Obligatory Halloween Pics

Here are some photos of the kiddos in their Halloween costumes. Although I managed to get some really cute ones of Liam, Sydney didn't stand still long enough for me to get more than one of her. I'll give it another try on Wednesday before trick or treating. For now, enjoy!

Liam dressed as a cow (my mom made his costume).





Sydney chose to be (surprise, surprise) a princess. At least she chose to be a classy renaissance princess.....

Six Things About Me Meme

Mommy Daisy tagged me for a meme. I'm supposed to list 6 facts/habits about myself. Hmmmm.......

1. I am short. Really short. I have to stand on the bottom shelf at the grocery store if I want to reach something on the top shelf. Speaking of grocery stores.....

2. I am completely OCD about my grocery shopping. On Mondays, I sit down and make our weekly menu on one side of blank computer paper. I use the other side for my grocery list that is based on the menu. The needed grocery items are listed in the order that I will find them in the store (if I follow my usual path). If I have coupons, I write a little "C" next to the items on the list so that I don't forget that I have them. And I only allow myself one "splurge" or item that was not initially on the list. Helps us save a little money. :)

3. When I was teaching, my classroom was very organized. I always knew where everything was and I only lost one paper in my five years of teaching. My house, on the other hand.......I'm lucky if I can find anything.

4. When I was younger, I wanted to be a nurse. I still think about it sometimes, but the thought of all that science and math makes me nervous. But it would help me fit in with my sisters-in-law a little better since I'm the only one of the five daughters-in-law who is not in the medical profession.

5. I know they're bad for the environment, but I love Lysol/Clorox wipes, Pledge cloths and my Swiffer disposable mop pads. There's something satisfying about cleaning up a mess/dusting/mopping and then throwing away the mess rather than cleaning off the icky sponge/dustcloth/mop and using it again. Besides, I recycle so that makes up for it, right?

6. I don't like yard work. Neither does Ryan. Our yard certainly looks like it. Unfortunately.

So there's a little about me.....consider yourself tagged (if you want to be)!

We're Back!

The termite tenting is over. Hallelujah!

We packed half of our house, invaded my parents' house for three days, moved back home and spent the weekend unpacking, cleaning and sanitizing. Both the dishwasher and washing machine have had quite the workout and we now have a completely reorganized kitchen, bathroom and toy room. So I guess you could say the reorganization of our house is the silver lining in all of this. Oh, and all the dead bugs. There's something both gratifying and disgusting about finding a dozen dead roaches in your house.

So what did Liam and I do at my parents' house while Ryan and Sydney were at work and school, you ask? We played in the backyard (makes the idea of moving to the 'burbs and having a back yard more enticing), stared at and chased the cat (the cat is still faster than him) and played with a whole new set of toys. My mom watched him quite a bit while I sewed this for some friends who are having a baby in December:


This is this front.


This is the "frilly" side.


This is a close-up of the frilly side.

We're looking forward to getting our lives back to normal and gearing up for Halloween. Now that it finally feels like fall, I can't wait to pull out my pumpkin recipes and get started on some yummy treats. Of course, we still have three-quarters of Ryan's birthday cheesecake to eat, so I'm guessing that all my hard work to lose weight will be wasted, but it's worth it, right?

Clean and Purge

To prepare our house for the termite tenting it will go through later this week, I spent my weekend cleaning and purging. We have to remove all food (minus canned goods), alcohol, medicines, toiletries, baby mattresses, plastic toys and anything Liam might put in his mouth. So basically, half our house needs to be packed up and stored elsewhere for the three days that our house will be doused in toxic gas.

While packing all these things, I decided to clean and purge at the same time. I am embarrassed to admit what all got thrown away because it was old, sticky or expired:

-2 full bottles of antacids that expired in 2004 (I bought them when pregnant with Sydney just in case I got heartburn - I never did)
-Infant cough & cold drops that were recalled last week
-4 half-used tubes of travel sized toothpaste (it's not like I can combine them)
-2 boxes of gelatin that expired in 2006 (I fixed a third box that would never "set", so I'm assuming that it does actually expire)
-Coffemate cream that expired in May (can you tell we only fix coffee when my in-laws are in town?)
-2 packages of yeast that expired in 1998 (yes, 1998)
-5 packages of protein shake powder (no clue why we had that)
-2 lime flavored popsicles that none of us would eat
-3 frost bitten hot dog buns
-an opened can of frozen orange juice that had 1/3 of the contents missing (no clue why)

I could go on and on (and bore you to death), but needless to say, our cabinets, drawers and pantry were in serious need of some organizing.

I challenge you to peek in your medicine cabinet, pantry and fridge.....what can you throw away?

Sorry

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've been fighting both a nasty case of hives (head to toe, on and off for about a month now) and a bladder infection. So, yeah, I've been a little under the weather as of late. But some antibiotics, Benadryl and an increase in the frequency of my allergy shots should take care of it all in a week or so.

So, I'll leave you with two Sydney-related princess tidbits to hold you over until I'm back to my normal self:

First, after one of her standard four year old whiny fits, I called her a drama queen. She retorted with, "I'm not a drama queen, I'm a drama princess." So that's now her new nickname.

Second, upon Erica's recommendation, I checked out "Princess Smartypants" from the library. We both loved it. It has now been added to the Christmas non-princessy princess book collection. Thank you, Erica!

Woo Hoo!

My "skinny" jeans are now baggy. And I now weigh what I did when I graduated from high school.

Thank you, Drs. Oz and Roizen!

Too bad all those clothes from the 1990's that are still hanging in my closet are completely out of style!

Happy Fall!

I'm having a difficult time getting in the "fall mood" this year (maybe because it's still 90 degrees), so I'll let my kids be the subject of this post:





Happy Fall, Y'all!

My Apologies to Gloria Steinem

Sydney: "When Liam grows up into a daddy, he's going to ride the bus to work, too."

Me: "You can ride the bus to work, too, when you grow up."

Sydney: "No....when I grow up into a mommy, I'm going to stay home like you."

Ryan: "You don't have to stay home like Mommy, you can do anything you want to do and be anything you want to be."

Me: (Nodding head vigorously) "You can be a doctor or a teacher...."

Sydney: "I just want to be a mommy and stay home. Just like Mommy does."


I don't know if I should be flattered or depressed. On the one hand, it makes me happy that she wants to be like me (validation of a parent's life choices by a child goes a long way), but I don't want her to think she HAS to stay home with her kids. Hmmmm........