Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Weekend Finds

*Quick fact: I LOVE Garage Sale Hunting. I doubt it has to do with going to so many with my grandmother when I was a little kid... but in all cases, I don't buy "junk", I look for "Finds", you know the GREAT gems out there that are just waiting for a new home! Yeah....that's a hobby of mine, but in MN it's only garage sale season in May-August-ish.

So last week, I needed motivation, motivation to do the laundry (the story of a mother's life, haha)... after talking to Super Hubby, we decided to make an "incentive" program for me to feel more inspired to get 'er done and get through all the laundry by a certain day and then I'd get to go Garage Sale Hunting! I was super excited to say the least that I had an end to look forward to if I completed my task!

So I got to work; and 2 days later, I saw the light as I was almost done with all the loads in the small apartment's community laundry machine (only one machine since the other one died, yet again). With full determination, Saturday rolled around with a clean house with lots of beautiful clean clothes put away, and Super Hubby, Bumble Bee, and T-man ready to take down some garage sale huntin' grandmas for some great deals!
Did we succeed? Oh yes! Not only did we get some great "Finds", but they are AMAZINGLY in great shape!
Our Finds for this past week include: Fischer Price's Laugh and Learn: Musical Learning Chair (valued on Amazon for $190 new), we got ours for $5! Woohoo! And T-man and Bumble Bee LOVE it! The beautiful mirror for $1, a TON of beanie Babie animals which Bumble Bee loves for super cheap; two pairs of cutie shoes for Bumble Bee for less than $1.50 for both; two awesome white shelves for our new kitchen for $1 each; blue candle sticks for $1; the Blue Satin fabric for our May decorated Family Alter (blue is for Mary) for $6; and some AMAZING 1960's still-totally-useable books like Treasure Island, Andersen's Fairy Tales, Black Beauty, etc for a steal too!! Oh and Super Hubby picked out a beautiful milk-glass bowl perfect for fruit or serving (Hubby then put the beanie babies in it for carrying purposes).

Then there was the super Find! We got a solid-wood desk, in perfect condition, for $20! Unfortunately, we didn't have the space in our car to bring it home, but thankfully the owner/seller was listening in on a conversation I was having with a friend who I was telling about how we are buying our first home and now in search of new furniture. This being overheard, the sweet lady seller said that she would be more than happy to sell it to us AND drive it to our apartment that day! I was thrilled!! It's a beautiful table, and I'll try to take a pic soon!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The "Twins"

Bumble Bee got into the fun jewelry box! She LOVES bracelets that clink like the silver ones!

Bumble Bee waiting for Daddy to come home. She waited for 2 hours that day... thankfully, the ottoman was plenty fun for her!

Isn't he SUPER cute?? T-man just gets bigger and bigger! He's 21 pounds and 9 months-old on the day this pic was shot!


They might not be twins, but they are super cute together!



WE LOVE YOU MOMMY AND DADDY!

Funny Times

Need to smile? Well here's some of the cute things the babies have been up to this past week....


1. As I come out the bathroom, I see my T-man sitting and unplugging Daddy's cell phone charger out of wall... Bumble Bee runs up to him, plugs back the charger, shaking her finger furiously at the sweet 8 month-old, saying "NO, T, NO!!!"


2. T-man's new "game" is going to Daddy's stereo equipment and turning all the knobs or smashing his little fingers into the buttons. Bumble Bee understands this is a no-no. So one day, while Mommy is cleaning up fun messes left all around the home, I hear, "No, T, No! MOMMMY (in high pitch squeal), T Trouubbbble!" Oh my precious daughter, she is quite the older sister.


3. This morning, Mommy was feeling sick, so Daddy spent the morning taking care of her...Daddy checks on Mommy in the bedroom, leaving the Bumble Bee to her own demise... Mommy: "Hunny, what's B doing?"

Daddy: "Oh, she's fine, she's playing nicely in the other room..."

Mommy: "It's too quiet."

Bumble Bee enters room, running, and smiling ear-to-ear...

Mommy: "What did she do?"

Daddy: "Nothing. She's fine. She just loves you. And she's drawing on a pad of paper, no worries"

Mommy: "No when she runs to you, she knows she did something.... that means trouble"

-A few minutes later-

Mommy: "My daughter is GREEN!"

Daddy: "That's her being creative. She knew she wasn't suppose to draw on the walls or the floor, only paper and apparently, herself. I say she's a good girl."

Bumble Bee smiles uncontrollably.
4. Happily jumping in his jumperoo bouncer, T-man makes a HUGE Poopies (I mean EPIC poopies: up back to his neck, down to his toes and only in a onesie)... Mommy schrieks in high pitch due to the digustingness of it... Mommy rushes to grab paper towels to start to clean up (more worry , realizes she needs to tend to T-man first, then pulls T-man out of jumperoo to go and hose him off in the tub and put new clothing on him (leaving the mess-o-poo to be cleaned up when Mommy returns). While playing in her kitchen, Bumblee sees all of this, and stays put until Mommy leaves the room.
Mommy and T-man return to the poop zone, where we see that Bumble Bee went straight to 'work' trying to scrub the poo out of the carpet... Sadly, this 20 month-old tried so hard that she tore the paper towel, thus scrubbing her hands and feet into the poop, looking up at Mommy almost to say "surprise" with her cute smile.
Not knowing whether to laugh or cry at the site, Mommy grabs Bumble Bee to start cleaning her down. This time, however, puts T-man in his crib to play in for a while, so this cycle does not continue.
Did it put a smile on your face? Good, mine too!
God bless

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Marvelous Mother's Day

Super Hubby is quite the amazing fella... if I do say so myself... this Mother's Day weekend, he pulled all the stops...that's right Mother's Day Weekend... Super Hubby knew I was having a tough week with being hormonally-emotionally driven, so he thought giving me a weekend of being ultra-love would help cheer me up. Starting Friday afternoon, he drove up to the apartment, ran up the stairs, and said, "Get ready! We're going on an adventure!"

With much anticipation, we packed the kids up, got in the car, and drove all the way to the Mall of America, where he said we had two stops. The first was to a bookstore where he surprised me with a copy of Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook. I was in AWE that he had remembered this book and that we were getting a book almost as big as my Bible (no joke, it's about 700 legit pages). After that he super surprised me with a treat to dinner at Rainforest Cafe, where we split a yummy meal and watched as our T-man who couldn't blink with all the exciting animals in the restaurant...meanwhile our Bumble Bee's eyes were transfixed on the gorillas above our heads. It was mucho fun! And the kids fell asleep on the ride home which was perfect for us!

Saturday, Super Hubby gifted me with the AMAZING time of sleeping in (which is a HUGE gift for anyone who wakes up with a 9 month-old who thinks 6:30 a.m. starts his play day)... So after sleeping in, we went on another adventure to pick up my bridesmaid dress at David's Bridal, purchase shoes for another wedding, and went to lunch at Five Guys... then Super Hubby had a super special surprise... he brought me to a pet store (that doesn't sell animals), where we met up with a friend who was looking to give away her dog... after playing with the pooch for a few hours in the grass with the babies, Super Hubby surprised me with saying that this was OUR dog!!

Now why was this so surprising? Well with our big MOVE in two weeks into our first home, a new baby on the way, AND countless other projects (not to mention our apartment doesn't allow pets), I was completed blown away!! Super Hubby had talked with our loving parents, who were up for helping us watch Kolbe (we named him after St. Maximillian Kolbe), while we move into our new home!!

So who is this new member of our small-but-quickly-growing family? Well, Kolbe is a rescued 3 year-old beagle-retreiver mix. As the picture shows, he's quite a cutie who doesn't bark, bite, nip, jump, or whimper, so we are past the puppy stage! He is crate-trained, house-broken, and baby/kid friendly!! He is about 18 pounds, has all up-to-date shots (I have the vet records to prove it) and is fully grown (when he sits on his rump, his head only goes to my knee)! He is AMAZING with both Bumble Bee and T-man and is very calm and great indoors, and also has the energy when he is on his leash to go for many walks! Super Hubby says the best trait is that Kolbe cannot have babies thanks to a previous vet visit! I am so excited for the moving process so our little Kolbe can have a fun backyard to play in!!

After getting Kolbe all his needs (food, a toy, a new crate), we ran home to get gather our stuff so we could go straight to Fargo to show and share our new family member with the rest of the family! A HUGE thanks to my in-laws who are helping us out the next few weeks as we transition into our new home!!

Once we got to Fargo, we spent the night at the in-laws; and in the morning, Super Hubby let me sleep in for another morning! Not only was it amazing, but he also made breakfast for everyone in the family this morning!! It was fantastic and I have some work do to for Father's Day now!!

God Bless!

Monday, May 3, 2010

6:03 p.m.

Panick engulfed my entire body at 6:03 p.m. last night... our event, the 2nd Annual Mystery Dessert Theatre, for the youth group...it was announced at masses, we had a booth in the gathering space for all masses this weekend,in a month's worth of bulletin articles, SuperHubby and I sent mass emails to our groups, we made facebook groups, masked the online community with personal invites and even phone calls... but as I checked my phone for the time, at 6:03 p.m., our Dessert Theatre could have been renamed a Desert Theatre with the lack of attendance in our parish's Social Hall. My heart sank.

"Lord, we prayed before this process began, during the practices, setting up, baking, and even before this event...I know I need to learn to accept Your Will...but please don't let this event sink... please!! Amen"

Literally right after my silent prayer...the cars started pouring out people! Oh God is good, all the time... and that Jesus, He's a jokester when it comes to practical jokes... but altogether, it was a very humbling 5 minutes into 6 o'clock that evening...

In the end, we had 80 people in the audience. There were very few seats left open. The youth did a great job, the audience laughed at some of the best points, and the group loved my SuperHubby's 5 different cheesecakes...gosh he is amazing!!

Anyways, just remember when you think all is lost...God has a plan, and it might just make you laugh :)