Coffee Shop Iced Coffee how I .....

I have been away from you all for a very long time and I am sorry.  I would like to say that it is because things here have been so boring I have had nothing to blog about.  However that is really not the case.  I have just been really busy. You see where we live we only have good weather for about 4 months a year and I have really taken advantage of the good weather.  So now it is time to get back to it.

I was surfing the net this fall, OK I confess I was blog stalking this fall and literally stumbled on a post by The Pioneer Woman.  It was the start of a very dangerous love affair.  Iced Coffee like you get at a coffee shop and a little secret she puts sweetened condensed milk in this AMAZING copycat.   I was so looking forward to making this at home.  After dinner I went to the store to pick me up some of this sweet and condensed milk stuff.  Oh the dreams I had of waking up to this (just so you know I LOVE COFFEE).  I opened the can, got out my glass turned to fill it with ice, when my doorbell rang.  After sending the political candidate away, I was really looking forward to my drink, I went back to the kitchen to ........

my youngest was trying to get at something on the counter and spilled the whole can on the floor, and that was the end of my sweet, creamy , iced coffee dream for the day:(  I urge you to try this yummy drink at home. Oh boy why me?

YES ME!

So many of my posts are about the crazy things that happen in my day-to-day life with my crazy boys, today it is about one of the many great things that happen in my day-to-day life.  It was last week and my hubs and I were getting dinner ready in our small kitchen.  My children were both under food with many small toys, way too many people and things in my kitchen.  So I was getting a little frustrated and forced both boys and toys into the family room in front of the TV, with a constant verbal parade of, “get out of my kitchen, both of you and take your toys with you”.   My 4-year-old came into the kitchen asking to go to Cole’s, his little friend’s house, (or so I thought).  When I in my hurried attempt to finish dinner and get it on plates in the dining room, I asked him “where do you want to go” he replied “Cole’s, next time we go shopping can we go to Kohl’s?”  With my back to him as I dished out dinner I asked “why do you want to go to Kohl’s?”  To which he replied, very matter of fact “I want to buy you a new dress.” There was an audible gasp at this point and a deafening silence as I stopped everything I was doing.  I did what all good moms would have done, felt like crap for not taking the time to talk with him as I was getting dinner ready.  Dinner was late and a little cool when we got it on the table, I stopped to smell the roses, or in this moment savor my loving, thoughtful little boy.  The next weekend we were shopping with my parents in the mall when I took Kyan with me to Old Navy to look at dresses.  He looked around for a minute and loudly said “this is not right we need to go to Kohl’s after this” 

We are on the lookout for a blue and green stripped dress for him to buy me.  Today I am signing of with a YES MEJ

GOOD BYE OPOSSUM

Last spring a friend was dropping me off after we ran away to Lowes.  I happened to look up as my motion light went off to see the BIGGEST OPOSSUM I had ever seen (ok the only opossum I have ever seen) in my drive way.  I promptly called my husband from the car to tell him.  He laughed at my fear; it was big enough to take my youngest away.  We never saw the opossum again.  Fast forward to two weeks ago; the hubby and I were sitting in the family room with my parents when my mom shrieked at the site of the opossum looking through our sliding doors.  I fortunately did not get a close up look at him that night.  The following the night I did get a really good look at him as he visited my sliding door again.  HOLY opossum Batman.  He is HUGE!!  The hubs now believes me that this bugger is ginormous.  I later found out that the village we reside in will send a wild life remover, wild life catcher, wild life exterminator (I am too lazy to get up and see what his official title is) over to trap and remove our little uninvited guest.  So after a quick phone call to the village office I received a call from said trapper.  He showed up Friday evening and set traps all around our deck with a promise that he will be back every day to check the traps.  Saturday’s trip did not provide the invader.  Sunday’s trip however has put my fears to rest.  WE GOT HIM and a pesky squirrel, which unfortunately was released back into my yard.  This opossum was gnarly and by the looks of him was not well. 

Now what you can’t see is that his face and head is missing a bunch of fur and has oozing stuff all over his face.  He was also missing his right eye , that I chose not to photograph. 

Of course in my crazy life where truth is stranger than fiction I couldn’t have a garden variety opossum oh no we have to have the biggest, ugliest, gnarly one around.  OH BOY WHY ME :)

Mommie Distracted

My oldest turned four on Friday and I figured it would be a good time to cut his hair.  He asked for a mohawk the last time I cut it.  So we have let it grow so it would be long enough and I figured his birthday would be the perfect day to do it.  I took him upstairs for his bath and figured I would cut his hair first.  I got him all settled and lubricated the clippers.  I spent a considerable amount of time looking at his head and figuring out where the best place to make the line on both sides of his head.  When I was satisfied that I had the right spots I started to buzz his hair.  I didn’t get a full swipe on his head when I started to wonder why SO much hair was coming off.  It was then I realized I NEVER PUT THE BLADE GUARD ON!  So forget the Mohawk I needed to take his hair down a lot shorter then we had planned.

I hope it doesn’t take long to grow out.  OH BOY WHY ME?

Bedtime Stories

Last night we had a totally new experience with my oldest.  At almost four he is still getting into bed with me at night.  It took us a lot of work and many different strategies, including a bedtime bear clock that is supposed to help teach bedtime vs. wake up time.  We had broken this habit after many sleepless nights and then my husband and I left them for 4 days to go on a trip and we have had to start all over again.  I can say after two months we are down to less frequency maybe 1-2 nights a week.  The biggest problem we have with this is that he is really good at the stealth attack.  I am a heavy sleeper and am not always aware that he has crawled into bed with me and he NEVER gets in on his daddy’s side.  Well on Monday night I did become aware of him snuggled up to me so I climbed over him and carried him back to his bed.  We even talked about it on Tuesday and how important it was for him to stay in his own bed till morning.  So last night he found his way to my room before his daddy had gone to bed.  This time he woke me up instead of just climbing in.  I woke up long enough to tell him to go back to bed and I would see him in the morning.  At that point I fell back asleep. It was not until sometime later I became aware that he did not go back to his own room.  I was caught somewhere between sleep and consciousness when I heard rustling papers and my husband getting out of bed fast.  I did not think much of it until I was being wakened to my husband kneeling in front of me.  It took a few seconds for me to be fully aware of what he was telling/asking me. I was unable to understand why he was asking me what he should do.   It seems that instead of going back to his room my son crawled under my bed and fell asleep.  My husband was asking what he should do with him.  In the end we decided to wake him up and put him back in bed.  After which my husband shared his heart was beating out of his chest in fear of what was moving under our bed.  OH BOY WHY ME?

A WHOLE DAY GONE!

How does this one little raisin ruin a whole day?  Well that is a question that one with perfect little children or no children could not understand.  Just one lonely little raisin did indeed wreck havoc with my weekend.  We were having a pretty good morning, the house wasn’t trashed, I had a shower long before naptime and kids were eating lunch without meltdowns.  Too good to be true you say.  I AGREE.  My cute little 2 year-old decided to be the next player in the second child curse that has struck my family.  Yes curse, you see the second children in my family at some point become possessed and unwillingly shove something up their nose.  I say unwillingly because really would you do that of your own free will?  I (second child) ended up with gum up my nose, my nephew (second child) had an acorn removed from his nose and now my son had a raisin up his nose. “Mommie nose in” with his finger up his nostril, me “you put a raisin in your nose” “yes mommie”.  I took him upstairs and got a flashlight and indeed he had a raisin shoved so far up his tiny nostril I was not getting it out on my own.  So in superman speed I got my oldest dressed, sippies filled and out the door we went, for the 25 minute drive to Urgent Care.  We pulled into the parking lot and went in.  They had only opened about 45 minutes before we got there and the waiting room was packed.  I went to sign and noticed a HUGE HIPPA violation and realized we were 9^th on the list to need to register.  So I packed my children up and went to the ER.  We got right in to register where I was told it was about a 2 hour wait to be seen.  Really in the time it took the nurse to type in our information, someone could have taken the suction machine and gotten it out, charged us $250.00 and sent us on our merry way.  OH NO we were told to wait.  So I kindly asked for the number to Urgent Care so I could check on the wait time there.  I was informed that they were not allowed to give it out.  So in that minute with 2 children in tow and ½ hour past naptime I decided not to stick out the 2 hours and take my chances at the Urgent Care.  I no sooner get to the car and my 4 year-old tells me that he needs to pee right now.  What did I do?  Told him to pee in the snow.  TAKE THAT ER AND YOUR 2 HOUR WAIT!  We made it back to Urgent Care and as I was putting my car in park my little one sneezed twice really hard.  I searched and searched my car hoping to find the little pest that was ruining my day.  No luck.  After sitting for about 15 minutes waiting to be checked in, I was brought in to get our information.  At this point I asked for a flashlight because I could not tell if we had sneezed it out or was still there.   The receptionist got up and left without a word.  When she returned 2 minutes later she stated that the nurse was going to look for me before they registered me.  So we were dismissed back to terrorize the poor sick people in the waiting room some more.  At this point we are pushing an hour past naptime and my children were unraveling.  I apologized more today for their uncontrollable behavior then I have in ever apologized in my life.  UGH!  I totally looked like the mother who could not control her uncivilized children.  After waiting about an hour the nurse finally brought us in to look for the raisin.  GUESS WHAT?  It was no longer there.  His nostril was red and irritated, but NO RAISIN!  Are any of you surprised?  Not me.  At this point she informed me to keep an eye on him and if he starts really coughing hard to get to the ER immediately.  So at this point we are raisin clear and let us hope we never have to do that again.  OH BOY WHY ME?

COFFEE ANYONE

So here is my last Christmas Holiday post until the end of the year.  Yes I am aware that Christmas was almost 2 months ago.  My blogging time has been interrupted by life.  C’est la vie.  This holiday post is really something that took place last year (I mean Christmas 2009), before I had entered the blogging world.  My oldest child was not quite 3 and my youngest was not quite 1.  My husband and I have each collected Christmas ornaments since we were little and at this time need 2 Christmas trees to hold them all.  We decided that we would put all of our wrapped presents for our family and friends under our tree in the dining room.  My husband wrapped the base of the tree with our baby gate, hoping to keep our boys away from the presents.  While I was cooking dinner one night my children were playing quietly, or so I thought.  REALLY have I not learned this lesson yet?  I found them under the Christmas tree.  And this is what I saw.

My children had gotten into the presents and sniffed out the only two food related packages and unwrapped them.  They happened to be a box of hot cocoa and a box of coffee for the Keurig Coffee Maker.  If that was not bad enough, they opened the boxes and opened up multiple packages of coffee and cocoa and were eating it.  YES folks I did say eating them.  Coffee and Cocoa my children were shoveling it in like it was a chocolate cake.  IT IS GOING TO BE A LONG NIGHT.  OH BOY WHY ME?

Blow Torch and Cushions MERRY CHRISTMAS

Now that the holiday season is behind us I am hoping to have more time to share pieces of our crazy life.  I have two holiday stories that I will catch up on.  It is my sincerest hope that you are not so ready to put this season behind you that you won’t enjoy my blog entries.  I was decorating for Christmas this year and decided to take the Christmas tree clippings outside to my window boxes and decorate them for the festivities.  I went outside and was trying to break off small branches to add to my décor.  I was doing all of this without a coat or gloves on.  It was very cold out and I was becoming more and more frustrated that I was not able to just break the branches apart. This job was quickly becoming more then I was prepared to deal with. I decided that it was in my best interest to put the branches down until I could get outside in the daylight and retrieve my garden clippers from the garage.  Little did I know that this really was all the doing of my guardian angel.  I walked onto my enclosed porch with the intent of going in the house where it was warm, where I was met by my 3&1/2-year-old.  I took one look at his face and my mother’s instinct went into overdrive.  I asked him what the matter was and started to survey the scene before he could stutter an answer out.  What I saw directly behind him was a small fire on the cushion of my wicker chair with my husband’s blow torch lying next to the flames. .  I quickly shoved my son aside while I blew out the flames and threw the cushion out of the porch.  When sharing the story with my husband he was shocked that my son was able to get the blow torch trigger to work since he is often unable to get it started.  OH BOY WHY ME?