My Man

Jesse is a collector.
If something is worth having... more would be better.
Kids...have 4.
Books...needs to introduce himself to the local library.
Games...if an expansion shows up he has to have it even if he has not played the game in 5 years.
Food...new flavor shows up have to try it...this has been scary sometimes
Computers...3 desktops, 3 laptops and now a new laptop on the way.

His current collective passion has been directed to World of Warcraft which is much more checkbook friendly than say "computers, Mageknight" and such.
He collect recipes, gold, gear and stuff which only cost time and a lot of it is spent with me.

I have been soooo glad he has not decided to collect in-game mounts or pets because he would sooo feel the need to go to BlizzCon in Anaheim,Ca to get the exclusive ones they hand out in the swag bags.

Not that I would not enjoy a vacation with him at the convention but now is not really the best time for that.

So we went today and spent some of the money my Hubby saved by not collecting pet murlocs and polar bear mounts and signed the kids up for gymnastics.

I think in a few months the checkbook and I will be wishing for the BlizzCon trip instead. :)

But his kid collection is happy.

Flower Girls

So we went to my parent's house for a cousins wedding.
After the wedding I was enjoying the nice weather outdoors while the kids ran around watering Marme's flowers and picking a few.
Made some daisy chain crowns for Karist and Elli and they looked so adorable I had to get the camera for a pic.


Was gone for a second and this is what I came back too.

Crowns had been cast aside and muddied.

This is what my flower girls were doing.

Everyone gets in on the action.


Wouldn't you know it the lovely weather did not hold out.
Storms quickly moved in but fortunately PaPa did not get struck by lightning while he cooked our dinner.

Life through rose colored glasses

If life starts looking rosy... it might be time to buy new glasses and makeup too.

After a bit of paint and elbow grease...

My Mom thinks I am crazy for tackling the home projects that I do in the time constraints that I have, with the 4 kids that I have.
But I ask you, who is more crazy? Me or the Mom that gets conned into participating in the said crazy ideas.


Taking a hint from modern advertising theory... The room looks much better with a semi clothed female in it.

Finished... still looks good without the semi nudity.
Advertisers please note that things can look better if you clean things up.


What you can't see are the matching curtains in the dining area that somehow missed the shot.
All told I think the makeover took us 2 days and about 150.00 in materials.
I think the best thing about the makeover is that the rooms still look the same after 2 weeks.
And no, I did not send the kids to Grandma's.

Before our house was invaded

The kitchen looked like this.


Please note the His and Hers bathrooms :)


I was sooo looking forward to leaving my bathrooms in Rome that were Blue and Mustard before we updated them to sell the house and move a month later.
Now this...sigh


This is my new family room.
It needs a lot of help.
Fortunately there is a magic wand to fix ugly brick fireplaces...it's called a paintbrush.

Our Poor House

If houses could talk this one would be screaming in horror.
How do I know?
I myself am shrieking in horror.

So we bought this poor house...

So yesterday Karist dumps a full glass of grape juice on the carpet in the office.
Try as hard as I can the stain is still there.
Yes the kids are banned from drinks anywhere but on the tile in the kitchen/dining area. That was why her siblings left the glass on the counter to go play... I can't win.

Many of you may have heard of the Midwest flooding... our poor house has fallen victim to this regional disaster.

Yesterday Jesse arrives home to find water flowing from the garage. He moves thing out of the water and its path to the driveway.

A few hours later while searching for a missing Wii remote in Devonae's room located above the garage he finds the carpet sopping wet.

Evidently Karist and Ellie have been watching too much news and wanted to be up close and personal with the flood experience. They dumped many cups of water from the bathroom sink onto Devonae's carpeted floor. Devonae says she stopped them but forgot to tell me. This all probably happened while I was downstairs trying to clean up the grape juice stain.

a basket of towels later still wet....
wet vac bucket (2/3 full) later still wet...
overnight dehumidifier still wet...

Poor house.
Poor me.

Picture challange

Just asked myself what was the unifying theme of my picture folders?... besides they are all older pics.
I can't help it that the movers packed the camera.
Sure I found it last week unpacking but I have no idea where I put it, if I think about it too long I will start panicking and think I may have accidentally tosses it with all the packing paper.

So will all my folders have one of the following:
Pics of the T.V.
Naked kids...no naked ones of me though because I put considerable effort in keeping my unclothed form away from cameras.
Legos


Can you believe it I found 1 folder that did not have Lego's or T.V. pictures.

I did happen to find these pics that I love and meant to get printed for myself and the grandparents.