Oh, Nike...

...how you have the greatest slogan ever: So simple and so true. Please let me tell you the things I have "just done" today and how I should be their next spokesperson...

1. I signed up to take the entrance exam for nursing school, which takes place today at 5pm. This is the first step to the admission process, so instead of stressing about a hundred other things that will have to be decided when I start school, I figured I probably need to "just get accepted" first. Wish me luck!

2. Jas and I FINALLY took down our headboard and "just fixed" the damn support braces vs. the chair rail issue we have been griping about meaning to get to for the past 6 months.

3. I set up an appointment with a personal trainer at the Frisco Athletic Center. Sweet Jas agreed to give me some of our "free" money from our tax refund to invest back in to my health and mental well-being. I CAN'T WAIT! I "just signed up for 12 mini-sessions" so I can have some help to kick-start my way back out of this awful rut I have been in for the past 3 years. Whoa. That's a long time when its actually written down.

4. I made Luke go and lay down without giving in. For the past few weeks he has been talking me out of his nap, and I haven't been making him rest. We then hold our breath come 5 pm, not knowing if he's going to turn into Psycho-Exhausted-Toddler-Beast, or just go with the flow and yawn here and there. The suspense has been killing us, so today I "just made him go stay in his bed". He was asleep after 5 minutes, so he'll be sweet Bubs this evening. Yea!

5. I registered Jas and I for the Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University course. We are officially on our way to becoming debt free! I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be taking this class... Seriously. "Just thrilled!"

Gotta run! I have to "just go pick up Miss O from school"...

Morgan Jane Loves Kai-Lan

Seriously. This just happened. Kai-Lan came on, Morgan grabbed her bink, army-crawled over to the bean bag chair and layed down to watch... This is how Jas and Luke watch TV, which is why I think this is so funny.

But its so cute...

So, I finished something completely adorable the other day, and I think I have come to grips with the fact that I have a serious craft-addiction problem. I can't just leave well enough alone. I realized this as I was getting high from inhaling the Modge Podge fumes and specks of dust caused by distressed-initiated sanding. But I couldn't stop. I bought this precious little wooden step-stool today at Michael's with my coveted 40% coupon. I got it home and painted it with my new all time favorite color of blue, Martha's Vineyard. I freaked out anytime Luke went near it let it dry really well and then spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to come up with the perfect image to decoupage on the top of the step. Then while eating dinner and watching, My Dog Skip, it came to me: It had to be a Boston Terrier, like Luke's beloved Romo! I then spent about an hour scouring the Internet to find just the right vintage style image, as I knew I would be distressing the whole thing and it all needed to "flow". I took the cutest one I found and printed it out and decoupaged it to the top. Once the decoupage was dry, I then sanded the whole stool to make it look like some little boy had drug it around, roughing it all up some 60 years ago. Then I dry brushed white paint all over to add to the aged look even more. I waited for that to dry, and then sealed the whole thing- smiling all the while because I think it turned out so stinkin' cute. Twelve hours of work later and I just love, love, love it! It turned out exactly how I wanted it.

Too bad it is the step stool for Luke to use to get up on the potty and will probably be peed on in the next 24 hours. Sigh.

(notice that the bathmat is missing...wonder what happened there... my point exactly... :)

Reason # 876,249 that...

...I can't stand Barack Obama:

He makes fun of handicapped people now-"That part of the population"- he refered to them as in an "apology" he made for this flippant comment last night on Jay Leno. Jas and I actually caught this last night and I promptly made him turn it off.

Really Mr. President? On national television? And you think that by all of a sudden deciding that you want to invite some Special Olypians to come visit the White House, you are making everything okay. Why would they want to come see you? What are you going to say next?: " I have lots of handicapped friends."

Seriously. You are a real class act.

My Soundtrack

Jas bought me an iPod for my birthday. ("So you can use it to work out with!" Thanks, babe for that subtle hint...) And so I have been trying with all of my might to fill the damn thing- I have like, 900 songs on there, and the little line that tells you how much available space you have left hasn't budged. I feel like its challenging me to find every song I have ever loved and put it on there.

And can I please tell you what a trip down memory lane this search has been for me? Is there anything like a song to totally transport you to another time? C+C Music Factory makes me think of a boy I went to school with for all 12 years, who brought in their CD (the first CD I'd ever seen in my life, by the way) into our 6th grade science class on Free Music Friday... Nirvana takes me back to rocking out at the junior high dances and then later seeing them in concert (Here's to hoping that one day my kids will give me a few cool points for ALL of the bands I have seen in my life).... Great old school techno sends me back to smokey old warehouses in Deep Ellum, being a little raver kids in high school...I hear TuPac and I think of riding in Anna's convertible and driving to I-30 Bingo late one summer night after our Senior year- its amazing we are still alive after that adventure! Robert Earl Keen- literally, ever song- sends me back to college and every show we went to- whether it was a SXSW event or a tiny county fair in Bourne, Tx... Dave Matthews reminds me of sitting out the SipEp house one spring night, listening to their latest album before it was even released, with easily 100 other students - no one moving or saying a word, everybody taking it all in. "Before These Crowded Streets" is still one of my all time favorite albums, maybe because of that vivid memory... I hear James Taylor and I am transported back to teaching preschool in Austin- his greatest hits was always played quietly over the PA and my kids knew it was perfectly acceptable to get up and dance when "Mexico" came on- I know I did... When I lived with Alyshia, it was all about Ben Harper, oh- and The Scabs, which led to the cops being called to our apartment when we couldn't help dancing to them a little too late into the night-oops!...Gomez and Big Head Todd And The Monsters reminds me of living with Karly and Stacy in our precious little house, windows open on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, getting ready to go do something fun... As time has gone on and in a reverse sort of events, I actually have a hard time listening to any songs by The Shins because they remind me of a rocky time in our marriage (Which stinks, because I really like them...) Norah Jones reminds me of working at the Montessori school, Sade reminds me of bawling my eyes out at Cathy and Chi's first dance at their wedding ...Then there's Jack Johnson, who reminds me of being pregnant with Luke- Olivia and I wore out the Curious George soundtrack the months before he was born, and I swear to this day, Luke LOVES Jack for that reason...

It seems like lately, I've sort of fallen out of the music loop though. The only songs in constant rotation around her the "Super Dooper Pooper" anthem and the theme song to Go, Diego, Go... I've made an attempt to rekindle my love affair with music. I miss being "down"... I think not living in Austin where there is great music on every corner, removed me from things a little. So, I've signed up with Austin's KGSR website- they send me email newsletters to inform me of cool people I should be listening too, and I've become addicted to some of the Freshman picks suggested on mtvU.com... See: I'm trying...

I like having a soundtrack to my life, and really, I think so far its been a pretty good one. (We'll excuse the Aqua "Barbie Girl" CD from my senior year, I'm pretty sure I wasn't all there when it was purchased! But boy-howdy, is that a great song to rock out too...)

Anybody out there have a song that instantly takes them back to a specific time or place?...

Have Your Cake...

Jas was so surprised by his golf-themed birthday cake! It turned out great...so great that a certain four legged friend of ours decided that he, too, needed a piece- Or should I say, all of the icing off the back side!

(See him back there, acting all nonchalant, like he's just lookin' out the window, minding his own business...)

Damn dog! I guess that's what we get for leaving it on the table and not keeping a close eye on that guy...

Oh, well- that's 450,000 calories we didn't need anyway!

Happy Birthday...

For better or worse, through thick and thin,

you've been there by my side

sharing the laughter and the tears

through life's uncertain ride.
We don't know what the future has

in store for you and me

but this I know,

without a doubt:

The best is yet to be.

Wordless Wednesday

Somethings remain the same...

S to the T...

r-e-ss-ed!

That's me.

I feel like there are a million and one things going on around here, and I am doing my best not to let it get to me. But there has been so many events to keep up with, sick kids to be patient with, decisions to make, fighting over stupid things, crying over more stupid things, potty-training nightmares, a few fun times, many more blah times- you name it! As Kimba from A Soft Place To Land so perfectly put it: Witchy Wifey and Monster Mommy have been hanging out at our house these past couple of weeks... I hate when those two show up and cling to the door frame when I try to shove them out of the house. I feel like they just stick around and breathe down my neck and make me feel miserable about all that I have to do...

Tomorrow starts my teeth transformation- I went in wanting some pretty shiny veneers- and I came out needed 2 root canal re-dos and a million and one other things to be fixed by some specialist before my dentist will even speak to me. Fun, fun...Good times. I have a job interview on Tuesday morning, which I hope goes well and I'm not drooling all over the place from the previous day's dental adventure. I have to meet with my college advisor to see if any of the classes I took at UT will transfer so I can get into the nursing program sometime in the next 15 years. I have two 4-hour training sessions to finish writing, power-pointing and notebook-making in the next 2 weeks. We are house-hunting and driving all over north Texas trying to find the neighborhood we will live in from now until our precious children leave the nest. No stress there. What it all boils down to is we just want to get settled, and actually start our lives on a better track- one with more fun and less stress. Something along these lines:

Does such a life exist?

I know, I know... I just need to Get. Over. It. before my children quit hugging me and my husband quits speaking to me. I'm in a funk people. I feel like I need a big hug and a good shove to get this show on the road. (sigh)