Life At The Circus

I think everyone should be so lucky as to be married to an engineer. While it is true that purchasing large or technical products such as televisions, cameras, or computers will take longer as we'll he'll have to research the various brands, settings, options and figure out which one is the best price and has the best features for us, when any of those things breaks he is not afraid to open them up and fix them (and since he spend a larger portion of his childhood taking a part such items he actually knows what he is looking at and how to fix it).   Last week when we had our phone fiasco he was able to open the phone up and work on the motherboard and fix it.  For a few days we had to deal with no ringer (I wouldn't know that someone was calling my house until I heard my answering machine pick up at which point I'd have to quickly make a dash for the phone) but last night he got out his soldering iron and within 10 minutes the ringer was working!   Isn't that so...

Recently my 2 year old daughter has decided that a good way to pass time in the car is to scream really loudly. It's also a really good way to annoy her older brother. Typically we start driving down the road and she starts making some annoyingly loud noise and then 2 second after she starts, my son starts screaming, "Yell A Little Bit Quieter" followed by, "Mom, she's not yelling a little bit quieter," over and over. Not long after this the baby starts mimicking the noises she hears and, well, it gets quite loud. Typically, I just tune it out and keep on driving for at least several minutes before asking them all to quiet down. I can actually go several minutes with this chaotic noise in the background before I realize how loud it is. Here is a 30 second clip of this circus act. Listen and tell me what it reminds you of. It reminded me of the scene in Dumber and Dumber when he asks the hitchhiker if he wants to hear "the most annoying sound i...

...your son won't sit on your lap because your legs are "too spiky." My four year old son told me yesterday that my legs "are prickly like a cactus." You better believe I made sure to get up early enough to shave my legs before leaving for church this morning. They are silky smooth now (a fact that my son and my husband are both glad about).

This week I wrote about my daughter's hang up call to the local police station. We have no idea how long we were "on the air" before she hung up. I immediately started thinking, "What did they hear during that time?" Thankfully It wasn't one of those meltdown moments when everyone was whining and crying, but what exactly did we say? I remember the day we discovered that our baby monitor could pick up the signal of our neighbor's baby monitor. We immediately changed it so as not to eavesdrop but we also became very concerned that the system would do the same thing in the other direction. After that discovery we became very good about unplugging the monitor when we weren't using it. I didn't like the idea of my neighbor being able to hear everything that is said and done in our house. This is of course a reasonable concern since hearing only gives part of the story (consider the sounds while disciplining a two year old). But, there is s...

My sweet sister in law, Jessie , tagged me with this "Share the Love" award in which you tag the blogs of people whose blogs you enjoy reading. The rules are to tag bloggers who make your day, make you laugh and smile, and/or leave uplifting comments on your blog. You then include a link to this post , and ask each person you tag to do the same! Soooo, time to share the love my friends! Hmmm, well the blogs I read daily, that make my day are typically other stay at home mommies who find humor in what many might consider the mundane. I feel like many of you are kindred spirits and if we lived in the same town, I am certain we'd be friends. Some of you I know in real life, like Sarah - mom of three boys, and Megan mother of two, both of whom I know from college, 2 different colleges, mind you. Others of you I only met in bloggyland, but I consider you friends as I read about your love for your Lord, your husband, and your children. There's my friend Monica wh...

I was shopping at BJ's the other day with the kids when we passed the jewelry counter. My son asked, "Why is there jewelry at BJ's?" I responded, "So people can buy it." He then said, "Yea... I guess if they were getting married and didn't have a ring they could come here." Hmmm.... clearly this Mommy doesn't wear much jewelry, since my son thinks wedding rings are the only kind of jewelry one wears. It's not that I don't appreciate jewelry. I do . But my morning routine is typically a race. I put the baby down for her morning nap and the "big kids" get to watch one show from our TiVo while I take my shower. I'm racing the clock to get showered and dressed because once the show ends they wonder down the hall and my time is up. I'm happy to shave my legs and put on deodorant, let alone "accessorize"... How about you? Do you wear jewelry everyday or just on special occasions?

Its Thursday again and time for me to go into that box in the closet under the stairs and find another picture that didn't make it into a photo album . I found a classic that is truly timely. This is a picture of me opening gifts on my 13th birthday (I think, might be 12). Can't tell what I am unwrapping, but my brother behind me is definitely interested. Like my dangling shell earrings? How about those bangs? They were a work of art don't you think? There was something else of note about my 13th birthday. It was the year that I got my first phone for my room. Yep, it was a memorable moment - I was a teenager and yes I was the stereotypical type that monopolized the phone all day long. I guess you could say it was a coming of age of sorts. Here is another picture I have and this one shows the phone. Wow, to think of the hours I have logged on that phone. The girlfriends and boyfriends I spent hours talking to (and my brother will tell you they were always, "...

I just couldn't resist sharing these pics from our recent trip to the beach. For more Wordless Wednesday's, visit 5 Minutes for Mom .

When my oldest daughter was born my son wanted to get her this musical turtle he saw at Target for her crib. Every time we went to Target he would push the buttons to make it play music and he would ask if he could get it for his sister. We didn't think it was necessary. He was still insistent about it when our third child was born so we decided to let him get it for his sister for Christmas. He was right, we were wrong. She loved it instantly. She'd play with it when she woke up or as she was falling asleep. I always played a cd of lullaby music for my other two kids as they fell asleep. This can sometimes be a pain when we are away from home, especially camping , and we don't have access to a cd player. With the baby we lay her down in her crib, push play on Mr Turtle, and it plays a little song for approx 15-20 seconds. If she wants more music she hits it once or twice more. It is portable, so we have brought it with us camping or on other over night trips. It...

Kids like buttons. At least ours do. Our son was the first addict. We could keep him happy quiet for long periods of time by giving him the TV remote (with the TV off) and letting him just pound away. Him being the first, we were always careful when he got the phone. Wouldn't want him to call someone unintentionally and have someone listening to uncensored Life at the Circus. He never really called anyone though, because life with one isn't quite a circus, he just hit buttons. Naturally, when it came to baby number two we got a little more lax with the phone. Our daughter was a less enamored by the buttons, but she knew that the shiny one in the center made it light up and bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. We'd just periodically hit the off button. By child number three, we are quite a bit more lax. We'd just give her the phone and go back to our business. It's not like she's really going to call someone anyway, right? Thursday morning we received a call from the police. ...

Isn't this a great picture? It's just a down to earth action shot of us all eating dinner. It's me and my one, two, three, four?, five?.... wait a minute, that's too many. Your right, I only have three kids but we gained two new members to our circus cast this weekend as we watched the children of our very good friends while they went away for their anniversary. I got to experience life with 5 under 4 for a day and overnight! It was a ton of fun. There was one moment when I had everyone melting down at once, but I have moments like that with 3 and it was only a moment. It's really true what they say, once you get used to having 3, adding more isn't that much different. You (and your kids) are already accustomed to the fact that you can't meet everyone's needs immediately. Also, having friends for the kids to play with actually makes things easier in many ways rather than harder. I will say I had way more poopy diapers than I am used to. In addi...

You know I've complained before about having nothing to eat. I posted a picture of my fridge and said it was "the end of the world as we know it." But the truth is, I know nothing about going hungry. When I look at my fridge and complain about making dinner, there are millions of mothers who would look at the contents and shout with joy. I can't even begin to imagine the heartache of watching my baby go hungry. Watching my children suffer as they literally waste away, while I am helpless to do anything is something beyond my comprehension. If my kids go to bed hungry, it is because they decided the food I prepared for them wasn't to their liking. Millions of children in the world are going to bed hungry tonight. According to the Compassion International website , "The higher prices are forcing people who survive on just $1 a day to spend upwards of 80 percent of their budgets just on food." I'm sure we've all noticed and felt the toll the ...

My son really took an interest in golfing this weekend while watching my husband follow the U.S. Open. My husband rarely golfs but does have a set of clubs and after very persistent requests, my husband let my son use his clubs in the back yard. He taught him the different types of clubs (drivers, putters, irons) and when they are used. My son had a blast hitting the ball with the putter (which was almost as long as him) in the back yard and then running over to putt it into the pretend hole (between my husband's legs). At one point he really started just randomly swinging at the ball and not really being intentional about it so Scott slowed him down and said,  "you really need to focus on the ball before you swing". Here is a clip of what my son did as a result. I had a hard time not laughing while taking this video clip. Note the intensity my son displays. That boy makes me laugh. Besides playing very focused golf, my son is also quite the critic.  While watchi...

Our pastor has been talking a lot lately about being transparent. As a Christian I too often present the world with a false squeaky clean image that gives the appearance that I think am perfect. Of course, everyone knows that no one is perfect so, when they see me ACTING perfect they know it is a false charade. What kind of credibility does that bring? No, I am far from perfect. I fall short of God's standard every day and it is only by God's grace that the consequences for those shortcomings have been paid by someone else - Jesus. Grace is a gift and no charade of perfection will do anything to justify this gift. As a Christian I do strive for holiness but I do it as a way of saying thank you to the God who loves me. NOT in an attempt to earn his love. Why do I say all this now? Because this blog (and particularly this post) is a way in which I try to keep things very real and transparent. Far from perfect, I could never even achieve the worldly standard of the ideal home...

My Sincerely Fro Me to You post this week doesn't go back quite as far as my others... it's actually not even a month old. We went on multi family camping trip. There were 8 kids 4 and under between the 3 families. Friday night we had a blast. The kids enjoyed playing with tent poles in the dirt while we set up camp. Then they went looking for sticks to roast their marshmallows. We woke Saturday morning at around 4 am. Believe it or not, we got more sleep than we had expected with 3 kids in our tent and 2 kid filled tents nearby. By 5:30 we ventured out of our tent when we heard our friend's kids talking. By 7 am we were all up eating pancakes with kids running circles around the tents. And then the rain came... Why is it that ALL of my memories of camping growing up involve rain? It seems they go hand in hand. And yet, I love camping and continue to go back. It is hard to explain. We expected to get wet. But this wasn't just wet. This was hours of torren...

I mentioned here , that I started running this summer. I am following a training schedule to help me reach my goal but it keeps changing the distance that I must run each day. Instead of guestimating (surely it's been a mile by now) or driving the route with the car (like I really feel like loading the kids another time) to try to calculate the distance, my wonderful husband, the engineer , found me an online application made using google maps that is a HUGE help! I simply go to google pedometer and type in the starting address and trace out on the map the path I want to run and it calculates the distance for me (along with calories burned). I do all my running on roads but if you wanted to you can switch to satellite view and trace out your path through the woods or city park. My husband told me it could even overlay a topographical map but that was beyond my interest level. Today, I had to run 3 miles to stick with my schedule, and I was able to type in my address and plan...

I was cooking dinner last week, when the kids called out from the toy box, "Mom, don't you want to get us out and play with us?" For More Wordless Wednesdays, check out 5 Minutes for Mom . To learn more about me, check out my 100th post!

It’s my 100 th post, so I thought I’d post a hundred things about myself… I love the smell of play dough. I like to have a night light on in our room at night. When I am baking cookies I tend to eat at least half of the dough. I hate vanilla ice cream. I also don’t like cake, especially chocolate cake. So, you don’t think I am crazy, I do have a weakness for ice cream, especially hand scooped, particularly chocolate peanut butter. I am a COKE girl all the way, and not matter how badly I am craving a soda will drink water if the restaurant only sells Pepsi. I detest Diet Coke and would rather drink less Coke, less often, and get the real thing. I was a huge fan of the TV show Alias when it was on and would actually have dreams where I was Jennifer Garner and could go out and whip up on terrorists. If you actually knew me you would think that was funny b/c I am a big fraidy cat. Still i...

The other morning I came around the corner to find my 4 year old son unscrewing the screw from the switch plate of our light. He had gotten his chair, pulled it up to the light switch, found the right size Phillips screw driver, and had gotten the screw mostly off. I noticed he had been quiet for awhile when I peeked around the corner to check on him and saw this. He wanted to see what electricity looked like. Of course I told him to NEVER, NEVER, EVER, take off light switch plates or outlet plates, EVER, EVER. This event horrified me. This was no kidding dangerous. I praise God he did not get farther then he did. Just last week I said he was smart enough to get himself in trouble someday and this was almost that day. He asked a lot of questions during the power outage and apparently learned a lot. I couldn't help but think of the Dilbert comic my husband, the engineer, had forwarded home from work before. Looks, like he too might have the knack.... Looking for more laughs...

I love my children immensely and would do anything for them. When my children disobey, I do not love them any less. My love for them is not based on whether or not they behave in the store or if they place nicely with each other. I have loved my children since before they were born and the moment I held them for the first time that love multiplied and has grown daily. When my children behave as expected and treat each other with kindness, it brings me great joy. It brings a smile to my face, it blesses my heart and endears them to me. But, I do not love them more because of it. Realizing this as a parent has given me a new appreciation for how our Heavenly Father feels towards His children, only He does it perfectly. Because of Jesus' death on the cross, when He looks at me , He looks at me like He looks at His perfect Son. His love for me is not based on how good or bad I am . When I act selfishly to my husband and children, when I fail to put God first in my li...

Last week I registered for a 10 mile run at the end of August. For over a year now I've been wanting to do this. I ran a 5K for the first time when my son was a year old. I ran two more when my 2 year old was 6 mths old. Until last Tuesday, I hadn't run since. I waited through one of the mildest winter and spring seasons I've seen here and decided to start running during the week of record breaking heat. Yup, I'm a smart cookie. I am following Hal Higdon's guide to training for a 15K. If I stick with the program, I'll be all set in time for my race, with even 2 weeks to spare. Good thing I had those cushions worked in there because last week I went strong on Mon and Tues and then when the power went out on Wed, I kinda got off track. I used the excuse that I didn't want to excercise if I couldn't shower afterwards. It made sense until Friday when the power came back on and I still didn't go running. So Monday, I was back to trying out week...

For as long as I can remember my Dad and I have bonded over sports. While most kids were getting quizzed on states and capitals, we'd play a game where he'd say a city and I'd have to name the baseball and or football team from that city. I loved this game! As evidenced here, he raised me as a Steelers fan since I was an infant. When I moved to MD he would tape the games not televised here and mail them to me so my husband and I could watch them mid week. We try to watch at least a few games together every season and typically talk on the phone at some point during every game. It's not all about sports though, I have been truly blessed to have a Dad who cares about his family. He always made his family a priority and was there for us. He worked long hours to provide for us. He took time out of his work day to watch my band competitions , come to my lacrosse games (even when I sat the bench for the entire game), and he drove my brother and I to and from school. ...

In honor of Father's Day this week, I thought I'd use one of my favorite Daddy pics of my hubby as my Wordless Wednesday. Check out 5 Minutes for Mom for more Wordless Wednesdays.

"Ew, gross!" "I don't like it!" How many of you have had this response after working hard to prepare a new dish for you family? It can be quite frustrating especially if you know they'll like it b/c they like every single one of the ingredients in it or worse yet, they devoured it the last time you made it and now won't even try it. My husband and I have always insisted the our kids at least try a bite of whatever it is we're eating. This hasn't always gone without a bit of protesting though. This December my husband's cousin was in town and he told us about the "No Thank You Bite" that they use at their house. It plays out like this... You put dinner on the table and the child says they don't like it. You respond, "That's fine, you need to take a No Thank You bite and after eating it you can politely say, No thank you I don't want any more OR if you like it, you may have more." The kids now know that e...

When asked what it was like to get the power back on Friday, I replied " A lot of work." After throwing away the spoiled food inside of my fridge and freezer, this is what I faced. After an hour of scrubbing... Here are a few tips I learned from the cleaning process. If your power goes out and everything in your fridge spoils, clean out the freezer BEFORE the power comes back on and all the melted stuff in your freezer refreezes. When you pour hot water in the freezer to melt the ice, don't just dump an entire glass full of hot water into the freezer. Instead, just slowly pour what you need to melt the ice (because you will have to wipe out all of that water before it freezes). When cleaning out the freezer door be careful and don't let your baby daughter sit under you, because everything you wipe out will drop in the crack of the door and onto your poor baby girl (thus lea ving you to give her a bath AND mop the floor after you finish with the freezer. This...

I love my son's imagination! He is at age where I wish I could just freeze time.  He cracks us with his antics these days.  Check out last week's comedy routines. My son was playing on the deck when I suddenly heard him say, "Help Mom, I'm stuck."  I turned around to see this. As I got him out of the basketball net, I asked him what on earth he was doing?  This looked like more than a slam dunk go awry.  He told me he was pretending to be a bug stuck in a web.  Of course, why didn't I think of that? On another afternoon he took the spinning top hat off of this little M&M guy he had received for Christmas and put it on his nose announcing that he was now an airplane. Pretty good don't you think? He  totally cracked himself up on this one.  I asked him to go get dressed and as he came down the hall I could hear him giggling (I LOVE that sound). He may not be headed for stand up quite yet, but he definitely knows how to make himself and his family laugh. ...

*Updated with posts below to people willing to contribute to Weekend Thoughts!* Psalm 100:4 "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name." I often take things for granted and then when something happens and they don't go as usual, I feel a sense of entitlement and am quite put out. I was listening to the Christian radio station today and someone was talking about a ministry ( Blood Water Mission ) they work for which helps provide clean water to people in Third World countries. He said, "Where you are born should not determine whether or not you have clean drinking water. " This really made me pause. The events of this week helped me realize that I fail to thank God for... clean water flushing toilets being able to wash my hands after changing a diaper clean dishes an empty dishwasher night lights indoor plumbing rolling over in the middle of the night and knowing what time it is fans ...

It was a big day for me. I know your thinking, yes, we know already , you got your power back. And yes I did, but that is not what I am referring to. I pulled into the parking lot of Target (which is 20 min away) with all 3 kids, at 8:30 AM. If you have kids, you recognize the monumental occasion this is. Wanna know the secret to my record breaking time? Literally, the kids woke up and we stuck them in the car as is. Since we were without power and my 2 year old needed an asthma treatment, I had taken her to the car to give her the nebulizer while my husband got ready for work. He showed up at the end with the other two kids because he was going to head out. He was not intending them to go anywhere. I mentioned that I wanted to run errands, (I had been thinking later on in the morning) but since they were all there at the car (and as you may know that is half the battle) I seized the day and decided to leave then. No shower for me (48+ hours and counting...)  I ran inside to q...

As my husband mentioned here , we lost power this week. The first thing I did when the power came back on? Brush my teeth? No Shower? No Go to the bathroom? No I posted this on the internet so "the world" could know we are back. Aren't you glad to know I've got my priorities right? It's been a fun few days around here. Really, it could have been so much worse. With the windows opened, it wasn't that hot. (It the evening after the sun went down and the windows were opened, our hall thermostat read 80 degrees)! We have a gas stove, and a gas grill, so my husband grilled burgers on the first night and I made quesidillas on the second night. I told my kids it was like we were camping (only our beds are more comfortable) My husband pointed out to me later, that at least when we are camping we can have access to water to wash our dishes and flush our toilets and at most camp grounds you can even take a hot shower. (Hmmm, good point... we have a well so w...

After 44 hours with no electricity and thus no running water, phone, or internet, I am happy to report, that we are back in action!  WAHOO!!!!   I have lots to post on our adventures over the past few days, but right now I have toilets to flush and hands to wash... but I am working on getting the kids down for their nap and then you better believe I'll be online.  :-) As we pulled into the driveway and saw the lights on in our house my kids exclaimed, "Power!  WAHOO!  No more camping, now our clock in our bedroom works!"  Yes, it really is the little things we miss, isn't it?

We lost power at about 4pm on Wednesday. Losing power really wouldn't be so bad if it didn’t mean that I had to loose water too. It makes you realize how often you run to the sink to clean up messes the kids leave in their wake. the kids have been handling it really well. I told my son that the electricity was out and about a hour later the following discussion took place. Son: "Mom, I can stick my finger in here now!’ (He's pointing at an electrical socket) Mom: "NO! son, you can never stick your finger in there. That is very dangerous." Son: "But mom, you said the electricity was out so there's no electricity in the wall - right?" Wow. I tell you. For being 4 years old that kid is smart enough to get himself in a bunch of trouble someday. Wish me luck.

I thought I’d post a picture from my honeymoon since 7 years ago today I was in St Lucia with my hubby. Being married to Scott has been a grand adventure. He’s taken me lower and higher than I thought I’d ever go. Whether it’s exploring the world below sea level, or hiking along a glacier, he’s pushed me to do things I’d never have thought of doing on my own. He’s patiently held my hand and been kind during my panic attacks, allowing me to see and experience some of the most breath taking portraits of God’s creation. Here we are scuba diving on our honeymoon. To this date, this is the most adventurous thing I’ve ever done. My husband has his scuba license. I had never even been snorkeling. My husband suggested we sign up for the scuba session offered at our resort. I was rather apprehensive. He encouraged me to sign up and stressed that at any point if I wanted to drop out, we could no questions asked. We signed up on Monday for the class on Friday. This first part of the class is in a...

Traveling for 5 hours in a minivan with 3 young children and one dog sounds like a kicking good time, doesn't it? Since my parents live a little over 5 hrs from us, we've gotten quite adjusted to the trip. And surprisingly, it isn't that bad. We've had our bad trips (like the time my son got the stomach flu the morning we were heading back home and puked every 30 min the entire way home), but overall we've found the key to happiness is letting the kids entertain themselves. On our last trip my kids amused themselves in a variety of ways. Dancing! Crank up the radio and let everyone, dance, dance, dance !!! I Spy (Preschool Version: someone says, I spy a bus or I spy a green sign and everyone else shouts when they find it). Race Car Races: My son and my husband pretend to be driving race cars (complete with the sound effects) FYI: my son won, b/c Daddy backed in (aka parking upside down) making my son closest to the front door. More Pretend Play: Here's my d...