Gobble, Gobbles

That is what Eli calls goggles.

Love it.

Chloe's New Love...

She's in love.

With my cell phone.

It's true. Odd. But, true.

A week ago my cell phone died. Like...would not even take a charge...died.

So, I went to the cell phone store that starts with a 'V' and told the sales lady my dilemma.
Like a good saleswoman she tried to sell me a $300 phone. And did not tell me that I had an extended warranty on the dead phone that would allow me to have the phone replaced free of charge. (grrr.)

I lived without a phone for a full week. (When I say, "no phone", I mean "no phone." We do not have a land line.) Facebook became my main form of communication with Kevin. We set up FB dates to check in with each other throughout the day. Our emergency plan was to post "someone call 911 and send an ambulance to my house" as my status. Fail proof.

Anyway, a friend lent me a 'v' phone to buy some time in our decision making process of possibly switching over to the dark side of the iPhone... We walk into the "V' store to customer service and "nice man who still has a customer service bone in his body" gave me a new phone to replace the old phone free of charge. Yay, Nice Man!

Only problem, my old phone was red. The replacement phone was only available in black, dark blue or light blue. No big deal...new color...fun. EXCEPT that I have to keep my old battery. Which is red. Awesome.

This is where the love story begins.

Chloe falls in love with the light blue phone. She insists.

I comply. Even though of my three choices, this will be the most ghetto-tastic.

She finds the ghetto look endearing and squirms with delight as she holds the phone close to her heart as we walk out of the store.

She wants to hold it ALL THE TIME.
She wants to listen to the ringtones CONSTANTLY.
She made a bed for it. Yep. Out of paper and tape. Pillow and everything.
She kisses it goodnight.
She wakes up thinking about it.

She. Is. In. LOVE.

Cleaning Hour

There is this strange thing that happens to me every night around 10:30 pm...well...almost every night.

Almost every night at this time I get this overwhelming urge to straighten up the house.

If you know me and have spent any amount of time in my house, you know that I am pretty far from being a neat-nick...but still at about 10:30 I begin cleaning.

I have a few theories.

1. It is entirely supernatural. God makes me clean.
2. I am really ready for bed, but feel guilty that the dishes are still dirty...or that load of laundry has not been run...or...'seriously! how many times can I step OVER those trains before I actually pick them up and put them where they belong!?!?!'
3. It is just my natural rhythm. Kids have been in bed for a couple hours...I have had a little down time...and now I am ready to go.

#3 is probably the forerunner...but #2 is a very close...uhh...second. Gonna go ahead and throw #1 out. :)

I have vague memories of doing this in college. My college roommates will probably argue that...pretty sure I was a slob then too...

Regardless...I guess it is a good thing to feel compelled to clean at least once a day!

Never Been Too Good at Math

It started out innocently enough...
We were rinsing the pollen...or annoying golden schmooze that makes us sneeze our heads off and makes our throats itch like crazy stuff...off of the rocking chairs.

I had actually planned on this being my job...
But as with most household chores, I make them look like so much fun that the littles want to join in on the fun...

Now...I have never been too good at math...and, yes, I know that sentence is not grammatically correct...I am making a point...

While I do know that 1 + 2 = 3, on this particular day...

garden hose + children did not automatically equate completely drenched children in my mind...

and yes...I now know that this is a lesson I most certainly learned in kindergarten...but for some reason...my math was waaaaay off on this day.

But how do you say no to these faces??

We just went with it...

and we. got. soaked.

From here on out:
garden hose + children = super happy. super soaked children.

Mommy and Me Tea

I was inducted into the 'Mom of a PreK Tea Group' today...and it totally ROCKED.

As I was getting ready this morning I was thanking the Lord for the privilege of being a Mommy and for the blessing of going to a Mommy and Me Tea.

Tears all around as we sat with our not-so-littles on our laps and looked at the books they had put together for us...bursting with pictures and art from the year...priceless.

Chloe's card to me was also super special...

The facts...according to Chloe:
My Mother is 21 years old.
My Mother likes to grocery shop and go to the Y.
My Mother's favorite food is chocolate mint ice cream.
My Mother is really good at cooking.
My Mother's favorite place to go is a Mexican restaurant.
I love it when my Mother and I read books and go to the library.

The girl knows her Mama. Minus the grocery shopping part...

And she knows when it is best to flatter/lie...21?!?!?

YES!!!!! (with hand motion...right hand fisted and pulling down...)

Dinner and Bagpipes

So tonight was Date Night...headed down to our little haunt for some yummy Italian food...which turned out to be not-so-yummy...but we were serenaded by bagpipers in the amphitheater across the street.

Lovely. Lovely. Lovely.

Following dinner we strolled through the park a little and then sat on a stone wall with his head in my lap and talked about everything and talked about nothing. Sweet perfection.

All the while the bagpipes were playing...

Made us miss Scotland...made us so grateful to have been there together.

Oh, and Kevin is thinking about taking bagpipe lessons...seriously googling it right now...how quirky and random and fun is THAT!?

Carly the Snail

This morning Kev came home from his morning ritual of torture aka 'spin class', to find our long lost friend Carly. She's a snail.

She visited us this time last year and she and Chloe were fast friends. So much so, that Little Miss wanted to bring her inside and make a home for her and yadda...yadda...yadda...basically, sure death for little Carly. When told that snails much prefer the out of doors and need to slither through puddles and slide down blades of grass...Chloe had a complete melt down. Several actually. Every time she remembered Carly she would cry and wail about how much she missed her.
Here we are a year later and feeling oh so blessed that she has slimed her way back onto our back porch!

But she didn't come alone...OH, NO!!! She brought a tiny little friend named, Lucy.
They are the cutest.

C loved how they tickled as they moved along the top of her hand and arm.
Apparently, if I want my nails done, Carly is the girl to call...she makes them 'shiny and pretty'.

More disappointment in having to leave the ladies outside, but Chloe was happy to think about them playing in the rain puddles and nibbling on whatever snails nibble on.

Welcome home, Carly and Lucy. Welcome home.

* UPDATE *

This afternoon...there was an all out APB in the backyard for Carly and Lucy...with out much to go on other than 'look in wet places' (it had been raining all day) we were a little unsure of where to look. I confess, I had stretched my 'looking for snails' muscles just a little too long, when Chloe finally found them. Under the porch with a new friend, Sandy.

Chloe put all three of them in a Tupperware with clover...and tissue...and tape...and water...and... She talked to them for well over an hour. Too cute.

By dinner time, I asked her to take the ladies back outside...which she did with out argument. (yay, C!) But at bedtime, she got a little teary about the possibility of them not being here tomorrow...so we said a prayer for them that they would be safe and HERE tomorrow...any added prayers would be appreciated. :)