Clutter Be Gone

For the past two days The Man and I have been immersed in the beginning stages of packing. (Once again having faith that our house WILL SELL!) I do believe that this is the worse part of the moving process. Getting rid of the clutter and cleaning all the knick knacks (paddy wacks) Tomorrow morning the real estate agent is coming to take pictures of the house and (according to his minimalist mind) I had to get rid of most of the stuff that I have sitting around. OK, so I admit it, my house (although clean) has the decorating style of an antique store crossed with Cracker Barrel's dining rooms.

But now...it has the minimalist look he was wanting to see (because that is what will sell) and I have to say it is B.O.R.I.N.G!!!!

I will probably not be posting very much for a while, except for quick check in posts. There is something about packing, taking care of the 3 and 2 year old, maintaining a house fit for walk-thrus, continuing normal family operations and being pregnant that tells me my plate is pretty full.

Tuesday is BABY GENDER day and there will be a post letting you know pink or blue, so check in for that.

In closing....PRAY, PRAY, PRAY that this house sells quickly!!!!

Beans

Alright, so if you have ever been around me at Christmas or birthdays; you know that I stink-a-roo at keeping secrets. (Unless that secret is my dress size) A couple of days ago I asked for vague prayers because I did not want to make a huge deal about something that may/may not happen. After spending all day yesterday and today dealing with some of the stuff, I have decided to let you know the 411 on what you are praying for.

The Man and I have talked about moving out of the city. We hate looking out windows and instead of basking in the glory of the crack of dawn, we are literally seeing "the crack of Dawn". Hearing police cars is more common to my children than hearing a blue jay squawk. We recently stumbled into the opportunity to sell and move. The house has been found and it is our dream home. Acres of barefoot running, creek to play in and as the ad says "Country living at its finest"
Every blade of grass, every tree that you see here would be the view from my kitchen window (Plus about 4 more acres behind that according to the real estate ad) When describing it to the family and friends that I have told that assured me that this is what they knew I always wanted. It is!!!!

Here is where your prayers come in. We get the sign in our yard on Monday and our house needs to sell no later than Oct. 31st. (Check your calendars, that's only 2 months away) We are priced to sell, FAST...but we need a buyer, FAST. Then you throw in that whole "I have an almost 4 year old, 2 year old and will be about 8 months pregnant when moving" and it's a whole other story and series of prayers.

I want this more than I have been wanting a Twinkie at 3am and it *seems* like this is where God is leading us. Boy, that faith thing is a doozy!!! In having faith, I have spent all of today beginning to go through closets and packing up things (while I can still bend over fairly well) and The Man cleaned out the garage in preperation for all the boxes I will need to put there.

Again, this could ALL fall through and I will just have a really clear and clean house, OR I could be sitting in "the dream home" drinking hot chocolate looking at that view covered in white come this winter. (Pretending it ever snows here.)

Please pray that IF this is HIS will, that everything will happen as soon as possible, allowing me to do all that I can before this baby is born or it gets too uncomfortable to be packing/unpacking/moving.

So that is the beans I have to spill.

Five Question Friday

So, the rules? Copy and paste the five questions below to your blog post, answer them, grab the MckLinky Blog Hop code and link up! I'd also love it if you'd link back to My Little Life...not a requirement, just a request!

And, we're off!!

1. What is your favorite Holiday and why?
Christmas. Period. Fat and jolly is "in" and scrooginess is "out". It's one of the only holidays that is celebrated for more than one day with traditions. (4 whole months if you are a retail store) It's the celebration of the birthday of Jesus, cookie baking, present wrapping, anticipation in children's eyes (and mine too) of the wonderment of the tree and stockings, looking at everyone else's outdoor lights (when else can you do drive-bys slowly in front of your neighbor's houses and not have the cops called) the only thing missing from our Christmas traditions is having the drunk uncle to make fun of for the other 364 days for somehow setting the turkey on fire.

2. Who has been the most influential person in your life?
My children (well, that's two, almost three) have taught me more about life. They have taught me the importance of patience, the incomprehensible amount of love, the joy in simple things and how to cover yourself with glitter glue and cotton balls.

3. If you could give up one household chore forever, what would it be?
Laundry and all it entails. I have a post here about how I really feel about it.

4. What is the BEST practical joke you have ever been a part of, on the giving OR receiving end? (Thanks to Meghan, for that one!!)

I am not naming names, dates or locations (to protect my butt) but there was this time that a neighbor's doors got nailed shut (momentarily) when she refused to quit slamming them in an apartment complex.

5. Where (or how) did you meet your spouse?
I met my spouse at a Shoney's. He was cooking, I was hungry. He gave me a whole strawberry pie to take home and promised one day he would marry me. Almost 4 years later, he did just that.

Blah Blah Blogging

We have something going on here on the home front that is...um...interesting. It seems like one of those doors that God opens when you were not even looking for a door, but I don't know how it is going to play out at this point. I don't want to get into specifics (just now) I swear I will later (promise) but I don't have all the details and hate to post something half informed. I do want to ask for prayers for The Man and I (and the others who will be involved in the vague thing I am talking about) to make wise decisions and if THIS is truly meant to happen, that all the little things will fall into place with minimal stress on all involved.

That's all I can/want to say for now.

I was going to type some more things out, but it is 4:30am and I just had my feeding, I think I will go back to bed and type at a more reasonable hour, although it is kinda cool right now, because no one wants my attention. How weird is that?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

So, how does it? Is it like mine, 2 feet in one week? Seriously, I do not use fertilizer (I would NOT make more work for myself) and have even considered spraying some type of killer all over it or having the yard concreted. Nevertheless, that stuff called sunshine and rain is working overtime in my neck of the woods.

Yeah, mowing is typically the man's job, but we agreed that if we (I) got a (dog) poop in the backyard that I would be the one to mow.

The last time I mowed, the lawn mower kept stopping up (it does that with 2 foot tall grass) and The Man fixed it for me. Today, I discovered how he fixed it. Simply took that little flap off the back. Ya know, the flap that keeps grass from shooting out all over your legs? Ummmm.....not the solution I had envisioned.

....and it still stops up.

After finally getting the lawn mowed (took 2 hours having to unstop it every 10 feet and even my elderly neighbor urged me to kick and cuss the stupid thing) I was covered in clippings with no less than 30 bruises on my legs. Bruises you ask? Yes. Not only does it shoot the grass out at 45 mph, but also small twigs and the rocks I didn't pick up.

Then there was the incident involving the $50 water hose (The Man had to have) that was nicely coiled up in the 2 foot grass. Green hose + green grass = incident. The kids are thrilled with their new sprinkler though.

I put the blade down to scalp height but know that I will probably have to mow again in 3 days. *Sigh* I am going to have to look into that concrete option.

Random picture I want to share with you...do I have these kids trained or what?

Life Buffet Style - All You Can Eat

Last night as I was going to bed, I was thinking about what all I had to get done. 'Cause that always makes for a peaceful drop off into sleep oblivion. Ummm-no. It got me to wondering about the phrase "my plate is full." Which got my always hungry mind to think about an "All You Can Eat Buffet"

It's funny how your mind makes comparisons of things at 1am.

Life really is like an "All You Can Eat Buffet"

You get a plate (Your Life) and go from section to section to see what you want to eat (Choices you make for your life) As you move from the fried chicken, pot roast, ham and b.b.q; you begin to put a little of each that looks good onto your plate. Then you hover over the beans, peas, corn, casseroles, etc. All the while putting small portions of everything that looks good on your plate. By the time you lug your 30lb plate back to the table, you look at your bounty and wonder how on earth am I going to eat all of this? It all looked so good at the time that you had to grab it, but once you got a portion of each; it is way too much for you to actually eat. Talk about feeling overwhelmed.

The strangest thing about feeling overwhelmed is that you chose to put every item on your plate. (Committed to your choices) You did not have to get all 6 meats offered, you could have chosen just one. If you did finish your smaller portions, you can always go back and try something else if you are still hungry.

How about making a choice in your life to simply your plate? Decide on the few things that look really good and see if you have room for the ice cream with sprinkles at the end.

Make sense? Well, it did at 1am.

Cake Zombies

My children are very much like the zombies portrayed in older movies; minus the gore of course. Not the new zombies that are fast, agile and cunning; but the ones that stumble around slowly, beat on doors/windows in slow motion, hold their arms out in front of them and moan about "brrraaaaiinnss" non-stop.

It seems that all day they follow me around chanting "juice, cookie, gummy, etc." like little zombies. Yesterday was MIL's birthday and I begged The Man to watch them so that I could run to the store alone to pick up the cake, but he could not do it for some reason. (Reason still unknown and unconfirmed) So I loaded up the zombies and headed to the store. As soon as they saw the white bakery box, the chanting started.

"caaaaakkkeeee caaaaakkkeee"

This continued for the next 2 hours until we made it to MIL's house and handed her the cake. At first, she did not want to cut the cake because she wasn't hungry and something about being almost 80 years old make you lose your childish joy of birthday cakes. Soon the chants became too loud and I cut the thing just to stop the noise.

Zombies appeased. For now.

In other news...

The days of Buzz swiping what she wants from Belly are over. I kept warning her that the day was coming that her little sister was going to start fighting back. Retribution Day is here. Belly has finally figured out that not only does she outweigh her big sister by a good 10 lbs, but that big sister is really a wus when it comes to confrontation. After much hair pulling, pummeling, screeching and some pinching, domianance is established. The "dominant one"? Me, with the sprayer from the sink; hosing them down like dogs. (Never get in the middle of a fight when biting is involved!) There is a new respect between sisters now and I doubt Buzz is going to tangle too much with her WWF little sister.

We have a busy weekend in front of us and Monday can't come soon enough.
Toodles for now.

5 Question Friday

I am joining in 5 question Friday again, brought to you by My Little Life. The following are her words (strict rules) and be sure and visit the Linky thing at the bottom to see more answers to The Burning Questions.

So, let's get hoppin'! In case you're new to this gig, here's the deets (you know, as in details...ahem, my poor excuse for being hip): Copy and paste the questions below to your blog post, answer them, grab the MckLinky Blog Hop code for the "Five Question Friday" Blog Hop, throw it into the html of your answered question post, then link up, mates! (Oooh, see, now I'm trying on my Aussie hat! Well, that...and I just saw Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaur--great flick, btw...)

Okay, so, yeah, the questions:


1. What is your biggest Pet Peeve? (Thanks, Meghan!)
My biggest Pet Peeve is people who run late. We live in a world where we have clocks all over the house (on microwave, alarm clocks, on your cell phone, on the DVD player - if you know how to set that one) and everywhere you go there are even more clocks (bank signs, drug store signs, radio stations tell you, etc) You can even buy one of those fancy-schmancy things to wear on your arm! We don't depend on a sundial anymore, come on people.


2. With no worries about finances, childcare, or travel time...where would you most want to vacation?
I would most want to go "all Robinson Crusoe." Find me an island that doesn't exist on a map, where I can make (or have hunky husband make) a cool tree house, frolic with friendly woodland creatures, bonfires and s'mores every night and that uber cool grass skirt. (Note: remote island nobody can see my thighs in uber cool grass skirt) You can pick me back up when I am thin (from a diet of coconut and fish) and tanned.


3. If your house was in the path of a tornado and you had time to grab 3 things before the house was totally destroyed (children, husband, pets are already out) what 3 items would you grab? (Thanks, A.!)
1. Hard drive to my computer since I can never remember to download my pictures and videos.
2. Recipe book from my husband's grandmother that has handwritten notes, flour smudges from the 1930s and tells you how to butcher your own cow.
3. Footprint mold from both girls when they were newborn.

4. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? (Thanks, Keely!)
See answer to #2. Provided that I have my own personal jet where I can leave and visit friends and family and pick up groceries for when coconuts get too mundane.

5. What is your family's favorite homecooked meal?
Anything from the Big Yellow Cookbook. (Yellow Pages for takeout) Just kidding...they love my homemade mexican food. Fried tacos, chimichangas and mexican rice.

Blah Blah Blogging

*Blah Blah Blogging is a term I created on my old blog. It was for when I did not have a specific topic to talk about, just a lot of Blah Blah Blah.

So if you are here then you must have gotten the memo, tweet, peep or squawk that I was moving from WordPress. It's not that I disliked WordPress, but most of my blogosphere buds were on Blogger and I loved the Friend Connect, reader thingie-ma-bob, designs, etc. and much like my bangs from the 80s; just wanted a change. I had been working with some Blogger friends about importing my other blog to here and it was discovered that unless I wanted to devote the next 15 weeks to manually transporting it, I should just start over. I added a RSS feed in the sidebar that is linked to the old blog so the posts can still be accessed from this site and are not lost forever in the bloggy blackhole.

If you are just now joining me, let me do a little intro...

First thing you will notice is that I have a tendency to jump from topic to topic not just within my blog but in a single post. I do not have ADD...

look a banana

I digress. What was I saying again? Oh, yeah; being random. I type just the way it comes in my head. My posts take no planning and have no outline. Structure is for the weak. While I am blogging, I am also mom to two of the rowdiest girls you have ever met. That means that while I am typing, I am also jumping up to make a sandwhich, resuce a horse from certain toilet whirlpool death, pet the husband, love the dog (that one might have been backwards, but ya know) throw a burnt meal in the trash and cook another one before The Man makes it to the table. It gets plain nutty around here and it shows (much like my slip at prom) through my writing.

I blog, therefore I am. You will never see a wonderful recipe or the best craft ever here. I do good with nuking a hot dog and making paper angels. I don't do contests because the only thing I can afford to give away is a smile. I will seldom ask you to look any deeper into yourself than your make-up and I will never give advice on parenting or marriage. Frankly, I have to figure it out before I can advise someone on it and I am far from that.

We are walking, we are walking...

I am a SAHM. Mostly. The Man and I do own a small side business and I often toddle off to help him out on the weekends (Note: there are few posts over the weekends) My spawn darling girls are 3.5 yrs and 22 months. I am pregnant and we don't know if it will be panties or boxers quite yet. I have been married for 10 years (this month) and will tell you right now...that better or worse thing...you better mean it! We have a "traditional" marriage which means he makes the money and I spend it he brings home the bacon and I fry it. I don't consider me cooking and him taking out the trash as sexist or old fashioned, it just works better for us (the trash is heavy and the stove requires little feet to cook in front of it. We are in our God-given roles) As a mother the one thing (other than God, that's a given) that I want my children to learn from me is "To Color Outside The Lines" (hello, blog title) Meaning...reach beyond your boundries, dream big and make your world the way that you want it to be.

Nicknames? Who's Who?

Buzz - she is the oldest at 3 1/2 years. She got the nickname "Buzz" because there was a recent incident of a lack of adult supervision and daddy's electric hair clippers. 'Nuff said.

Belly - she will be 2 in October. Her nickname is well deserved by the massive amounts of food she consumes *healthy choices of course* and the fact that she outweighs her older sister by 15lbs.

The Man - husband. The Man of the house.

Does that cover about everything? I think so.

Look another banana...

Toodles for now.

5,259,478 minutes

5,259,478 minutes (give or take) is how many minutes have passed since I stood beside The Man and said “Do I”. Or was it “I Do”?

I think back about our vows and how we have tested and stretched each one of those to the limit and tried to understand what it really means.

Will you love her/him?

Seemed like a ridiculous question at the time we are holding hands making the puppy dog eyes at each other. Not so funny after a day of picking up after two kids, doing 5 loads of laundry, making dinner, ironing, dusting, mopping, entertaining the kids, going to the grocery store; just so he can walk in the door, throw his clothes on the floor and tell you that he really did not want meatloaf for dinner.

Comfort her/him?

I laughed to myself when repeating that one. Comfort that big bear of a man? That rock? HA! 10 years later, comfort I have done. Loss of jobs, child in the hospital, parents in failing health, etc. I have tried to learn how to comfort some one else when I am needing it too. I haven’t needed to pull him in my lap in the rocker yet, but my lap is open if he needs it.

Honor and keep her/him?

You mean I actually have to confirm that I will keep him and not toss him in the Husband Pound? Honor? That’s a tough one. I finally figured out (but not perfected) the act of honoring him. It means that when I have detail cleaned the entire house and am wiped out; he takes the small garbage bag to the trash can; I am to praise him as if he has slayed the dragon at my feet. Ahhh…my hero!

In sickness and in health

No brainer there. I had hoped against all hope that we would never have to do the sickness part, but it’s happened. I played Florence Nightingale several times to a puking big bear. Massive amounts of puke that never made it to the toilet that really made me consider that vow.

forsaking all others, faithfully keep to her/him alone

Why on earth would I ever consider another man, when I finally have this one 1/4th of the way trained. Come on, he takes out the trash, changes diapers (about 4 of them between 2 children and 3 years, not bad!) gives horsey rides to the kids, works his tail off, buys me sparkles every now and then and can give a mean foot massage!

So long as you both shall live?

Meaning: til you both have pot bellies, no or gray hair, wrinkles, flatulence control issues, meds on the nightstand next to the dentures, etc.

Do I? Heck yeah, I DO! It’s been an adventurous 10 years. Peppered with heartaches, spiced with practical jokes, stirred with joy and you are still my favorite dish!