of the artichoke with mayo on it and realized that the mayo was NOT GOOD. I mean, BAD... it smelled (according to Joe) like musty laundry. It tasted (according to me) exactly like I imagine sweaty gym socks would taste like.

CRAP- CRAPITY- CRAPUMS! Well, luckily my children are not nearly as picky as I am, so I pulled out the small jar of Miracle Whip I had on hand (I can not STAND Miracle Whip... it is only good for one thing. But that's a different story...). The kiddos and Joe were all quite happy with their artichokes, but this here pregnant lady was NOT gonna settle for that. I ate my main dish, and excused myself to my trusty laptop to Google a recipe for mayo. I found one that sounded fairly easy... AND I had all the ingredients! YAY! So I set to work making my own HOMEMADE mayonnaise! Um... yeah. It was a total flop. I know emulsions can be tricky... but I really screwed it up, so of course, I had to scrap it. :( If that's not bad enough, as I was rinsing off the bowl I used to make said mayo, I look over at the table, and Lilia had finished her artichoke and was HALFWAY THROUGH MINE! ACK! Oh no she di'int! I shooed her away from my precious, and sent her off to watch some Sesame Street with her little sister. At this point I had given up on the whole Mayo thing, and decided to TRY it with Miracle Whip... BAD idea. It was awful! (Keep in mind I am pregnant and when my body craves something, it isn't happy with substitutions...) . So I went with door #2. I dipped the rest of my artichoke in melted butter. It was OKAY, but not great. Now- if that's not bad enough, as I was cleaning my dishes (and Lacey's) off the table, I leaned across the table to grab something and my WHOLE BELLY landed right in the melted plate of butter! I have a mega grease stain on my shirt now! UGH! So, so, SO depressing!

(The good and only redeeming news here is that I do have one more uncooked artichoke which will be my lunch tomorrow after a trip to the grocery store!)

Wow- how sad is this? I totally just blogged about an artichoke! It must be the pregnancy... yeah- that's it...

Too cute NOT to share!

Three Lacey-isms from today:

1. When looking at a family picture she identified me as "Momma" her sister as "Lilia" and herself as "Lacey" but when she pointed to Joe (Daddy) she said, "STEVE!"

2. She wanted to get my attention for some reason or another. She said, "Momma... momma... Momma? MOMMA? Pam? PAM! Pam?" (I was not ignoring her, she just chose to keep this dialog going...)

3. *Back story* When she is being naughty I tell her to stop- if she doesn't stop I start counting. When I get to three she gets in trouble. SO tonight, Joe and I asked her where her pajamas were (usually that prompts her to go running to her room in search of jammies). She stood at the head of the hallway and yelled, "Jammas... uh ARE YOU? Jammas! One... Uh ARE YOU?... Two... Jammas?..."

Lacey absolutely kills me sometimes. What a goof!

As for Lilia- she informed me today that "Pam is a mean mom, but Dora is a nice mom." Good to see how I stack up against a cartoon character.

She also announced today, "Ugh! I don't wanna do homework- it's not exciting! I don't ENJOY it!"

I love love LOVE my girls! They make my days so much more fun!

What a slacker!

I haven't been too good at keeping up on my blog, and for that, I am sorry... but to be honest, other than being CRAZY busy, nothing much has been going on. There are always the little things in life, which are passing by at a ridiculously fast pace, but otherwise, not a whole lot.

Lacey is talking more and more. Last night I was trying to get her in bed and I told her to give daddy hugs and kisses. She hopped (like a frog) over to him and said, "I frog- ribbit" than kissed his cheek and hopped off to bed.

She also has picked up a fun habit in the morning. She likes to climb in bed with me when she first wakes up. She will cuddle with me for a few minutes, just staring at me with a big smile and WIDE OPEN eyes... eventually I wake up enough to acknowledge her with a kiss. She says, "morning... Momma. Lilia uh..leep. Sister leeping" (Lilia's asleep. Sister is sleeping). She then climbs off the bed and tells me to get up before going back to her room to wake up the already awake Lilia. (Both Lil and I pretend to be asleep so Lacey can continue with her morning routine).

I have recently dubbed Lacey my little robot. She has such an interesting way of talking... it seems like everything she says is riddled with pauses. For example(s):

Nuh-Night.... Daddy.

Drink.... Momma.

I yuv you... Grandma.

It's like she has to pause to remember WHO she is addressing. She also tends to be a bit of a natural southern belle... she has a self proclaimed accent. Instead of properly pronouncing words like; bed, dress, hand, etc. She says "Bay-ed," "Dree-yes," "Hee-and." It's pretty cute. And I just don't have the heart to correct it. I figure eventually she will figure it out.

Lilia is LOVING school. She is learning so much (not necessarily a ton of academic stuff, since she already knows most of what is taught, but more social stuff). She loves her teacher and was very upset to not be able to give her a kiss. When she is upset by something she will tell her teacher (all teary eyed) "I think I need a kiss." And her poor teacher has to explain to her how it isn't okay for teachers to kiss their students... It's been a tough adjustment for her... Interestingly enough, she has a friend who is more than willing to comply and hug and kiss on her, but she is NOT interested in his affection at all! :)

Lilia has started listening to me read her chapter books at night. I found a series of Tinkerbell books (so far I have counted about 10 of them) and Lilia is LOVING hearing stories about her favorite movie characters.

She is also a huge help around the house... she DOES need to be prodded along sometimes, but if I let her do the vacuuming and let her choose what to clean next she is pretty good at helping me. She loves to help me make dinner, and I am sorry to say I don't always have the patience to let her help, but I figure the bigger my belly gets, and the less energy I have, the more I will allow Lil to help me with dinner.

The other day Lilia asked me to help her write a letter. She asked me how to spell "love" and "than..." After spelling them out for her (or at least helping her figure it out on her own), she delivered this letter to her dad. "Dear Dad. I love you more than Mom." The little stinker! She does keep us laughing though...

A while back she learned a new word. Solicitor. Except no one taught it to her. She "figured it out" all by herself. (I may have already blogged about it) She would shut her bedroom door in Lacey's face yelling, "No sit-ri-sities!" After listening to this for a good half hour I asked what she was saying and she repeated it S-L-O-W-L-Y and said, "you know- like the sign on our door!" Wow kid... She then used the line on a bunch of neighbor kids who kept knocking on our door after I had told them that my kids couldn't play. She opened the door and yelled "No sit-ri-sities!" and slammed the door again. :) Well sure enough, the other day a neighbor of ours doorbell ditched us and left a pumpkin for my kids. Lil sighed, stood up to answer the door and said, "Mom I think it's a sit-ri-siter! HE saw our sign and left!" She makes me laugh...

Joe and I are pretty sure we have found our future son's name. Matthew Joseph (after his uncle, his dad, his grandpa and his great grandpa). Lilia wasn't thrilled with the name at first because there was a mean kid in her class named Matthew, but he moved to the AM class, so she is okay with it now. I am also already noticing a difference between my boy and my girls. He is SO ACTIVE! I am amazed at how much he moves! Much more than either of my girls ever did. Joe was lucky to get an occasional kick from Lil and Lace, but he is constantly getting kicked in the back at night this time round. IT's our first kid to ever wake Dad up from a dead sleep. Me on the other hand? I am quite used to it, and sleep right through the kicking sessions. Lilia likes watching my belly move. A few times a day she will just walk up and sit next to me and stare... and stare... She can hardly wait for Matt to join us. Every time I have a doctors appointment she asks if the doctor will be pushing the baby out of me yet. So far, with a few minor exceptions, everything is going well. I can't walk very far without having some pretty intense pains, and breathing while laying down is not always easy, but otherwise this pregnancy has been pretty good. Though how much weight I will gain concerns me a bit. I am averaging a pound a week. :S

For Halloween this year, Lilia has requested being Snow White. I found her a Snow White dress, now I just need to find a crafty friend or family member (or both, hint hint) to help me sew up a quick red cape... I wasn't willing to drop 45 dollars for both the cape AND the dress. I have NO IDEA what to dress Lacey up as. Any suggestions or costumes someone wants to loan me for a 2 yr old in a fairly cold climate? I also have no clue what Joe and I should dress up as...

Okay- that's a pretty decent start for catching up. Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Dangling Participle...

IT'S A...

BOY!

And if that first one isn't a good enough picture, this one is SURELY proof! That's NOT a finger!

My little muscle man!

Kinda looks a bit like the terminator doesn't it?

Waving goodbye!

Oh, and to better explain the title of this post- This last summer at a

family gathering my grandfather was talking about all the many

things people learn that become useless. As he was finishing up,

he said,

"I bet there isn't a single person here that can tell me what a

dangling participle is!"

I asked, "Well Grandpa, do YOU know whata dangling participle is?"

He said, "Not anymore..."

And I replied, "Well, I know! It's how they tell the difference between

baby boys and baby girls!"

Haven't seen Grandpa laugh that hard in a while... (Oh, and one of my

uncles really DID know what a dangling participle was... he's a school

teacher.)

Another Rite of Passage

My girls are growing up. As with every other mom in the world, this thrills me to no end, and makes me a bit sad at the same time...

Yesterday Joe and I loaded the girls up to go "window shopping" at Ikea...

What? You don't believe me. Well- I don't blame you.

So, off to Ikea we go...

And home from Ikea we come- $420.00 later...

And this is what accompanied us!

In order for it to be put in place, some rearranging needed to be done... Bye Bye Crib and Toddler Bed!
Joe got to work on the construction...

Eventually it was finished...

And the girls couldn't be more thrilled!

They are now proud owners of an awesome new bunk bed! The bed itself was quite reasonably priced... it was adding mattresses, bedding, and water poof (read: pee and vomit proof) mattress protectors that got us up to such a great price tag!

Now, eventually, the blue will become pink, and then the bed will be PERFECT! In the meantime, I love that Lacey is only 4 inches off the floor, so if she rolls out, the fall will be quite a bit less painful than a regular twin bed!

(Sorry for the crappy pictures- I was tired. When the pink paint is done and the other quilt is finished I will take better pics...)

Making up for lost time...

I know I didn't post a whole lot the last couple months, so of course, I am making up for it now by posting every day! YAY! :) And now- to catch up on some funnies and pictures...

On Lil's birthday Joe and I treated her to dinner at the restaurant of her choosing. Sorta- I asked what she wanted for her special birthday dinner and she said Spaghetti, so I chose Spaghetti Factory (which she was thrilled with, since they give you "free" dessert with every meal). When we got there the waitress asked her what she wanted to drink. She got a very serious thoughtful look on her face, looked the waitress straight in the eye and said, "Hmm... I think I could handle a sprite."

Yesterday I heard Lacey calling for me. She was saying- "Momma, I tuck (stuck)! Help... Momma!" I walk into the girls room and find this:

The other day, after school Lilia was throwing a major fit over something. Totally don't remember what now, but she was MAD. So, being the good mom I am (hehehe) I sent her to her room. She can come out when she is ready to act like a big girl. She sat on her bed and literally SCREAMED at me for about 3 minutes, and then... silence... I went to check on her and found this:
It seems kindergarten is wearing her out. She comes home so tired that she is nearly impossible to handle! Looks like she needed a late afternoon nap!

Yesterday at school was "Crazy Hair Day." So I got Lil's hair wet, sprayed it down with hairspray, flipped her head upside down and blew it dry. Funny- it turned out looking super cute, and not too crazy! I may have to do this again, but add a hair clip or headband to keep it a little more tame...

Lacey is well known for moving all over in bed. She will never fall asleep and stay put. Sure enough, this is what I found when I looked in on her the other day. Sound asleep with her feet propped up. Cute kid!

I know I posted her video last month some time about her cherry eating antics, but here is a picture of what Lacey looks like after eating cherries for half an hour!

And finally, blackmail for Lacey and future boy friends. That's the dog's water dish Lacey has her face in. Notice the dog looking on... hahaha!

So Big!

Lilia turned 5 yesterday. I am so amazed by her. She is such a fantastic child. Smart, cute, talented, and funny...

She loves her family, and we love her back! Last night Lacey cried because I wouldn't let Lilia kiss her goodnight (Lace was sick and I didn't want Lil getting it).

She is loving Kindergarten. I volunteered in her class yesterday, and brought along a treat for the kids. It was so great to see Lil interacting with her class. She has found herself a little friend named Sage (though she isn't so little- she is a whole head taller than Lil). The two of them were holding hands and giggling together during playtime.

She did her first bit of homework this morning, and was upset that all she had to do was count to 20 and write her name 3 times. She wanted to do more!

She is so smart! Anyone who has spent time with her can see that she is very intelligent. Anyone who deals with her often won't be surprised to know that she has been out thinking Joe and I for 2 years now. And I couldn't be more proud!

There isn't a doubt in my mind that Lilia will go places with her life. She will be what she wants to be, she will do what she wants to do, and NOTHING will keep her from her goals.

Now as a mom, my job is to help her set goals worthy of her efforts... wish me luck! She is a very headstrong child, and I love that about her.

She is beautiful! She has her daddy's eyes, her momma's hair (sorry kiddo!) and a smile all her own. I love her cute little nose, and pink shaded cheeks... She has already had her first kiss (So cute!) and there will be plenty more, no doubt (SIGH).

I love her to pieces. I swore I wouldn't cry when she started school, and am not surprised to be able to say I didn't cry- I was so EXCITED for her! But I Did sniffle a bit when she got a fathers blessing... The only thing that makes me love her more, is seeing her laughing and playing with her daddy and little sister.

Together the three of them make my life absolutely wonderful. Happy Birthday Lilia! I LOVE YOU!