Bad luck list

It seems in my so-far 30 year existence, or maybe just since living on my own, that there are certain areas in which a family or person will have bad luck. I'm not talking life-or-death issues here, either. Just the stupid, normal day-to-day kind of thing. You could go 12,472 days without ever spilling your coffee, for instance, or you could drench yourself in it every 1 in 4 days. Maybe spilling coffee is just your thing. I have a couple coworkers coming to mind. Or maybe you can make it through life without ever losing a muffler, but can't seem to keep your alternator belt intact.
This particular bad luck list I'm about to create today, is inspired by my lunch-break trip to a certain toy selling superstore I HATE with a passion - not to name names, but Toys R Us, where are your manners? I swear that place is personally designed to torture me.
Making an appearance in my personal/familial areas of bad luck:

• Toys R Us - will you ever come right out and say what you mean? Always at it with the fine print, I tells ya
• Squirrels - why do you enjoy my homes so much?
• Drive-thru - inherited through marriage, can I count how many times they screw up my orders? It's a rare occurrence that what we order is actually what we're given
• Neighbors, oh neighbors - will you always be 4-wheel driving, loud, messy yarded, dangerous dog breed owning smoking fiends?
• AJ, my dear cat, why do you feel the need for pleasure? I think you're broken. Your neutering has gone awry somewhere along the lines... Ew, you're gross.

See what I mean? Not life-or-death by any means. Nothing a few verbal lashings and cats thrown across rooms can't handle. Do you have a history of bad luck with any particular things? I always think it's funny to discover what people have historical bad luck with. Humor me.

A happy preschooler

He insisted on a picture of the back of him! He likes his backpack a little bit.

Suffice it to say, Matthew loves preschool! He was already talking about when he gets to go back, and asking if he always only gets to go half days.

Some Friday Fun

Just for fun, I thought I'd share my favorite blogs I've been reading lately.


Confessions of a Pioneer Woman is my absolute favorite! The Pioneer Woman is a city girl who married her "Marlboro Man," and now lives on a ranch and homeschools her children. She does everything - takes pictures, even cooks and just came out with her own cookbook. Her writing style is so fun to read. Read it. She'll inspire you. Click here for some funny Friday photos. Click here for a recent fun post about her wardrobe.

For a cute, innocent, and quirky read, check out Color Me Katie. This girl is so amusing to me. She's just clever, and every post makes me smile. She's always doing crazy things, like making mini photograph versions of herself and putting them in odd places, drawing on the streets of NYC and making ugly things funny. I just imagine walking down the street and finding one of her creations - it would truly make a person stop and smile. I don't imagine one could keep up with her creativity - she's kind of like an Amelie in real life, though I bet she talks more and isn't quite as insane.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Both of them make me want to be more fun! Maybe some day. Like it says on the wall of Jimmy Johns, something to the effect of your parents weren't always this boring before you came along. Some days I can really relate to that... But I'll strive not to. I want to be as crazy, fun, and cool as these two gals!

On Fire

Let's all take a minute and pray for the wild fires going on right now. I can't imagine how scary it would be to see them within miles from your home. Especially pray for family friends, Brian and Cindy, who can see flames from their front window. YIKES!!! God, protect homes and people from the fire, and the lungs breathing in all the smoke. We were in CA just before the La Canada area fire started, and people really had the need for rain on their minds. PLEASE RAIN!

An update from a nonexistent blogger

I don't really know why I have been nonexistent on my blog these days. It is turning into a mommy blog all about kids, when I originally set out to basically journal. I want it to be about me, darn it!!! However, lots of my readers are checking in on the kids through this anyway, so I may as well embrace it. It has also not become quite what I expected. I haven't put a lot of time into finding friends or bloggers, so it just isn't the friend tool it can be. I'm also having a hard time lately with wondering what creep-o's out there could track us down -- let's call it security issues. So instead of figuring stuff out, I've disappeared. I'll get back into this one of these days!

For now, I'm so far behind, that I'll just update most recent events. Here are the kids with summer hair - look how light, and what a buzz cut on my big boy. I got a little carried away teaching myself how to use the electric clippers...... But it has grown on me, and Matthew loves it!

We are just getting back from a trip to sunny CA, which it really was this time! It was fun for all the cousins on my side of the family to see each other. And can I preface this all by saying I was the worst photo journalist of all time on this trip??? Now that I'm back, I realize I have next to no pictures. We were there to see my 6-week now 7-week new niece, and do you think I took any pictures of her? NO! Well, 2, but they weren't even great shots. And no, not because of my niece, because she's absolutely adorable, but because I apparently do not take good pictures. And now that there's a load of little ones, most of the time none of us had the time to even think of breaking out the camera. I sure hope someone else did better than me! Swimming? No pics. Airplane ride? No pics. Newborn? 2 mediocre pics. Fun with family friends who have triplets? A few mediocre, if that, pics. So here are some from the night the whole CA branch of the family met up with us.

Staredown between cousins Ellie and Mackenzie -- this lasted quite a long time with the two of them standing in this exact spot - they looked back and forth from each other to the kitty toys in their hands, since there are so many kitty toys associated with the presence of FOUR cats in a house. (I won't be running out to get 3 more to add to our house!)

Random silliness -- Mackenzie has discovered somersaults and rolling around like a crazy woman!
And here's the closest pic I have to kids in the sunshine. Why am I lame? Who cares about my lameness, aren't they darling?

Matthew was a dream come true on this trip. No problems with him. Ellie did pretty well on the flight out, minus a couple outbursts, but the 2nd leg of the flight back was horrendous. My Ellie dear fights sleep like a professional, and she was completely exhausted and crabby, but unwilling to let herself sleep. Sorry NW flight companions. That flight was only 2 hours, and it felt like 14. I can say this since I don't anticipate it coming to fruition, that my idea of hell would be being trapped on an airplane with an overtired child. But all is well, we had a great time, we're back safe and sound, and if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go continue the post-trip re-training. Apparently we were a little too lax on rules while traveling or something. Sheesh. Lesson learned. FINE. :)

A boy and his bike, and a smiley girl

Can anyone find Ellie????

A boy turns 4

I can hardly believe my first baby turns 4 in two days!! Well, today we had his 4th birthday party! Here he is through the years:

0

1

2
3

4

Happy Birthday my little Mattso!!! We made it through 2 and 3!!! You seem so grown up already!

When you were 0, you didn't know you were here

When you were 1, you were still just a baby

When you were 2, your favorite was Curious George

When you were 3, you obsessed over Thomas the Train

Now that you're 4, you love baseball and golf!

I wonder what 5 will bring!