Smarty Pants

So we have a rule at our house, it was a rule I had when I was little, if you don't know what a word means you can't say that word. Eliminates explaining what some things mean to a 3 year old :)

So this morning I rolled out a little farther into an intersection at a 4 way stop than someone thought I should. I wasn't in the intersection, just close, sorry I don't usually, I was in a hurry and it was a BAD morning!! anyway the man who thought I went out too far was looking at me like I had purple hair and antennas even after he was in front of me, so I said keep looking fool it's better than driving or something like that. I didn't call him stupid, no cuss words nothing like that. From the back seat I hear

"Mommy I don't think fool is a very nice word, do you even know what it means"

HONESTLY THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID

so I told her, you are right it's not a very nice word, but I do know what it means

"well what does it mean then mommy"

"it means that this man is not very smart"

"I don't think so mommy, you probably shouldn't say that again"

Happy Friday.

SERIOUSLY

why is it that the ONLY time in the 2 years we have had this printer that I ACTUALLY WANT TO PRINT ANYTHING I have to go to the store buy printer cartridges and figure out how the heck to use them. SERIOUSLY. And apparently there are 2 different color cartridges that will work and I GOT THE WRONG ONE. Why the heck is it printed ON THE FLAP OF THE PRINTER if it's NOT GOING TO WORK. REALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So now 70 bucks DOWN THE DRAIN and I still don't have the wonderful fathers day gifts I dreamt up. That's a tank of gas for the love of pete!!!!

pictures

this should be the link to our pictures from DC. Enjoy

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=9715l27e.3mbdw5xm&x=0&h=1&y=mbrmbs&localeid=en_US

stay tuned

My goal is to get all the pictures and video from our trip uploaded tonight. WE HAD A BLAST DC ROCKS!

Now back to reality.

another first

We've lived here for almost a year so you'd think all the first except the first anniversary of the purchase would be over, you are wrong! We had our first dinner in the yard. We have a little short outside table and tonight we put it up. Rick BBQ'd pork steaks for me, brats for him and we had a cook out. That's what Abbie called it even though she ate left over pizza, hey she's no gourmet, and mostly a vegetarian these days, but she ate out with us.

We had some strawberries that were getting soft so I whipped up a pie, yes on a Monday night. It was YUMMY, although Abbie thinks the only part that is pie is the crust so she scraped off all the strawberries, raspberries and juicy stuff and ate just the crust, but hey we were all happy and full when we were done.

Hoping your weather is as nice as ours and you can get out for some fresh air soon

GOOSE EGG

So Abbie's been unusually attached to her father and unusually hateful to her mother, just in time for Mother's Day, wonderful. Tonight she started throwing her fit the SECOND I walked in the door at school. She wrapped it up in time to get in the car and say she didn't want to talk. Ok fine. Then 1/2 way home we had this conversation
"momma what color are your eyes"
"my eyes are hazel (cause the mostly are)"
"momma hazel is the worst color of eyes, I don't like hazel"
silence from me (yes honestly silence)
"momma hazel is the worst color of eyes, I don't like hazel"
silence from me (yes honestly silence)
"momma hazel is the worst color of eyes, I don't like hazel"


yes that many times. What was there for me to say, NOTHING. I know it's a phase, but man am I screwed when she's 14 or 18! So by the time I got home I was ready to hand her off to her precious father and do anything else. As she was getting out of the car she shoved my hand away so I took a step back from the car. She likes to put one hand on the door one on the seat and swing her feet out. So tonight as she swings her feet out her right hand slips and she goes flying at a funky angle just as I'm stepping away from the car, lands with a CRACK on her head and then a flop as her body hits the CEMENT floor of my garage! Much to my relieve IMMEDIATE AND LOUD SCREAMING. Ice, hugs, kisses, feeling of the great goose egg. She is fine. Totally fine, big old goose egg, ok maybe a robin's egg, but still. During the screaming and ice, momma, momma. The precise moment she realized she was not dying, dadda, dadda.

you have got to be kidding me!

Shameless Plug

So I sort of have been selling Avon, and I have a website if you are interested, no pressure or anything. www.youravon.com/mvessell

And Abbie's something else this week. yesterday something made her mad and we had an hour long fit, nothing worked so I just started IGNORING her, that didn't work either, but she got tired eventually. Any suggestions for the screaming?

DIE DANDELION DIE!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so something really stupid ticked me off today. Not even worth going into that's how childish and STOOPID it really is. I've never had a yard when I've been mad before, ok, for the last 11 1/2 months I have, but anyway. So I headed out with this little pointy tool, well the one in this picture is much nicer than mine, and for some reason they think it's worth 48 bucks, I think mine was a buck 99 (can anyone tell me why this one is 24 times more than mine?). Can I just tell you how much better it made me digging THOSE STUPID LITTLE THINGS OUT OF THE GROUND. I can't fix, change or even explain what happened today, but man I got rid of those dang dandelions, and because the empty lot next to us is full of them I think I have a summers worth of therapy ahead of me.

We had an ok weekend, big kids birthdays. They cleaned up on the cash! Little one has allergies from H E double hockey sticks, ended up with pink eye and home with me today. We had an ok day except for the gunk in her eyes and the fact that it was sunny, rainy, hailing and snowing all in the space of an hour or so!

chicken breasts, ground turkey, cereal and fruit bars are all cheaper at Sams. Milk, yogurt, canned veggies and a lot of other stuff cheapest at Aldis. Frozen fruit bars, fruit snacks and whole wheat pasta cheapest at Walmart. These are the things you learn when gas is $3.69 a gallon, gotta make that up some place. Oh and getting to St. Louis from here takes TWICE AS MUCH GAS WHEN THE WIND IS OUT OF THE WEST AT ABOUT A MILLION MILES AN HOUR.

Hope your day was as good as mine has ended up. Cross your fingers for not so much gunk in the eyes tomorrow and that the stupid thing from today is forgotten when I get up tomorrow.

Happy Birthday tomorrow Sarah Beth, Wednesday to Jackie (or else next week Jackie) and on the 8th to Kirk.

prayers to JoAnn and everyone else who needs them.



ps-- the best news of all? The tax return that the IRS "lost" the direct deposit info for? In the mail today!

books

I tell people that Abbie sits up late at night reading and they look at me like I'm a liar. Honestly she does. Just because she's not reading the words doesn't mean she's not reading. She knows the stories, she remembers any book we've read more than 2 times pretty much. Even the ones from the library that we've long since taken back. Mommy remember that book we had 4 legs bad 2 legs good with Orvie? Honest.

So tonight I go in to kiss her before I go to sleep and she's got 7 stuffed animals on her bed. Not circled around her, not piled up next to her pillow, but on books. Each animal is on a book just for them lying down. I'll ask her tomorrow but I'm confident she'll say that they wanted to read before they slept. She's also got one book opened, but pages down to her mattress so she doesn't lose her spot, and a 2 inch stack of books next to her pillow.

We threatened to take away her books because she wasn't sleeping, but of all the things in her room that's the only thing I think she would actually miss. I went through them to get rid of some of the "baby" board books we haven't read in AGES maybe since before moved here last year. She started picking them up and telling me about them one at a time without opening them. It was a stack of books that would have filled a large paper shopping bag, I didn't even remember them all. I've carried 2 bags of her toys to the car to give to daycare before and she didn't even blink. So no we'll not take away her books.

I guess this is what comes from no tv to speak of. Just the news in the morning and we don't turn it on anymore in the evening until she is in bed. One Angelina Ballerina was enough to make her squeal Wednesday night. We hadn't even noticed how long it really had been since we plopped her in front of the screen, for that I'm grateful, and we don't seem to miss it really.

But her books, we could never do without out. What are your favorite's?

and apparently tomorrow April 12th here in the land of corn and flat lands it's supposed to snow FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS GOOD AND TRUE WHY!

Can we go meet God?

So, I won tickets to Jesus Christ Superstar. We didn't have money for a sitter so I decided to take Abbie rather than Rick. We talked about the show, how there would be singing and dancing, how she needed to sit mostly still and use her quiet voice. We talked about how the people would be on a stage and unlike the JamFest last summer people wouldn't think it was cute if she hung out around the front dancing. I thought we were prepared.

She loved the organ music and then the curtain opened and Jesus & his buds ran across the stage. They came back out and she whispered in my ear "who are they mommy" so I explained the one in the white was Jesus and the rest were the apostles. About 10 minutes she leaned over and whispered "can I got down and meet God" See I thought I had prepared her, I'd told her everything but the most important part, it's TOTALLY pretend, and she was TOTALLY disappointed. She loved the show, but just was bummed not to meet God.


Her favorite part by the way? two parts actually, the bad guys in black hats and the Elton John style King. Go figure.

Next we'd like to win tickets to the circus, cause I'm too cheap to buy them. Cross your fingers.

What a difference a year makes

Anyone remember school pictures last year? I can't get them to paste in here right, but check out the blog from last April. Can you say PATHETIC?

Well here's the link for this year, MUCH BETTER.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=9715l27e.9u7mkvzm&x=0&h=1&y=v5680n&localeid=en_US

you'll never know dear

We had a really good weekend. There was a shower for a cousin in St. Louis and we had so much fun. I forget how fun my family is until we get a bunch of us in the same place. There were more generations than I can remember there. Abbie was thrilled about all the cousins.

Our Monday morning, not so nice. Abbie was tired and tired Abbie = crabby Abbie. Even the promise of a library visit did not cheer her up. So we just moved slowly. We did manage to get out the door with a minimum of screeching. It is a gloomy day here. The weekend was such beautiful weather it was just sad to see rain and grey skies. I said something about how ugly the day is, Abbie asked me why it was ugly and I said well the sky is not blue it’s grey and raining and she said

“but mommy, I make you happy when skies are grey”

Do you know the song? You are my sunshine? I sing it all the time, I remember having it sung to me when I was little. I don’t have lots of childhood memories, but I can hear that song. I sang it to her older brother and sister until they moaned at the sound of it, but she never tires of hearing it. I found material with sunshine and hearts printed with the words to the song and made her a quilt, it’s her sunshine blanket. She is my sunshine that is for sure, and today when the skies were grey she did make me happy.

May all your days be happy

NO SNOW

So the weather here is INSANE. It was over 40 yesterday and today the high I think is 4 or something too cold to even count. The wind chill should be around -12 or something else too cold to count. I'm guessing hubby is THRILLED to be in Florida! Then I checked the weather and we may get a couple of inches of snow Monday night. It CAN NOT SNOW. Lots of reasons, but the two most important, I do not want to shovel AND I CAN NOT miss work. I just can't. Already have just recently. I don't have the money to pay a sitter for an entire day, so if it snows Abbie will just be a hh employee for the day I supposed. So think NO SNOW, NO SNOW, NO SNOW. And if you are thinking SNOW then your butt better be up here to shovel and babysit!

On a positive note, some girls came over to scrap book last night and we had a LOVELY time. I never have people over and I really need to do it more. Abbie missed her nap and fell asleep just after 5, got up just as people got here so she was up the whole time, but in a wonderful mood so it was ok. Thursday a friend came to watch LOST with us and that was fun too. this Thursday is Valentines day and I think she's comeing back again, none of us really have plans and LOST is on, hubby is in Florida as previously mentioned so it will just be us for Valentines.

Have a great week.

misunderstanding

So Abbie has decided she is a big girl and doesn’t need to sleep with a pull up or diaper any longer. Too bad she hasn’t had that conversation with her bladder yet. Fortunately/unfortunately she hasn’t been waking up when she wets. Fortunately because I’m not getting up in the middle of the night, unfortunately because how will she learn if she doesn’t wake up.

I was thinking about switching to no pull up, but she asked Saturday night if she could skip the pull up and we are going with it. She goes before she gets in bed, goes just before we go to bed and the plan is to head in just as she gets up, in fact I woke her this morning to take her and she’d already gone. Suggestions are welcome. Thank heaven for a water proof sheet and a washer/dryer in our house.

Oh, for those of you who knew about the stickers for sleep deal, we FINALLY made it to noodles. It only took 24 days to get 10 stickers!

Thanks Grandpa!!

Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZqzUmwBOsk

by the way, it's apparently so cold here that schools all over the land are cold so Abbie gets a stay home day. So sad I won't be staying with her and daddy gets her all to himself :( -24 is on the schedule for tomorrow. FUN FUN.

hey that's mine

I know it happens, eventually every child decides to dig through their mothers purse. Looking for money, mints, keys lord knows what, but something they HAVE TO HAVE. I just did notrealize it would happen so soon.

I was on the phone last night and Abbie asked for some gum, she LOVES HER SOME GUM, and I said ok hang on. I knew there wasn’t any in the house so I’d have to go out to the car. I turn around and there she is elbow deep in my purse looking through it like she owns it. You know when you are in line at the store, are late getting back from lunch and some crazy fool is emptying their purse to find exact change, yea that’s what she looked like. I just cracked up. She put it down when I asked her to stop but I just thought I’d have a couple more years before she realized my purse is where the good stuff is hidden.

She got the gum by the way, it was in the car, now it’s in my purse where she said it belongs.

3 1/2 years really?

It's been almost 3 1/2 years since Abbie begrudgingly came into this world. It's hard to imagine life before her. I mean I know there used to be days I could sleep forever and just run out of the house only grabbing my keys and wallet, but that sounds more like a story than my life these days.

I'm so glad she's here though. I honestly thought it would never happen and then the fact that she took her own sweet time was just to be expected. She is without a doubt the best thing I've ever done and always will be. Even when she's 16 and hates me.

Ironically she's not here today. She's spending today & tomorrow with my parents, so for a really short time I'll be able to remember what it was like when she didn't live here. Rick and I are going out tomorrow, just to the book store and dinner but without the extra buckling, potty stops and picking a restaurant that will for sure have chocolate milk and crayons. We'll end up somewhere with crayons though I'm sure.

This weekend they went to stl and I stayed home. Everyone said I would love sleeping late. Well Saturday I woke at 6 before the alarm and Sunday the alarm wasn't on so I slept until 7:30. I remember when I was little and my mom would be dressed and fed by the time I got up and I never understood it, I'm still not sure I do, but I'm getting to be that way. No matter what I don't sleep too late. For me sleeping until 9 is like sleeping the day away. Last night I had 1/2 a bottle of wine for dinner and still up at 7:30. Now I didn't get out of bed until 11, but I was awake watching stupid things on tv, but still up at 7:30. Even Abbie has been sleeping later than me these days which is nice. I love to catch her as she wakes up, reminds me of that first day with her all those days ago. All one thousand two hundred seventy nine of them.

I'm going to say it anyway...

I’m sure anyone who has a child and any other care giver involved with that child (spouse, grandparent, neighbor, baby sitter, daycare, the family dog) is going to say they’ve been through what I’m going to whine about and will tell me this too shall pass. Too bad, I’m going to whine anyway, so it’s ok if you stop reading now J

I love my daughter, I really do. I don’t even mind being the one who’s ALWAYS home with her. My hubby travels for work and for fun, every trip is a combination, and that’s ok. He does what he loves and for that we are all grateful. However, what a kick in the teeth it is when he comes home from a day or week of being gone and Abbie drops me like a hot potato! Seriously! Sunday he comes home after being gone ALL DAY and you would think I had beaten her for the entire day the way she latched onto him. He can be gone for a week and get exactly the same response. She refuses to talk to him on the phone, says she’s mad he is gone, but as soon as she hears the garage door or hears him coming you would think she has no mommy.

So last night I figure fine, give them some time together. I decided to put in an exercise tape (yes exercise, stop laughing) and do my thing while they play and do the bed time thing. You would have think I said I was leaving for a journey around the globe. I think the 3rd or 4th time I told her to go back to bed she had a MELT DOWN. Serious meltdown. I heard Rick go in to talk to her and she said I was being mean. How is it that he can go away for days at a time, come home and be a hero, but I take 30 minutes and I’m the evil monster.

I know, this too shall pass.

last post for the day

How old are you. I feel much older knowing that I am 12,100 days old, not to mention

1,045,440,000 seconds that's a billion isn't it! I never thought I'd have a billion anythings, so I guess a billion seconds is a good start :)
17,424,000 minutes
290,400 hours
1728 weeks (rounded down)

try it out how old are you

http://www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html

pictures maybe

Abbie got a camera for Christmas, here's the link to what she's taken pictures of so far. If she's not in the picture she actually took it, some of them are pretty good I think, what do you think?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovemyabbie/show/