Still busy!

I know I have been MIA lately, Mike and I have been working non-stop to get moved. It has been crazy. Either Mike or I have been at the house every night until 1-2 am working while the other one goes home, puts the kids to bed and packs there. Add in the apartment stuff that we still have to do (only one more week, yay!), Carter's birthday last Friday, Christmas, Young women's, and all this stupid snow I have to deal with, it has been a crazy month! I can't wait for this month to be over. Once we are in the new place it will be a lot easier to work on things after the kids are in bed. We are starting to see progress, though! I have 2 rooms all painted, ours and Samantha's. Carter's is almost finished, I just have to do the baseboards. We installed our new range today and brought the fridge back into the kitchen (it was living in the living room while we did the kitchen floor). It is finally starting to seem more like a house than a construction zone. The kitchen floor looks great. We did a vinyl tile, so it was easier to install than regular tile, but they have grooves for grout in between them. It was so hard grouting it, but it really looks good, I am excited to finish the rest of the flooring. There are so many more projects; someday we will be done, but not anytime soon. Hard work is good for you, right?

Anyways, I hope that everyone has a great Christmas! We will be celebrating in our new house, and I am really excited. This is the first year that Carter really gets Santa Claus and I really think he will love everything he gets. Christmas is so much fun with kids! I will try to write more later, but it may be a while. We are moving everything else this week, so I am sure to be busy!

Cookie Recipes

How rude of me to rave about these cookies and not share the recipes! Here you go, courtesy of Karen. Check out her blog for more delicious recipes. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1 C. butter
1 C. brown sugar
3/4 C. white sugar
2 eggs
3 C. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. soda
1 tsp. vanilla
choc chips...whole bag

Bake at 350 for 8-10 min.

Key...is to have more brown sugar in your choc chip cookies. Don't over cook them! Take them out when they barely have a hint of brown around the edges.

Sugar Cookies

From the Lion House Cookbook

1 1/2 cups sugar

2/3 cup butter

2 eggs, beaten

2 Tbs milk

1 tsp vanilla

3 1/4 cups flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients. Shape dough into a ball and chill for a couple of hours.On floured board, roll out dough (about 1/3 at a time), and cut shapes. Thicker dough will make softer cookies, thinner will make crispy ones. Bake at 400 on lightly greased cookie sheet for 8 minutes, or until light brown. Cool on a rack. Decorate.

I like my cookies soft, so I cut em thick. Don't let them get brown, either. Brown is bad. They will look like they aren't cooked, but they are. Trust me.

By the way, the cookie exchange went great! I had to reschedule due to the aforementioned crappy snow, but we had a good turnout and everyone brought fabulous treats! My favorite were the molasses crinkles. They are like very soft gingerbread cookies. Yum!

MOLASSES CRINKLES

Yields: 2-3 dozen

Ingredients

3/4 c. butter, softened (room temperature)

1 c. brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 c. molasses

2 1/4 c. flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground ginger

Directions: In large bowl, mix butter, brown sugar, egg & molasses thoroughly with electric mixer. In medium bowl, combine flour, soda, salt & spices. Add flour mixture slowly to first mixture, combining well. Will become thick. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate dough for 1 to 2 hours. Roll dough into small (1") balls, dip one side in granulated sugar and place on cookie sheet with sugared side UP. Using a finger dipped in water, touch the sugared top of each cookie with a sprinkle of water. This will make the "crinkled" effect on the cookies. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, using care not to over bake or they will become crunchy. This is a soft, chewy cookie. These can be made ahead of time and frozen.

Angie also made the cutest reindeer cookies, peanut butter cookies with an M&M for the nose and little chocolate chips for the eyes and pretzels for the antlers. In all honesty, my blondies were probably the saddest cookie there. I don't know what went wrong, but I tried something new and it just didn't turn out very good. Maybe next time. Thanks to everyone who came and brought cookies!

Progress!

We got 3 rooms painted today! I still have the trim to do and I need to clean up the lines between the ceiling and the walls, but I finally feel like we are getting somewhere. Up until now, all I have really been able to do is prep for paint--tape, put down drop cloths, that kind of stuff. This is a great sense of accomplishment. I love the color that we picked. We wanted something neutral, so it's brown, but it's a little bit darker and I think it will look great with the white trim. We still have so much more to do, and the walls are soaking up more paint than we thought, but over all, I am very happy. Our goal tomorrow is to do the trim (me) and tile the kitchen floor (Mike) before our new range gets here on Tuesday. I can't believe how fast this month is going. We are nowhere even close to being ready to move, so it looks like we will be moving the last weekend of the month instead of this weekend as we had planned. Who knows, that will probably change again. We do need to be out of our place by the end of the year, so at least we have a deadline.

Now I am going to ride this wave of ambitiousness and go prepare a talk for church in 2 weeks. Like I don't already have enough going on in my life. Can't a girl get a break?

Crappy snow.

I hate snow. The stinky city just called and yelled at me about our sidewalks. We live in a freakin' frozen tundra. There is about 1/4 mile of 6-inch thick ice out there. We have dumped probably 400 lbs of salt on it. We haven't been above freezing for a week. This guy has the audacity to tell me at 10:00 tonight that they need to be cleared by tomorrow morning. Are you kidding me??? I told him it wouldn't happen and he gave me until Monday. So generous. Anybody want to earn some extra cash shoveling snow? It's supposed to snow all week, so there is plenty of shoveling! You know you want to...

We went down to Chicago today and saw Phantom of the Opera. It was great--I don't think it was really Broadway quality, but it was good. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but I still think I like Wicked more. I think part of it is that I have been listening to the soundtrack since I was little, so I was expecting it to sound just like the CD and it didn't, so it seemed kind of off. It was a great day though. Our great friends Mike and Jessica donated their Saturday to watch my kids. I was very concerned about Samantha, she was traumatized from earlier this week when I left her at a baby sitters house. I really thought she would be horrible and cry the entire day. Luckily, she was ok. She was pretty irate when Jessica went in to get her up from her nap, but after that, she did ok. Such a relief. It was very nice to get out with our good friends Derek and Laura before they move to Utah (booo), and fabulous to get out without the kids.

Mike is out with an old friend visiting from Utah. Who knows when he will be home. I need to get to bed and get some beauty rest so I can shovel in the morning. Did I mention that I hate snow?

I love cookies!

So I literally have a hundred things that I should be doing. My house is trashed, I have laundry to put away, I need to start packing, and I haven't even started anything even remotely Christmas-y. But alas, the things that I should be doing and the things that I want to do are not even close to coinciding. So here I sit vegged out in front of my computer. I am thinking of catching up on some Thursday night TV while I put away the laundry later. We'll see...


I have come to the conclusion that I will probably always carry an extra 5 pounds or so due to my new-found love of baking. Don't get me wrong, I have always loved cookies, but the cookies that I have made in the past have always just been ok. They were hard and really not that good. Soon after moving to Wisconsin, one of Mike's co-workers introduced him to the monster cookie. It has M&M's, chocolate chips, oatmeal and peanut butter. Cookie heaven! Then, my sister in law Holly introduced me to the Neiman Marcus cookie. Yum. I mastered that. I made them in mass quantities. At almost every point in the last year or so I have had a batch of dough frozen ready to go at a moment's notice. Some people freeze meals before they have babies, I froze Neiman Marcus cookie dough.

Then came the ever elusive sugar cookie. I have never had luck with the sugar cookie. I think a lot of people struggle with them, it is so hard to get them just right. My favorite cooking friend Karen found a fabulous recipe for sugar cookies that she was kind enough to share. These are the bomb (yes, I know that no one uses that word anymore). I made them when we had people over for a game one time. They raved..."these are better than store-bought!" Sometimes you try to be modest, find some little fault in them-they are a little overdone, whatever. All I could say is "I know, aren't they great?". The frosting is still store bought, but baby steps, right? Anyways, the reason for this whole cookie posting is that I have finally made a delicious chocolate chip cookie! Karen pulled through for me again and they were a definite success. A little bit crunchy on the outside, nice and soft inside. Fabulous. I am now on the hunt for the perfect peanut butter cookie. I am hosting a cookie exchange this next Tuesday and can't wait to try all the new recipes. I love cookies!!!

I hate Wisconsin.

Mostly, I just hate winter, and Wisconsin has a lot of it. It dumped 6 inches this past weekend. It wouldn't be so bad, except that we have to take care of the snow here and at our new place. We can hire people to shovel here, but nobody wanted the job. By the time that we got to the new place to shovel, everything had frozen solid, including the extra 6 inches that the plow trucks pushed in front of our driveway. I spent 2 hours digging through it. Not shoveling the driveway, just the entrance so we could get in at all. And when I say digging through it, I mean using a shovel as a pickax, breaking the ice into manageable chunks. Some kind soul shoveled our city walks for us. Bless their heart.

As I am writing this, it is snowing again. It's supposed to snow another 3-5 inches tonight and then every day for the rest of the week. Seriously, can't a sister get a break? All the time that we are supposed to be spending on the house is being spent on this crappy snow. I hate it. At this rate, we will never be done. And who wants to move in this weather? Not me (not that I really want to move in any weather, we move too much).

I know this all seems negative, but this is my life lately. It seems like it's just one thing after another. I need a long vacation.

On a positive note, Mike got the water upstairs working! We have a lot of friends who have also fixed up older homes, so we have quite a few people to offer advice. One of them suggested taking off the aerators. Thanks Grant! We also have 2 rooms all ready to paint and Mike has about half of that nasty Turquoise tile off in the upstairs bathroom. We are sad to see those go :). Now we just have to find the time to paint. As soon as this damn snow goes away...

What were we thinking?

So we may be in a little over our heads with our new house. We closed on Friday. I think it's a bad omen when you lose the keys to your new house within 1 hour of gaining ownership of it. Mike and I went from the closing to Sam's club to pick up a couple of things and by the time we left Sam's Club, no keys. We both went back to the closing agent's office separately and checked the parking lot and I went back to Sam's to look there. I retraced my steps, tore apart a lazy boy that I had sat in, thinking that they had fallen in there, and asked everyone I could think to ask. Still no keys. Mike went to the new place thinking we could call a locksmith, but what locksmith is going to let some guy into a house with a big "For Sale" sign out front and no proof of purchase (all the paperwork was in my car)? Anyways, Mike went back to Sam's Club on his way home just to check one more time and it turns out that 5 minutes after I had left, someone turned them in. Hallelujah! Mike was very understanding, but I could tell that he was pretty upset with me. Sorry.... So that was one day that we had planned on doing some work down the drain.
We tried again on Saturday. Right now we are just trying to get everything ready to paint. This includes taking down wallpaper from one room. That part actually went pretty well. It came off really easily and there was only one layer. In getting water to spray the wall with, we realized that the water upstairs had been turned off not only while no one was living there while the house was on the market like we thought, but probably for the last decade. We got a small trickle of water out of the kitchen faucet, but that was it. It looks like we will be calling the plumber.
Anyways, after the wallpaper the kids were cranky and ready to go. Plus, it was snowing and we had to get back here to take care of the snow here (Mike will take care of the snow there tomorrow after work). What a mess! We had planned to work all day there. Between apartment stuff, home improvement projects and church stuff, I kind of feel like crying. I really think I will never be caught up. Luckily, things will get better. I haven't been released from YW president yet, but I know they found my replacement today, so hopefully next week (good luck to you, you know who...). And, I did my last apartment check-out today, which means that I will be doing my last check-in tomorrow. Just a few more weeks! I can't wait to be done, but really don't want to actually go through the process of moving. Oh well. Someone wise once said, "you do what you have to do, so you can do what you want to do". That would be Denzel Washington on Oprah the other day. Wise and good looking. What a package :).

Home again, home again

In spite of my anxiety, we all survived our trip to Utah! It was great to see my family, and Carter had a great time hanging out with his cousins (and their pets). The flight out wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, waking up at 4:30 am and all. The portable DVD player was a life saver.

My brother and sister in law let us stay with them as usual and even gave us both of the kids' bedrooms while they slept on the couch. So nice. They are the cutest family ever and visiting them always inspires me to be a better mom. They have the smartest, most well-behaved children I have ever known. They have 3 girls, but these girls are so funny--they have had a pet black widow and now they have a snake (their idea, not their dad's). Carter was brave and held it one night. I absolutely hate snakes and this is probably the closest he will ever get to having one of his own.

He also fell in love with Aunt Sarah's bird, although he didn't like it when it would go on his back and tickle him. He also met Snow White. My mom also has a poodle, but Carter hated it. It is a yappy little thing. Carter's favorite were my brother's 2 Belgian malinoises. They are like German Shepherds. My brother is a cop and the one dog is his K-9 partner. Anyways, it was basically a petting zoo. Maybe one day we will get a dog--when Carter is big enough to scoop the poop. Most of our visit was great. I got to meet my brother's cute girlfriend for the first time, and hang out with my other brother and his family, who I haven't seen in years, and everyone got to meet Samantha. However, I don't know if it was just lack of sleep, routine or what, but Carter and Samantha got progressively worse as the trip went on. By Thanksgiving, Samantha screamed anytime I set her down or anyone else held her. Carter was dishing out the sass like no one else's business. I would ask him to do something (like turn the light back off at 5:45am)and he would say "Um, actually, no!". This is pretty much how Thanksgiving looked for him:Not that the day was any better for me. First of all, this is how exciting it is hanging out at my parents' house:

That is my sister trying to sleep the day away. I did get my hair done, which was one of the highlights of the trip. You can't see them, but my other sisters are on the couch watching me get my hair done. There just isn't really much to do there. So...I was in charge of the turkey and I have been talking up what a great turkey I am going to make and how it will be the best ever. Everywhere I looked said that a 19 pound turkey should cook in 4-4 1/2 hours. We were supposed to eat at 4, so I put it in at noon, knowing that we wouldn't really eat until 5. It wasn't done until 7! I even turned it up to 425 degrees around 3:30. Even then, it was still questionable down towards the bone. This may not have been a big deal in some families, but there were close to 30 people crammed in that house just waiting on that damn bird. I have no idea what went wrong, but needless to say, my stress level was through the roof. By the time dinner was done, I just wanted to get out of there--Carter was being a terror and I had been holding Samantha for 10 hours straight. I didn't even enjoy the food, it was such a waste. On top of everything else, I thought that since this was the first time that we had all the grandkids together, we could do a picture with all of them. I have no idea what I was thinking. It was chaos. My one sister was late, and we wanted to take the picture outside, so it was almost dark by the time we got everyone out there. I hope that they turned out ok. My sister's boyfriend ended up taking them, and he is supposed to send them to me. Never again. My family is great, but I definitely need to lower my expectations. There are just too many people to get anything truly organized. I am planning my own Thanksgiving this week and will wipe that day from my memory.

Having said that, I am glad that we went, and I am glad that we are home. We close on our house on Friday. I am thinking about having a paint party this Saturday. Anyone want to come? :) It hasn't really sunk in yet how much work this house will really be. I hope I don't regret it...

Crawling

It really feels like we just brought Samantha home yesterday; I can't believe how fast she is growing! She started crawling on Monday and it is so fun watching her learn that crawling isn't just for getting to toys that are out of reach, but for getting places. As I was doing dishes in the kitchen I saw her out of the corner of my eye heading down the hall. It is so fun, even if it does mean that now I have to keep the house a little cleaner. She also got her first tooth last week and the second one popped out today. She eats like a horse, which is strange after feeding picky Carter who wouldn't eat meat or grains and choked on almost everything we fed him. I could be feeding her cat food out of a rusty bucket and I bet she would eat it (I haven't tried this, don't worry). She really has turned into a really happy, great baby. I love her guts.

On another note, Carter is starting to be a little bit nicer, which is a pleasant change.

He said the funniest thing today. I was asking him if he wanted to have a sleepover with his aunt Amber. He said "no, because Amber and Sarah live in the airport!". He doesn't really get that people get on airplanes and leave the airport, he only knows that that is where we drop them off. I tried to explain it, but I am pretty sure he still thinks they live there.

Well, I don't have much more to write and it's time for Thursday night TV. See ya!

Tub Time

I have been meaning to take some pictures of Samantha in the tub for a while. She absolutely loves it and is the happiest in the water. I finally got around to it tonight:
Love those eyes!!!

She has the funniest thoughtful look. She does this all the time with me. It's like she's asking "Are you sure about that?"

The lighting is off on this one, but I don't want Carter to feel left out :). Someday I will learn how to use my camera...

I found out a couple of weeks ago that everyone in my family will be home for Thanksgiving, including my older brother and his family from Phoenix. I haven't seen them since before we moved out here, and they have never met my kids. So I was kind of bummed that I would miss it. With the large purchase we are about to make (a house), I didn't think we could afford it. But Mike, being the great guy that he is, said I should go. With that and the generosity of Grandma and Grandpa helping out with Carter's ticket we are going to Utah for Thanksgiving! It's the first time I have gone back for a holiday since we have been out here. I am very excited to see my family, especially my nephews. We were really close when they were younger, and now they are all in high school. I still can't believe it. I am also excited to get my hair done. Somehow I manage to see Amber (my sister) every 6 months or so. Just about the time that my hair is getting bad enough that I am considering going to someone else, something works out. It's like it was meant to be... As my excitement grows my anxiety does as well. I am taking both kid by myself. Am I nuts? I know that other people do it and it can be done, but it is going to be stressful. Maybe they will both sleep the whole way. A girl can dream, right?

One fell off and bonked his head

What a fun week we have had! Tuesday night we got to take a little trip to the ER. Carter was standing up on a chair and fell off, hitting the back of his head really hard. He started throwing up after he went to sleep (in our bed...fantastic), so we took him in to get checked. It was so sad, because it was his first time really throwing up and he was so sad about it-- "I throwed up everywhere and I'm cryin' about it!". They were great at the hospital, they were really good with Carter and we didn't have to wait at all. He did get a CT scan of his head, which thrilled him. The entire time there he was very sad and tired, only nodding when the doctors asked him questions. After the CT scan, he perked up, on the way back to his bed he said "that machine made me feel better!!!". Then he was chatting it up with the nurse about how the fan went around and around and then it stopped... and on and on. That lasted until the nurse felt the back of his head --he looked at me and said "but it didn't make my head feel better". Then he threw up and sad Carter came back. Everything was fine and we came home and he was fine today, thankfully. He gave us a good scare. It really made me grateful that my kids are healthy and nothing was seriously wrong (and that we have great insurance).

Alright, so that wasn't fun, but yesterday we went to the Wisconsin Dells, and that was so much fun! For those of you who don't know "the Dells" (as they are referred to around here) is the water park capital of the world (at least America) here in the middle of Wisconsin. There are at least 10 huge resorts with all kinds of water parks. Anyways, most people go in the summer when it is warm, but not us. We wait until it's cold and we can go cheaper. We went to the Kalahari resort, which boasts the largest indoor water park in the country. We went with a couple of friends and their families and we had such a great time. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so until Kara and Cassidy are kind enough to email the ones that they took to me, I have nothing but a hotel key card to remember this fabulous trip by. So sad...

Oh, wait, we did get another night free, so I guess we can go back and recreate this trip with pictures. Somebody called the front desk last night saying that there was loud music. The security team wasn't sure which room it was coming from, so instead of listening at the doors, they knocked on them. So, we woke up at 4am to a loud knock and some joker asking us to keep it down. Mike was beyond furious, since we had been asleep for hours and he couldn't get back to sleep after that. So he complained before we left and we got a little phone call tonight from the GM apologizing and he said he would be sending us a little something. Sweet! Not only did we get a great deal in the first place, we got another free night. Totally worth the 4am wake up call (at least for me, I went right back to sleep). Maybe in February when we need a break from the winter and the house work we will go use it. Anybody want to join us?

Happy Halloween!

What a busy week we have had! We have been completely preoccupied with house stuff, then on top of that, Mike's birthday was yesterday, we have Halloween tonight (and last Saturday when Sussex had their trick-or-treating--there are some benefits to having everyone trick-or-treat at different times), and our anniversary is Friday.

We carved pumpkins on Tuesday. They are already rotting. What's up with that? Here they are the one time we lit them. Carter had previously painted his pumpkin, so his had some extra flair. He insisted on the bee (that's what that is, if you can't tell). No ghosts, witches, or funny faces, it had to be the bee.

Carter had 2 costumes this year. His Buzz Lightyear costume from last year still fits him and he was really excited about wearing it, so we let him wear it for trick-or-treating here and for Brooklyn's birthday party. His other costume was Steve from Blue's Clues. Samantha was Blue. Carter was very excited about the Handy Dandy Notebook. He even practiced holding it just like Steve does. Looks like he got some of his Momma's nerdiness. Samantha was super cute, although she just stayed covered up warm and cozy in the stroller, so no one saw her. We will dress her up again for our soup night this Friday. We made Mike's birthday cake, because I thought it would be fun for Carter to decorate one for him. You probably can't tell which one Carter did. I never said that cake decorating was a skill I posses. Mike had a good day though, so it all worked out.
Carter mostly enjoyed eating the frosting and sprinkles. This kid has been on a sugar high since last week. We are trying to detox him. Tonight he was complaining of a tummy ache. Poor kid. I am not sure if I can blame this last one on the sugar rush or on the aforementioned nerdiness, but Carter just came out of his room the other day with one of Samantha's headbands on. He was just playing like it was no big deal. Once I started laughing and snapping pictures he took it off. This will be great blackmail one day. This kid is hilarious.

We got it!

We accepted the counter offer as is, and so as long as everything goes well with the inspection, we have the house! There has been some confusion however...although it is a duplex, it has been used as a single family home before. The two halves are only separated by a staircase. You walk in the side door and you can go down a hall to the first floor kitchen, or up the stairs to the 2nd floor. You can also access the upstairs by going through the kitchen and up the stairs. So other than the 2 kitchens, it won't be weird at all.

Also, the house is on 97th just below Lisbon Ave. So we will be switching wards (again!!!).

Completely off the subject, Mike got pulled over yesterday. I was very pleased because he is always talking about what a great driver he is and how he never gets tickets, blah, blah.... To his credit, it was for doing a U-turn at a controlled intersection, which is a dumb law anyways. But it was good to see him humbled :). Luckily he was only given a warning, so the humbling was free of charge. Thank you very much officer!

Our House

We put an offer in on a house today! It is in Milwaukee (which is somewhere I swore I would never live (97th St.)) and it is a fixer-upper (something I swore I would never buy). But it is huge, and it seems structurally sound. Most of the work is cosmetic--don't get me wrong, it will be a lot of work, but it really has a lot of potential. It is actually a duplex, but we will be living in both sides, as a single family home. Later, we will split it back up and rent it out as a duplex for some extra cash. Right now, though, that means that we have loads of space. It has a basement, but honestly, with how much space there is, I don't think we will need it. We are going to have all the bedrooms upstairs--we are going to actually use the upstairs living room as our master bedroom, which will be so nice, after the cave the we have now. That gives us 3 extra bedrooms downstairs for a playroom, an office (beats the closet I have now...seriously, my office is the coat closet in the living room right now), and a work out/sewing room (let's be honest, we won't be using that room very often).

Anyways, they counter-offered at $3,000 more than we offered (we offered $148,000, they countered with $151,000). Mike wants to counter back with $150,000. I say whatever, just take it, but if it makes him happy...

Here is what it looks like from the outside. It isn't really that great looking from the outside, it needs some work.

We have 2 kitchens. Which to use??? The one upstairs is bigger, but do I want to live downstairs and cook upstairs? We will figure it out. The counter tops are awesome, they have little boomerang shapes in them. The bathrooms are really the highlight of the house. It seems that pink bath fixtures were all the rage back in the 50's. Love them. If anyone wants them, they will be coming out soon. This one is even better. I absolutely love the turquoise tile.

Anyways, the rest of the house is good, new carpet and hardwood throughout. We definitely have our work cut out for us. It should be good, though. We can stay here for a couple of years and then move on. 1&1/2 years is the longest we have stayed in any house. We'll see if we can set any records here.

Sleep baby, sleep

After I have read no less than 11 books on sleep, tried everything imaginable, and anxiously waited through hours of crying (not all at once) all in an effort to get Samantha to nap for longer than 20 minutes at a time, Mike did it in one try. How frustrating!!! Mike had the kids on Saturday while I went to Super Saturday at the church. It was the first time that he really put down Samantha for a nap and she slept for 2 hours!!! She did it again today so I think it may be more than a fluke. I should be happy that he is such a great dad, but I'm not. I am the mom, shouldn't I be the best at child-rearing? Aren't I the one who went to 6 years of school for this (alright, that's an exaggeration, but it felt like it)? He also corrects me quite frequently on my interactions with Carter. Needless to say, it usually doesn't go over well.

I finally got around to downloading some of my pictures, so here are some random shots:

Carter got some temporary tattoos, here he is showing off his tough muscles. You can't see it in the picture, but he is straining so hard he is shaking. Sometimes when we are bored, we will let Samantha drive, just to see where we end up... just kidding, she just got tired of the car seat while we were waiting for Mike.

I know I am biased, but isn't she so cute?I left her in her plaything while I got in the shower. I found this when I got out. There was no spit-up anywhere else, just on her head. Not sure how that works. We went to "Boo at the Zoo" last night. Carter had a blast. Mike and I just survived. There were soooo many people (and mummies) there!One of Carter's favorite things to do is hop in the crib and hang out with his sister. Here is one of the few blissful moments I get with them together. Really, he is pretty sweet with her most of the time. He also likes to lay on her, push her over, kneel on her, head butt her and pretty much anything else he thinks sounds like fun at the moment. Don't worry, I watch him closely most of the time :).

Slacker!

I have been seriously slacking in the blogging department. Part of it is that I have been busy, the other part is that even with all that business, nothing is very exciting. I did have a fun weekend though. My friend Karen had a pumpkin party, where everyone brought a pumpkin dish to share. The food was amazing, and I ate so much I made myself sick (I had to be nice and try everything :)). Who knew that you could do so much with pumpkin?

Then, Saturday night I went out on a "date" with my friend Laura. It was great. It has been so long since I have been out without either of the kids. Samantha hasn't liked it much when I have left her before, so I have been hesitant to leave her again. We saw the movie about Queen Elizabeth since there wasn't much else that wasn't rated R. It was actually a pretty interesting movie. The best part was that the Renaissance Club was there. Do these people not realize that everyone is mocking them??? Seriously, some clubs are nerdy, but these people really take the cake. Because it was opening night, they were introduced individually before the movie as Lady this and Captain that. Then they had some medieval trivia for t-shirts. Seriously, who knows this stuff? I just loved that they attempted the accent. It really made the evening complete. I pray every day that my kids won't ever come home in costume, I don't know what I would do (sorry if this offends any closet Renaissance lovers that I may not know about out there).

Mike and I have been looking for houses, we have decided that we are done with the apartment management thing. I have too much going on and it is just too much. It has been a great job, but with 2 kids it is just too much. You should see me trying to show an apartment. It's like a little traveling circus--"you will notice the skylight - Carter don't touch that! - and the fabulous balcony - AHHHHHH (Samantha)... alright I don't really say things like that, but you get the picture. I am amazed that anyone would rent from us after witnessing the chaos that is us. Anyways, back to the houses...we are not planning on moving until March or April because we don't rent over the winter so it's easy money for now. My problem is that I look at a house and get attached. I imagine what we could do with it and which rooms would be for what... and then Mike reminds me that we aren't buying anything for a while and I have to break it off with the house. It's actually quite traumatic. The other frustrating part is the realization that we really can't afford what we really want and lowering our expectations. It looks like we will probably have to do some work on whatever we buy and it probably won't be perfect. I don't know why we are so worried, if our current track record continues, we won't be in it for more than 2 years.

Anyway, that really is about all that has been going on. I have to get to bed, it has been a long few nights with Samantha and I am seriously sleep deprived. Good Night!

Not Much

I haven't blogged in a while because there really isn't much to write about. We are trying to get Samantha on a sleep schedule, so we haven't been going anywhere--just sitting around the house listening to her cry. It's not very much fun. I did get Samantha's Halloween costume, though. She is going to be Blue and Carter is going to be Steve from Blue's Clues. I am having a hard time finding a Steve shirt anywhere besides EBay, where they are going for $15 or more. For a shirt??? I have a hard time spending that much on a used shirt. I will keep looking, but time is running out. I love EBay, but I hate waiting for the auctions to end. I am all about instant gratification. So, if anyone out there has a spare Steve shirt, size3-4, let me know! I won't hold my breath...

Cheap Make-Up!

I just found this link on another friend's blog. They have all kinds of make-up for only a dollar. It's not trial size! I ordered some stuff, so I hope it all turns out. Also, if you put "carolina" as a coupon code, you get 50% off your order up to $15. Check it out here: http://www.eyeslipsface.com/default.asp

Duck, Duck, Goose!

One of my favorite memories as a child was going to feed the ducks. We would pop a big bag of popcorn (FYI the ducks out here prefer the cheap Wal Mart bread) and have blast feeding it all to the ducks. So, I love taking Carter to do it. We have the perfect spot, and the ducks come up out of the water as soon as they see a kid headed toward them. The one thing that I never had to deal with as a kid were the mean, mean geese! Today Carter was having a good time with the ducks, when all of a sudden, here come a gaggle of geese (isn't that what they are called?). They totally bullied their way in and took all the food. Then, they had the nerve to stand there hissing at us. I was almost certain that they were going to attack. I don't see what the sport in hunting geese is. I could have taken one out today by kicking it in the head. I definitely don't see what people around here like about these things. They put fake ones on their lawns like they are some beautiful creature. All I know is that when I see them hanging out in the road it is all I can do to not take them out. I hate them. Carter still had a good time, and if you ask him, he will tell you the ducks were nice, but the geese were "a little bit crabby".
I love the way he launches the bread at the ducks. Each time, he would scare some of them back into the water.

After feeding the ducks, we checked out the water fall. Carter is obsessed with water falls. We drive by this one almost everyday and he still gets excited every time. Whenever we drive anywhere, he always asks to drive by it. I don't think it's that this specific one is that great, it is nice, but he gets just as excited about the nasty fountains outside Wal Mart. Go figure. After a heavy rain, it turns a foul yellow color and Carter announces that someone needs to clean it out. I'd like to see someone volunteer for that one...

One thing that I do love about Wisconsin are the little bits of nature that they have preserved in the middle of the city. After the water fall, we went for a little walk. One minute you are crossing main street, the next you are in this:

It is really beautiful. Every time I see these awesome secluded trails so close to my house I tell myself that I need to get the kids on a schedule so I can start running again. At this time of year, is it really worth it though? I would just get to where I can run a mile without passing out and winter would set in. Maybe next spring. For now, I will just keep doing my little Denise Austin workouts every morning and dream of being skinny again.

Where does Daddy live?

Mike has been gone almost every evening this week and last with work and mowing the lawns and everything. Tonight Carter asked "Where does Daddy live?". It took me a minute to convince him that Daddy still lived here. Sad, right?

Chicago

This last weekend we went down to Chicago with my sister, Amber. Amber and I went down to see "Wicked". Mike went to watch the kids (thanks, Mike!). We loved the show, and the kids were great for Mike back at the hotel (completely unexpected), so it was a success all around.

The next morning we walked around downtown Chicago. The first stop was Millennium Park, where they have these really cool fountains. At first they just look like 2 small-scale skyscrapers. Then water starts flowing and a face appears. After a few minutes water starts pouring out of the mouth.

Before:After:It was cold, so we didn't let Carter play in the water, but you can bet he tried! Notice the lack of shoes--somewhere in the chaos that was getting everything and everyone in the car, his shoes were left behind. We did buy him some further up the street. Am I a bad mom? At least I didn't leave him behind...How pathetic is it that out of 10 pictures, this is the best we could get? We really struggle sometimes. I do love this one of Samantha. We bought her a new coat at H&M (I just discovered the super-cute baby clothes there) and she was doing a fashion show for us at lunch. I love her huge eyes.
One of the reasons I love Chicago is the diversity and the random things that you find there. Here is a drum-line (or bucket-line?)
And say you were walking down the street and all of a sudden you thought "man, I could really go for a game of chess right now", they've got you covered!That's right, step right up and make your move! There weren't many takers when we went by, but I am sure business picked up later :).

It was a fun day, and we were all exhausted by the time we got home, which is always a sign that we enjoyed ourselves.

Off the subject, but a funny side note...Samantha was wearing tights to church the other day and Carter asked what they were. When I told them they were tights, he asked "super tights?". He's a strange one.

I love the doctor's office!

Not really, but one would think so with the number of visits I have made there over the past week. Last week, it was Samantha's diaper rash, Tuesday it was Samantha's bald spot (it's behind her ear, no big deal) and then today Carter's ears. Love it. We tried the new Kohl's clinic out today instead of making the 30 minute trek down to the pediatrician. It was OK--great for me, not so great for Carter. The nurse was great with him, but I swear the Nurse Practitioner couldn't see Carter's eardrums, she kept looking over and over again and saying that his ears were just really waxy. I don't believe it for a second. Carter's Dr. always knows what's going on. Anyways, long story short, if you need something quick and easy checked out--try it out (for all you Kohl's wives out there). It's super cheap. The pharmacy is fabulous--$5 prescriptions--can you really beat that?

The whole point of the story is what Carter said to me at the Dr. The nurse gave him a whole bunch of stickers, and he was putting them everywhere. He gave one to himself for being a big boy, and then he put one on me and said, "that's for being a good mommy." Totally made my week, especially since I feel like all I do lately is yell at him. He has some serious jealousy going on, he pushed Samantha off of the cart the other day at Sam's club--she was buckled in her car seat and was scared, but fine--that is just one example of what I am dealing with lately. Today he tried to push her (in her car seat again) out of the car. The funny thing is that he always tells me that he is going to do it. "I am going to push her out..." "I am going to pinch her..." "I am going to put water on her face...". I don't know what I am going to do with him.

My favorite sister gets here tonight (sorry to the rest of you sisters, but you all know that's how it is), and I am so excited! Carter loves her and I always love seeing her. We have lots of fun stuff planned. I need go clean my house, so I'm not embarrassed when she gets here. Later!

How smart are you?

My friend Karen put this up on her blog. I enjoy a good brain workout every now and then, so I gave it a shot. Karen got 27 of them right (in only about 20 minutes, I found out later). I consider myself fairly intelligent and figured I could do about the same. After working on it off and on all day, I got 18 and then cheated on the rest. I have to admit, I am a bit ashamed to only be in the "intelligent" category, while she qualifies for "genius". It's a good think I've got my looks going for me :).

You give it a shot:

You have to work out what the letters mean. See No 0 as an example. According to MENSA, if you get 19+ of these, you are a "genius". Only 2 MENSA members achieved full marks. See how well you do.

Scoring: 1-5 is Average, 6-11 is Somewhat Intelligent, 12-18 is Intelligent, 19+ is Genius.

0) 24 H in a D (24 hours in a day)
1) 26 L of the A
2) 7 D of the W
3) 7 W of the W
4) 12 S of the Z
5) 66 B of the B
6) 54 C in a P (WJs)
7) 13 S in the USF
8) 18 H on a G C
9) 39 B of the O T
10) 5 T on a F
11) 90 D in a R A
12) 3 B M (S H T R)
13) 32 is the T in D F at which W F
14) 15 P on a R T
15) 3 W on a T
16) 100 C in a D
17) 11 P in a F (S) T
18) 12 M in a Y
19) 13 is UFS
20) 8 T on a O
21) 29 D in F in a L Y
22) 27 B in the N T
23) 365 D in a Y
24) 13 L in a B D
25) 52 W in a Y
26) 9 L of a C
27) 60 M in a H
28) 23 P of C in the H B
29) 64 S on a C B
30) 9 P in S A
31) 6 B to an O in C
32) 1000 Y in a M
33) 15 M on a D M C

Not as easy as it might seem, eh? You can find the answers by googling them or I have them also. Good luck!

Blessed Silence

After all of that frustration last night, tonight was such a relief! Samantha went to sleep by herself in her crib for the first time EVER! She didn't even cry, she just squawked a couple of times and then silence, blessed silence. She even slept through Carter's bedtime shenanigans, which is a small miracle. One small step for Samantha, one giant leap for the Chaplin family.

I'm a bad mom...

Carter tonight: (Smiling, after getting into my gum) "I'm a little turd." I guess I need to start watching what I say more.

This one doesn't make me a bad mom, it's just funny: I think that Carter may be the only 2 year old to know the words to "If you could hie to Kolob" and "Put your shoulder to the wheel". Mike picks the most random songs to sing to him at bedtime.

Speaking of bedtime, anyone out there have any advice on getting Samantha to sleep? Since she was born, she wouldn't sleep in her own bed for more than 15 minutes. I can get maybe 30-45 minutes out of her now, but as soon as she wakes up and sees that I'm not there, she starts screaming. I have tried crying it out, but she just won't give up! I want her out of our bed and into hers, but her and Carter share a room, so she has to be able to sleep more than 30 minutes on her own. I am completely clueless as to what I should do. As I am writing this, she is screaming in my bed because tried about 6 times over an hour to put her down once she was asleep and she woke up every time. Maybe I could hire someone to hold her while she sleeps? I hear royal nannies had people to do that in the old days... Any takers?

We have arrived...

You know you have arrived when you get the minivan, right? Although I swore I would never get one--if we ever got a bigger car, it would be a big SUV--meet the newest member of the family:

That's right, a 2001 Honda Odyssey. I actually do love it. I know it is nerdy, but there is definitely a reason why so many people drive them. It is very convenient. Mike is still having a hard time coming to terms with it, but then it wasn't his big booty squeezing in between the car seats. Now my booty can get as big as I want it to get :).

We just need to get rid of our Altima now. If anyone knows of anyone looking for one, you let me know!

Another new arrival is my new camera! I have been looking at them since my parents came out in May. My dad has a nice camera and his pictures looked a lot better than mine (the fact that he is a better photographer in general has nothing to do with this, I'm sure). So I told Mike that when we go the money from selling the condo, I was getting a camera. It actually arrived a week ago, but one of the pixels was out and so I exchanged it. The new one gets here Tuesday, and it feels like Christmas! Here she is, the Nikon D40x:

I went to the library and checked out a bunch of photography books, so I can actually use it. I am very excited. Hopefully I can figure it all out and get some good pictures.

Otherwise, life is fairly uneventful. I am sick, the first time I have been really sick since I was pregnant with Carter, I think. Pre-kids I would have laid on the couch all weekend watching TV. Not anymore, sadly enough, the only thing I have been doing differently is taking a long nap every day with Samantha. We did stay home from church today. It's just a cold, but it sure does suck.

Mike was in Las Vegas for work this past week. He had quite the busy week--Partying it up with the Hilton sisters:

One of his vendors got some of his co-workers and him into the club where they were having a party to celebrate Nicky's new clothing line. Mike also saw LL Cool J and some NBA players. He missed out on the party with Eminem and Jay Z, but I hear there were a bunch of thugs there. I can't believe the amount of money the vendors spend on their buyers. It's nuts. Maybe they should send a little of that cash to the little kids in China making the clothes. But, that's a whole other issue.

Anyways, I am pooped and my hacking cough is getting worse, I am off to bed.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Wow! This past couple of weeks has been so busy! Sarah (my sister) left on Wednesday, so I wanted to make sure that she saw the best of Wisconsin before she left. So last Thursday, we went to Menomonee Falls beach. We were the only ones there for a while and so we could see the fish swimming with us (a little bit weird, but I am getting used to it). Carter loved it. He would sit very still, waiting for the fish to get close enough for him to catch in his bucket. All he caught was a tadpole. He didn't believe that it was a baby frog, and just tried to squish it. All in all, it was a great day.

Friday we went to Six Flags. We were a bit hesitant, because we didn't have a babysitter for Carter, and Samantha had to come with us as well. So I just expected to watch the kids all day while Sarah and Mike went on rides. It's pretty much how it worked out, but I was very surprised at how many rides Carter could go on! He is a little bit tall for his age, so he just made the 36" cutoff for most of the rides. There were also a lot that he could go on all by himself--he loved the idea. I am pretty sure that he went on more rides than all of us put together. He didn't even get scared, which shocked me, especially when he went on the boat that swings back and forth really high. Mike said he was just screaming along with everyone else. To this day, anytime he thinks about roller coasters or anything to do with Six Flags he has to remind me that the roller coasters are scary and the people go "aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh" as loudly as possible (that didn't fly so well when he did it as Samantha was going to sleep today). If you can, ask him about it. He'll share.
We saw the wiggles. Here is Carter with Wags the dog. We also met Dorothy the Dinosaur--jealous?
After about 6, the lines on certain rides really went down. After getting soaked on the Roaring Rapids (where onlookers can pay $.25 to soak the riders), I realized why... we were freezing! Carter was afraid that we wouldn't let him go on more rides, so through chattering teeth he made sure that we knew that he was warm. This is him making his cold face (I didn't say it was a cute face).
One ride that the lines disappeared on later on was American Eagle. It is the old wooden roller coaster. We were able to walk on to it after 9 (yes, we are bad parents keeping our kids out so late). We waited an hour to go on the Batman roller coaster and it had nothing on this one. There is just something about feeling like you could derail and die at any moment that really gets your heart racing. I am pretty sure we caught air a couple of times. It was definitely a great way to end the day.

Saturday was the Kohl's Big Event, which is their yearly Brewer's game/tailgating party. It was pouring, which kind of sucked, but they always have great food, and this year was no exception. As anyone who knows me knows, I love food, and this was good food. I probably gained a good 5 pounds between 6 flags and the game. They closed the roof, so we stayed dry inside. Samantha loves baseball, and she always looks so good in her Brewer's outfits (thanks Laura!). I am not sure how much she loved being zipped inside Mike's jacket on the way to and from the stadium, but she stayed dryer than the rest of us!

Sarah left on Wednesday. We will miss her! I am doing OK on my own. I only have to make it 3 weeks until my other sister Amber comes out (yay!). She is only here for a couple of days though.

The rest of this week has just been resting up from last week, and trying to get this house cleaned up. My kids know when I want to get things done and do everything in their power to thwart my efforts. Samantha took a total of 45 minutes of nap today and then wouldn't go to sleep tonight--that's a whole other issue. Carter also declined the nap today, after playing in his room for a half hour, he comes out and says "good morning mommy!" in this high pitched, syrupy sweet voice. He was a terror today. Needless to say, I did not finish cleaning the house. I need to lower my expectations.

One cute thing Carter is doing now is using the word "super" for everything:
"It's super rainy"
"I'm super sorry, Dad"
"It's super locked"
Everything is super. It's a good thing he is so funny, otherwise, we probably would have sent him away months ago.


Anyways, I think that's enough for now. We don't have much going on in the next little while, except Mike going to Vegas next week for work. I am pretty jealous, but I am pretty sure that there are some sort of laws against bringing young children into the casinos. I am just hoping to hold on to the very last bit of sanity I have going for me. We'll see...