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Unpack, wash, repack… fun!

Creating a Life You Love· Titus 2 in Real Life

31 May

The one thing I do NOT like about traveling? Packing and unpacking, especially when I have to do it more than once a week. Today was laundry day, had to clean everything from this past weekend (plus the new goodies I picked up today) so that tomorrow I can repack for our Ohio trip. Not bad, just one load left (gentles, nice small load) and then some towels, but they don’t count since I can leave ’em in the dryer until we get back.

Took the littles summer shopping today at the Gettysberg Outlets. Did pretty good. Surprisingly not too well at Children’s Place where I usually clean up, but really good at Old Navy. Got a few skirts and shirts for me (much easier to fit than shorts) and lots of goodies for the kids. Even brought home shorts and a tee for Vince (but he says he doesn’t want a “Vote for Pedro” transfer on his). Picked up outfits for the boys for Eric’s wedding in July (already have two dresses for the girl to choose from). They’re gonna look SHARP!

Here’s one for ya, we’re driving up to PA and Evan says, “Do you know what dripwood is Mommy?” “Um, no,” I say. “It’s wood that drips!” I’m thinking he was really talking about driftwood, but it was news to me anyways.

Evan provided much entertainment this evening. He was out “watering” and decided to drown an ant. Nice, very nice. Whose kids are these? Anyone?

Oh and then there’s Andrew, I do not want to know where this finger was a minute before the picture…

Wait here’s another… We’re playing out on the front yard and Evan sees a bug slithering across the ground. Since all bugs are his friends he stoops down to play with it. “Ouch,” he says, “HE PINCHED ME!” It was a centipede (and yes they can pinch). But where’s the funny part you ask. Well… we asked him where he got pinched. It was right here.

Well, that’s it for today. So how are you liking the pics from the new lens. Me likey! Vince asked what I’ll do when I have to bring it back. My response? “I’ll Cry!”

do you have this in a 10, er… 12?!

Creating a Life You Love· Titus 2 in Real Life

30 May

Hello again, have you missed us? We’re back from the holiday weekend, much fun was had. Apparently the boys are worn out, they fell asleep at dinner at around ten minutes to 7:00!?!? Francesca, not so much. She tried to pull an all-nighter when we got in last night, not fun. She is still bouncing around too. Ah, joy. We have a guest this week, Chris, an "old Navy buddy" of Vince’s. It’s fun to hear them crack off each other. So this morning I decided to show off what a "good wife" I am… I decided to fix my almost-famous sausage, egg and potato casserole. I pre-heated the oven, got the potatoes fried up a bit and into a bowl, moved on to the sausage and started scrambling up the eggs. I put on the fan since the sausage made it a bit smokey. So all of a sudden I am smelling burning plastic (yuck). I’m thinking something must be stuck in the fan, so Vince pulls off the filter and proceeds to look. Yup, you guessed it, it was NOT the fan. So I open the oven. BINGO!!! I guess the weekend was a few days too long. I guess I forgot that in an effort to "keep the counter tops clear" for the three showings scheduled this weekend I stuck a (plastic) container of cookies and brownies into the oven. Oops!! Doh!!! Yeah, so now Chris is laughing at Vince’s airhead wife. I’m pretty sure I redeemed myself with dinner (huge rib-eyes, grilled asparagus, pasta-roni and a delish salad)!!

New coffee obsession to share I.C. Mocha Almond from Panera (love that place). Sooooo good! I am almost ready to forgive them for getting rid of my old fave, I.C. Spice. Just a few more will definitely do the trick. I don’t think they’ll be replacing my Breve but it’s a good alternative for these sweltering days!

So, you’ll probably wondering where all the pictures are… Francesca busted the lens to my camera this Saturday when she sent it crashing down off the patio table! *shock*awe* Went to Ritz the afternoon and turned old trusty over to the "repair/replacement" gurus. It will take FOUR weeks for my lens to come back. Hello!?!?! FOUR weeks, do they have any idea what that means?!?!? So what am I going to do? Well, the kind gentleman that sold me my beloved camera was there to help me once more. He informed me that they didn’t have a lens to loan me, but if I felt comfortable I could buy a lens and they would take it back in 30 days when I have old trusty back. Well, you know this sounded like an excellent opportunity for me to try out a lens from my wishlist… so here’s the stand-in. So far I’m happy. The extra zoom will help for Katie’s graduation this weekend. As for returning it in a month, I will if I have to, but maybe I can talk someone into making it a birthday present (love you darling). I guess I’ll just have to take some awesome pics over the next month to justify my case. Any help from you all is appreciated too. *wink*wink*

Are you wondering about my title? Over the past few months I’ve been talking with some of my girlfriends about weight, size, etc. You know "fun stuff". So I am trying on skirts figuring what I am going to wear in this heat and what to pack that will look nice at the graduation and I am staring at, well, me. And I am about to get unhappy with the fact that all the cute little clothes I have/had just don’t fit right, and I realize, "Lisa, you have had three kids in under four years, you are still nursing the littlest of the group, you do not have the time or the money for the gym right now, maybe being in a single-digit size just ain’t where your priority needs to be." So I have resolved to be happy with whatever I *squeeze* my roundness into this summer and not worry too much about the whole bathing suit issue either. I know that it won’t be like this forever, Francesca will wean, I’ll start exercising again and I might even get a full night of sleep someday. But for now I’ll be wearing my double-digits…

yes I know it's Thursday!

Creating a Life You Love· Titus 2 in Real Life

25 May

Someone tell Laurie to get off my back!! (LOL) Yes I know I haven’t posted since Monday and I DO realize it’s Thursday night. What can I say? Sometimes the week runs away from me. I spent MOST of Tuesday at the pediatric opthamoligist for Francesca. Good Doc, but the wait was awful!!! Okay, so our appointment was at 2:15, so we get there at 2:00 and the wait began. About 40 minutes later we saw one doc, she did a preliminary exam and gave her drops to dialate her and then we had to wait for ANOTHER 30 minutes for the to dialate. Doc #1 called us back in and did another 2-second check and told us that Dr. Dankner (the specialist) would see us next… We weren’t called in by him until 4:30. Yup that’s right, you can do that math. Needless to say I wasn’t thrilled and he knew it. Well, she has a blocked duct (thanks for that info) and he prescribed drops (again) and we are scheduling a probe for a month from now. Yeah! She pulled through the LONG ordeal like a trooper. We headed home and I scrambled to get dinner made since I was bringing it to a friend that recently had a baby. My whole schedule was OFF. Thank you Doctor. Oh no, don’t worry, your time is much more valuable than mine.

Not much of anything went on Wednesday. Lots of phone tag. Lots of hemming and hawing over things (will update more about that later). I made a big pot of gravy and meatballs. Yum! It’s been a while since I’d done that. I went out to get Cesca’s drops and picked up a couple of Breves from the Pour House for Vince and I, double yum. We watched the American Idol finale. VERY happy to see Taylor win. Go Soul Patrol! We love that he doesn’t fit the typical American Idol mold. Gotta love the gray hair! I would definitly buy his album. I really liked the song he’ll be releasing soon "do I Make You Proud". VERY good lyrics.

Now were at Thursday. Garden work today. I finished putting in some more seeds but stopped short of finisheing the corn since I ran out, oops. Pulled some weeds from the front flower boxes. Still some more to do there, maybe I’ll finish tomorrow. Cleaned out the van. You can’t even begin to imagine all the junk that quickly accumulates in there! We headed out to Sears for a car-top carrier, with three little ones we’ve outgrown the trunk space of the mini-van. SAD. VERY. SAD. Evan suggested Chik-fil-A for dinner and we went with it. After they finished their dinners we let then run ragged in the play area. Francesca even made her first trip through the plastic jungle! And she made a little friend. Very cute.

So, there you have it. Not much going on. Lots of cleaning tomorrow to get ready for the weekend. It’s the final night of youth group, we’re sad and excited. Will update more later (I promise Laurie)

another lazy Monday

Creating a Life You Love· Titus 2 in Real Life

22 May

Well, it’s just about over. Monday that is. So my sister wants to know what I am so busy doing that I don’t have time to update my blog (love you Lau). Sooooooo, here we go.

Friday night:

Up really late getting everything ready for the Carnival. I steamed up all the veggies for my pasta salad (broccoli, carrots, corn, snow peas and green beans) and made a second batch of my soon-to-be-famous "Almond Joy" brownies (recipe by request, I haven’t written it down yet). You might be wondering why I needed to make a second batch. Well, I left them on the rack to cool before cutting them but unfortunately my oldest little darling raked his grubby fingers through half the pan! So I head to bed at around 4AM. Oh, can’t believe I almost forgot, I went out to the store for more brownie mix around 11PM and hit pay dirt. I found a few bottles of Baby Magic baby bath and lotion, YEAH. So you’re probably wondering why that would make me so happy. Well this is no longer made, Playtex changed the formula and the packaging and I LOVE this stuff. It IS baby smell to me. Vince thought I was a bit nuts for bringing home 4 bottles of baby bath and three of lotion, but I am happy! If I can find more I WILL continue to stock up!

Saturday:

Woke up the next morning to find Evan feasting in the second pan of brownies!! Yeah, out of two batches I got maybe one batch untouched… I boiled up the pasta and mixed it with the veggies before running out the door an hour late with Cesca. Yup, I had to leave Vince with the criminals, I mean boys. They met up with us a little later after picking up their mess. The carnival was fun, a good close to the MOPS year. Francesca was all excited about the animals a couple of (gross) goats and a baby cow.

My toe-picking boys on the tractor-pulled train ride.

Vince surprised me with the special edition Napoleon Dynamite DVD to watch and we received our prize package from WGTS for me being on-air for their name game. I said lots of good things about Evan and they sent us the Narnia DVD and a book for the kids. Very cool stuff.

Sunday:

Sunday was our normal packed day. The race to get everyone ready and out to church on time. This Sunday was AWANA Day a celebration of the year-long program the kids participate in. Evan graduated from the Cubbies. He has learned so much about the the love of Christ and has memorized a lot of scripture. It is amazing how much these 3 and 4 year olds have learned. I worked in the nursery and read lots of stories and picked up crushed Goldfish crackers from the carpet.

After the service we had a cookout (more pasta salad and brownies from me) and lots of games and ended the day with an awards ceremony. Evan was all excited about his certificate and ribbon.

Today:

I LOVE a good lazy Monday. It was too chilly to even try to go to the La Leche League picnic today so we stuck around the house. Vince was up in NJ for a meeting. I caught up on some of my weekend laundry and had fun making up some iron-on transfers for the kids’ tee-shirts.

They were very fun too make. I have a few more ideas but I need to get some more transfer paper.

Well, that about brings you up to date. Satisfied Laurie? As you can see I really don’t do much all day…

Oh and here are some pics of Vince’s toy.

These are all "before" pictures. He already has been working on it. The carburetor is out and cleaned, the gas tank is off and he was able to check the lights (all operating except the turn signals). Will update more about that soon.

Now off to update the Photo a Day blog. Be sure to check it out if you aren’t on overload already!

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