Jon Minus Kate Plus 8?

Did you watch the "season premiere" last night of J&K+8? I watched it today on my DVR and sadly it cut off the last minute that Kate was talking. Oh well..since she sold her soul to People I think I've read about all she has to say anyway (seriously every week now she's given them an interview). Anyway..watching the show made me so sad. Remember when they were a happy, normal family (well as normal as you can be with 8 kids)? When Kate looked like every other stay at home mom (well most that I know) in her sweats and spit up stained t-shirts? When it was about her staying home with the kids and managing while Jon worked? It was SOOO much better then. Now Kate is "famous" out on speaking engagements in her name branded clothes, manicured hands and styled-for-her hair. Must be nice. But, not really if what it does to your family is drive your husband to hang around with young women at all hours of the night and keeps you away from your kids all the time.

I was saddened to see how little compassion Jon and Kate seemed to have for each other. They both admitted they'd made mistakes but neither one of them said (or so it was edited to appear) they loved each other and really wanted to work things out. So sad. There are 8 (!) kids in this family..think of how it would affect them if they split up. They both looked so sad during their interviews..Jon worse than Kate since she's clearly been hooked up with a stylist. But clearly they did not look happy. One has to wonder is all the money worth it? I hope they decide it's not. Jon clearly does not want to be doing the show anymore (but, Jon, on a side note: you DID sign up for all this chaos when you signed the TLC contract year after year). I hope Kate will respect her husband and choose him over their so called crazy life. I hope people will pray for this family that they remember how much they've been blessed and why and that they get their focus back.

They're Back!!

I am SO very excited to report that 2 of my summer TV guilty pleasures are back this week. I won't hold you in suspense any longer: Tori & Dean and Denise Richards. Oh yeah! And, get this..Denise is coming back on Sunday nights along with Kendra (you know from the Girls Next Door! Or..maybe you are much more sophisticated than me and don't watch trashy reality TV..whatever). Anyway..I fell in love with Tori and Dean last summer and can't wait to see what they've been up to since their adorable baby girl was born. And Denise Richards is just such a trainwreck I can't possibly not watch. And Kendra. Well is there anything else to say about her? Her laugh will surely drive me nuts but I'm sure it will be funny...I think she and Denise premiere next Sunday and Tori & Dean start tomorrow. And to think I was all depressed about not having anything to watch on TV.

Another great show starts tonight - Here Come the Newlyweds..it's on ABC. I think possibly Paul & I were the only people to watch that show last summer but it's freaking hilarious. They put all these newlywed couples through challenges and live together in a mansion. Sort of like the Newlywed Game on crack (and btw..did you know there is a new version of The Newlywed Game on the Game Show Network? Carnie Wilson hosts) Pure comedy people. Trust me.

Have a fabulous day!

Run..Don't Walk..

To your nearest bookstore or library and check out a Jen Lancaster book. She has four out the newest is "Pretty in Plaid" the first is "Bitter is the New Black." She is my new favorite author and I love, love, love her. Her books are memoirs and she is absolutely freaking hilarious. She is conservative (sorry Amy but, you will still like her), loves pink and says whatever is on her mind. I was reading last night and I was laughing so hard I was crying. Literally, crying in bed laughing so hard. In the book I'm reading she refers to the Holy Trinity of shopping: Target, Ikea and Trader Joes. Right on sister. Seriously, check her out if you haven't already. Oh, and she has a blog...www.jennsylvania.com check that out too! Have a fabulous day!

Disclaimer: Her books so have a fair amount of swearing in them and she's not afraid to drop the f-bomb but they are still very funny and worthy of reading!

Preschool Graduation

My Lily graduated from preschool this week. She is officially ready for Kindergarten (which begins in just 6 weeks)! She's had a fabulous year..her teachers were great and she really enjoyed it. The final program and graduation were held on Wednesday. It was really cute. First was the Spring Sing where we got hear performances from the 3 year olds and the 4 year year olds. Then we went to Lily's classroom for the graduation ceremony. For the graduation the kids marched in wearing their caps to "Pomp and Circumstance" They got a diploma, a pin and a Bible to commerate the event. They were just precious. It's hard to believe that Lily is done with preschool and starting Kindergarten. Hard to believe. Here are some pics of the event and a video clip of the kids singing. Enjoy!

But You're a Parent

Conversation on the way to school this morning:
Emma (6): Mommy, why do celebrate Memorial Day
Me: um...well...let me think...I'm not 100% sure (I know..sad)..I think it has to do with soldiers but I don't really know
Emma: But you're a parent..you're supposed to know everything
Lily (4): No Emma..Daddy knows everything, not Mommy

Thanks Lily...thanks a lot...

Last Week of Preschool

So...I blinked and now preschool is over for the year and Emma only has 2 weeks of Kindergarten left. Wow. I can't get over how quickly this school year has passed. Remember as a kid the year seemed to last forever? What happened to that? I am actually, and I can't believe I'm saying this, ready for school to be over. I need a break from the car. And I need a break from having the day broken up into 3 hour increments between drop offs and pickups. It will be nice to not have to wake the little ones up every day from their naps to go get Emma. It will be nice not to have to be out of the house at a certain time every morning. Of course a few days into the break I will likely be blogging about being ready for them to go back to school! We only have 5 weeks off though then Lily starts Kindergarten and Emma First Grade. Wow!

Two (!) Product Endorsements

Two fabulous product endorsements for you today friends. I know you're all excited. Let's get right to this:

My first product endorsement is my new favorite cleaner. Friends, meet Fantastik. Perhaps you know about this fabulous cleaner? My bff's mother, the domestic goddess Nana Cheryl, recommends it to clean walls and since my stairwell is, well, let's just say a tad dirty I thought I'd give it a shot. Let me say I was amazed at the wonder of the cleaner. Now, I know it's not all natural but I have 3 (and soon to be 4) kids that travel up and down the stairs about 100 times a day. One of which holds the wall the whole time she travels up the stairs. The wall were filthy. So I needed something powerful to remove the dirt. They aren't perfectly clean now but much, much better than before I used the cleaner. Also it worked wonders on my baseboards which were also a little dirty.

My second product endorsement: Ore-Ida Steam and Mash.Have you seen this in the frozen foods aisle? Oh dear friends and busy moms..this product will bring homemade mashed potatoes back into your dinner rotation. I love mashed potatoes..not the kind from a box but real mashed potatoes. They are though, a royal pain to prepare. There's the guessing of how many potatoes you'll need, peeling the potatoes, cutting them, boiling them, mashing them and getting the timing right so they aren't cold by the time the rest of the meal is done. With steam and mash..you put the bag in the microwave, 10 minutes later they are done. Put them in a bowl, add milk and butter and viola...homemade mashed potatoes. Yum, yum, yum. I reason they really aren't more expensive than just buying potatoes because you have no leftover potatoes that may go to waste. Totally worth it..totally!

Have a fabulous day!

Indian Elephant

Emma came home with this painting yesterday. She said they painted elephants in art and she decided to make hers an Indian-themed elephant. Perhaps her classmates are rubbing off on her. I thought it was too cute not to share...

Observations from the Treadmill

So I bit the bullet a couple weeks ago and joined a gym. Exercise just doesn't happen for me unless it's purposed at a gym. I love the wii fit but I'm not motivated enough to do it long enough to really see results. Some of my MOMS Club friends belong to a gym that's really cheap and pretty convenient to our elementary and preschools so I thought I'd check them out. It's a very low maintenance gym...they have a bunch of cardio equipment and weights but no classes and no showers. They do have childcare which is a requirement for me. I'm too uncoordinated for most classes so this works well for me.

This is the 3rd week I've been going and I've encountered some interesting folks at the gym. I thought I'd share with you some of my observations:

1. A lacy camisole is just not appropriate work out attire. When you pair it with a tennis skirt it's even less appropriate..I wonder why that girl is at the gym?

2. Also not appropriate gym attire: jeans and cowboy boots. I kid you not a lady came into the gym and was using the weight machines today. In jeans and cowboy boots! Seriously!

3. Who are all these men that don't work and how can my husband get one of those jobs? I see a lot of men around Paul's age working out at all different times of the day..what gives?

4. They should really hand out deodorant samples at the front desk. Not to stereotype but there are a lot of people from other countries who go to this gym and not all of them believe in deodorant. That's just a smelly fact.

5. Not to be too judgemental but it just doesn't look right to see a pregnant gal doing ab work. Isn't that uncomfortable?

That's all for now but give me a few more weeks and I'm sure there will be more...

Motivating Mother's Day

We had a very lovely Mother's Day...hope you did! Though the day was not what I envision for a Mother's Day it was great. The day started at 6am (see I told you it wasn't the type of day I envision for a Mothers Day..in my dreams my Mother's Day doesn't start until 10 or so..). We were in the town of Lumberton, NC and had to get Paul and my sister in law to White Lake so they could compete in a Sprint Triathlon. For those of you who don't know a Sprint Tri involves swimming 1/2 mile, biking 14 miles and running a 5K...seriously..and there were a lot of people voluntarily doing this torture! So we get to the tri spot and they get ready to race. There were thankfully a lot of our neighbors who were also competing (again voluntarily!) so there were lots of people to hang out with and talk to. Paul and Michelle (that's my sil) did great. I'm so proud of them - what a wonderful accomplishment to finish the race. And though I have little to no desire to do one of these myself, it's very inspiring to see all the athletes out there. There were athletes of all ages and sizes out there - from kids (a 16 year old girls was the second female to finish) to seniors (there was even a man who was competing in the 80-84 age group and he finished). People you would expect to be really fit by the way they look and others you wouldn't but they finished too and raced hard. Again, it was very inspiring..I even made my way to the gym when we got home (again..not how I would normally spend Mother's Day).

We collected the kids (I only took Jacob with me to the race - my mother in law and cousin kept the kids) and headed home. At home I was presented with my wonderful Mother's Day gifts. Emma picked out some fabulous earrings for me from Claire's (and by fabulous I mean the it's the thought that counts). My big gift (and before you laugh let me preface this by saying I actually wanted it and no, I'm not 12) was a Nintendo DS. Seriously. I had played my bff's (no, she's not 12 either) when she came to visit and it was fun. There are actually some adult games for it. It came with the most adorable case and Paul got me some games too - Brain Age and Scrabble. And it came with a cooking game. Fun!!

Emma insisted we had to go out to dinner and she chose Chinese so we did. She also insisted we need to go out for ice cream so we did that too. My kids behaved relatively well so that in and of itself was a nice gift!

Opinions

I have a lot of opinions on current events and thought I'd share some today. I'm just in that kind of mood.

1. The Jon Gosselin Cheating Situation - Don't know if he cheated or not. But what I do know is that it is completely inappropriate for a married man to be leaving a bar at 2am with a single woman that's not his wife. And, who goes to a bar at 11:20pm to have a "meeting" with the bar owner - seriously? Isn't that when bars are busy..I would imagine if they really wanted a meeting then it would be before the bar was busy. At least come up with a decent story.

2. Elizabeth Edwards - Really, can't the Edward's live peacefully and silently in their 28,000 sq. ft. mansion? I'd think if you write a book and go on a huge publicity tour you are just bringing up bad memories. Perhaps they should work through their issues in private. I also want to add that John Edwards has never had a fan in me..there always seemed like something too good to be true about him. Now we find out that's he's selfish and deceptive. This actually makes happy that Obama won.

3. Swine Flu - Last week it was EVERY where, honestly every time you turned on the news it was about the darn pig flu. Today, not so much, the media has moved on. Turns out it's still spreading and is in 43 states. Go figure.

4. What is with the price of gas this week? Every time I drive my the gas station the price has gone up? Ugh...

5. American Idol - I'm rooting for Kris. Hoping Kris & Danny make it into the finale. I know lots of people like Adam but me..not so much...

6. Naked Pictures Surfacing on the Internet - I'm sorry but girls this day and age should know better than to have naked pictures taken. They are just plain stupid to think they won't come back to haunt them. This would include "sexting" pictures, modeling pictures or any other picture that involves being topless. Everything is digital...they are forever. My girls better learn that.

Ok..I think that's all for now..I may be back...

Mother's Tea Day

Today was the annual Mother's Day Tea (or Mother's Tea Day as Lily calls it) at Lily's preschool. They do such a nice job with it and make it a really special morning for the moms. The best thing they do is provide (free) childcare for your little ones so that you can really enjoy your time with the preschooler. Lily said we had to dress nice for the occassion so she insisted on picking out my clothes for the day (pink shirt, black pants and flip flops). It was really cute. She wore a pretty blue dress.

When we arrived we had to wait in the hallway for our child to come escort us into the classroom. Lily came out and handed me a flower she had made and took me to our spot. At my place was a plethora of goodies she had made over the last 2 weeks. We were then brought a plate of strawberries and a muffin.
The treasures she made were priceless. Lots of goodies with her handprint and my favorite a giant card/booklet with a questionairre. Here's a picture of it. Reading her answers made me laugh out loud! It was such a cute morning!

Most Exciting (almost) PTA Meeting of the Year

So last night I had to go to a PTA meeting (& 4th grade choral concert) to get sworn in to be a VP of something (I think it's academic affairs and I really don't know what that means). The meeting was at 6pm which was a little challenging with gymnastics + traffic so Paul met me in a parking lot and we did the switch off. No way was I taking all my kids to the PTA meeting. As I got closer to school it started thunderstorming but not really raining yet..just some lightening and thunder in the distance.

So I get to the school and start meeting some of the other ladies I'll be on the PTA with before the meeting starts. As we're chatting a dad casually walks by and says "there's a tornado coming in 6 minutes..and we're right in the line for it". Um WHAT? Excuse me? What is going on??? We all stare at him and look at the drenched people walking in the door and realize something ain't right. Apparently it's raining cats, dogs & elephants outside, hailing and the wind is gusting something fierce! We hear from someone else that yes indeed there is a tornado WARNING right now and OMG what do we do? A bunch of us get on our phones and call our husbands to make sure they are aware of the weather situation (Paul dismissed me on the phone but apparently did talk to the kids about tornados and turned the weather on). We get the people out of the gym where they are awaiting the meeting & concert. The music & 4th grade teachers get the kids in tornado drill position in one hallway and the PTA parents were directed to another hallway. It was crazy! Kids were crying...there was a bit of panic in the air but since everyone & their kids had cell phones and could get on the Internet we realized that the tornado was not really headed towards our school but indeed were having a pretty severe storm and the path of the alleged tornado was fairly close to us. The Vice Principal got over the intercom and told us we need to stay in tornado drill position until the warning expired which was about 2o minutes. So we stayed facing the wall for 20 minutes and getting cozy with our neighbors. Finally at 6:30 the vice principal told us the evenings activities were canceled and that we could go home. She forgot to mention it was literally a monsoon outside so it was a bit chaotic with everyone trying to get to the car without getting soaked to the bone. So now we have to reschedule the swearing in ceremony.

I left the PTA meeting to go meet some friends for dinner. I don't think I've ever driven through rain quite that hard and seen the sky so dark for that time of day. Had I realized it was that bad I probably would have just gone home.

There are more storms forecasted tonight..hopefully it won't be as bad as yesterday!

If I had a dollar...

For every time I heard these words "you really have your hands full" I would one VERY, VERY rich lady. I hear it when I'm out with Julia and Jacob occasionally..presumably because people assume they are close in age. However, when I am out with 3 or more children I hear it all the time. Case in point: I was at Walmart this afternoon with all 4 kids. A trip I try to avoid at all costs but it was necessary (I chose hanging out friends this morning over shopping). Jacob was in the baby bjorn, Julia in the front of the cart, Lily in the back of the cart and Emma walking. I must have heard at least 4 times in the 50 minutes I was in the store "wow..you really have your hands full." What do people mean by this exactly? Sometimes people say it jokingly but other times it comes across very condescending. And, what should my response be? Yes, I do..want to help? Or should it be "no..we can handle more" (but that would be lying..but that's another story)? Whatever..I just wish I had money every time I heard that and then I'd have a lot of cash...a lot...

7 Months

Jacob is 7 months now..it's crazy how time is flying. He's hit a huge growth spurt in the last month so my skinny little stringbean now has some chunky thighs and a round face. I think he's the cutest baby boy ever but that could just be me. Here are a few shots I got of him yesterday:

Curls!

Julia is finally getting hair. She's been my baldest one so far. Her hair is pretty straight when it's dry but after it gets wet, or she gets sweaty or it's humid outside these wild curls come out. So we're wondering if she'll have some crazy curls like Lily. Guess time we'll tell! I tried to get a picture of those crazy curls but this was the best I could do. Being 2 has not proven to be a very cooperative age for Julia. Sigh...