Big Red.

Big Red was my mom's favorite gum when I was little. I used to like to take the wrapper, lick it then stick it to my forehead. (Don't make funny faces at me - you know you did it too)

Big Red is also that girl from "Bring It On". I love that movie. I know, I know, it's ridiculous. But, I love it anyway. Seriously - I always watch it when it comes on TBS. Mark and I watched another cheerleading movie last night. It's going on my favorite list too. It's "Fired Up". Laughing my booty off the whole time.

But the Big Red this post is about is.....

Is my new couch. It's huge, and comfy - and my butt can unflatten now that I don't have to sit on the hardwood floors. Yay.

Outside adventures.

I love being outdoors - I truly do. With a couple of exceptions. The humidity during the summer on the East coast is horrendous. Point-four seconds out of the door and you already have the "between the boob sweat". It's awful. But, sometimes the walls of my house start feeling like they're closing in on us. So the boys and I chug a couple liters of water in hopes we might stave off dehydration resulting from the copious amounts we'll inevitably sweat. Monday was one of those days. All I heard all day was "is it time to go pick daddy up yet?", "Mom, when are we going to go get daddy?". I was going bonkers. So, we did the ritual chugging of h2o and headed out to the neighborhood playground. It was fun - minus the boob sweat.

They were baking me a "diet cake". Apparently I need to lose some weight. Today - we will be at the pool. Oh thank goodness for kiddie pools.

Adventures in Ikea.

First let me tell you about the first part of my day. Which starts the night before... Mark and I got to bed at 10:30. We didn't have any extra cleaning, or organizing and he's on a two week break from school - so no homework. Seriously, a good nights sleep looked SO promising.

It happened. It was beautiful.

Then, I woke up and found PEE everywhere in Kieran's room. The kid can go the distance...
I made a mental note to visit Carters for some one-piece body suit jammies...

Then, we ate breakfast got dressed and ready to be productive humans.

First stop was the bank. The boys got spanish Elmo CD's... weird.

Next stop the Mall. Where I scored multiple jammie outfits, including a pirate one for my matey B-rox. They were both distinctly lacking their normal gimmies. It was divine.

Then home. Because the boys were le tired. I put them to bed sans any whining, crying or sass. It was joyful.

Then I had the not so joyful job of tracking down our couch that was suppposed to arrive last wednesday. Drop off is rescheduled for this wednesday. Cross your fingers people. My booty is getting mighty flat from sitting on the hardwood floors...

Then nap time was over and we went to the park before it was time to pick up daddy. I had to escape the incessant "is it time to go get daddy yet"s that had been happening since after nap. The park was hot...

Then we went and picked up Mark and headed to Ikea. It has been our oasis for furnishing our new home. We sold our old entertainment center and needed a new one. We also had to return some curtain panel runner thingydo's. So we did that then headed out in search of the perfect TV stand. After mucho debate between the husband and I, we settled on one. (Why the debate you ask? I wanted something high and long and he wanted something cheap.) Mark took down the Aisle number and Bin number and off we went. With those stupid- go -every -damn- direction- known -to -man -except- straight -ahead carts. We loaded the 139 lbs of TV stand onto another cart and proceeded through checkout. As I was grabbing the reciept I realized that we didn't check the color of the one we grabbed. We wanted white. We did not grab white. So, back to returns we went. Oi right? So, we get those returned and circle back around (yes, seriously... circle all the way back around the market place) to the self - serve furniture. A little searching on Mark's part and a quick question to an Ikea official on mine and we've found the proper place. AND it's 130 dollars cheaper than the black/brown one we had originally grabbed. Mark did a jig. Really - a jig in the middle of Ikea. We both walked away satisfied. Yay for Ikea. Now they just need to deliver our couch!

Seriously????

I love my boys - I really do. However sometimes they're a headache and a half. Take Kieran lately. He does this thing where he takes off his diaper if he doesn't think you're paying enough attention to him. He also takes it off at night. Last night was no exception. This morning I woke up and there was pee everywhere. Thanks kid.

We made a trip to the Carters outlet for some one-piece pajamas. Cross your fingers that this solves the problem. Because I know if I don't get it solved soon the problem will evolve into number two everywhere. I really just don't want to go there...

A day late and a dollar short.

No, I didn't blog yesterday about my wonderful, dear ol' pa. We had family coming down for dinner so we got up and went to the 9:30 am Mass. How shocked is everybody by that? Normally we're just peeling the mattress off of our backs at that time. We usually make it to church at about 5:30... Yeah - we're awesome like that.

Alright - Onto the daddy stuff. 'Cuz this man seriously rocks. Look at that butterball of a baby. Daddy I love you.

I love that you've figured out how to text. It's hilarious.

I love that you'll answer any home improvement/construction type questions I have.

I also love that you absolutely made sure I hate mornings. By banging things, flashing lights, and singing annoying songs at an hour that no teenager should see on the weekends. My kids will one day thank you for making sure their mom likes to sleep in.

I love that back in March '03 you drove like 90 mph on icey roads to the hospital to make sure I didn't die.

I love that you drove all the way down from P-town one day that my gas guage stopped working and I spluttered to a stop on some podunk exit off of I-5. Thanks.

I love that you taught me to change my own oil, replace hoses, etc. in my car - but forgot to teach me how to change a tire. (I had to google it one day...)

Most of all, I love that you didn't have to, but you made me yours.

You're pretty awesome dad. Thanks.

I can't have a father's day post without posting about this guy, too:

The man who is favored over me. Probably because he does fun stuff like video games - and I'm the one who tells them to turn it off.

He's an awesome dad. He totally deserves a day. Love you Captain Mark. Thanks for being an awesome person - so our boys can become awesome people too.

And now for the Last (but not least) dad on the list.

The man responsible for making the aforementioned husband the awesome man he is:

Thanks Rickey. Love you too!

Happy Father's Day. Hope it was a good one for all three of you.

So way awesome...

So, the boys rooms aren't completely finished yet - we still need to put up light fixtures, stars on kieran's ceiling and finish Braxton's treasure Map wall. Here's what's been done so far though. The pirate village. Argh ye matey's. We need something to fill in that big empty space. I'm thinking antique-y type map? Piratey type things...The Treasure Map wall. Not quite finished... Thank you Gramma and Grampa! Braxton LOVES his boat bed.
And Kieran's space room. It's freaking awesome yo. Wait 'til I get the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling.

Dilly Bars.

It's taken me a while to recover from my year of working in a Dairy Queen. However, a brownie batter blizzard broke me back in nicely. (Can you say alliteration?)

The boys had their first taste of Dairy Queen with Dilly Bars.

"Dewishess"
The reason we ate outside...

Mission: Pool

Accomplished!

Sunday we spent the afternoon at the pool. I definitely think we've waited too long to get to it.

Ok, so we were in the kiddie pool - and B-rox insisted that he wear his life vest...

And because Braxton was, Kieran had to, too.

Maybe it was a good thing.

(Don't worry - Mark was right in front of him. The next picture in fact has Mark's arms reaching in to pick him up. Like a split second later. No worries mates.)

This is where he hung out the rest of pool time. Thank goodness for nice, warm kiddie pools!

We will be frequenting often. Hopefully friends will Join us... (Jill and Joey and Jackson - I'm totally talking about you!)

Happy Birthday Mommy!!!

Today is Flag Day. It's also my mommy's birthday. I just called her. She wasn't home. Bummer.

Some of my favorite things about my mom:

1) She has this funny affliction to where she always closes her eyes, or contorts her face funny whenever the shutter goes off. (see the pictures above. Sorry mom...)

2) She has speech dyslexia (diagnosed by myself...). It has led to many a family joke gems such as "twirly squirts", "misterks" and so many others... Seriously.

3) She answers the phone. Like everday. Even if I call seven hundred times. She's cool like that.

4) She's going to call and be like WTF with those pictures? And I'm going to laugh. She will too. Which is great. She always always laughs.

5) My favoritest thing about her is she has ALWAYS, always, always, always, ALWAYS, been there for me. Thanks mom.

Love you mucho. Happy birthday.

Ants...

Bugs, for the most part, don't bother me. Unless they come in my house. Then they die. I'm not a catch and release kind of girl. Sorry. If you want to be in my house you must only have and use two legs.

Two weeks after we move in we have guests.

That is an ant bait trap thingy. I have about four hundred set along where they are coming in.

Oh, and this was taken on the SECOND floor of my house. These guys must be seriously hungry. Or, were, rather. They're dead now. *cue maniacal laughing muahahahahahaha*

And for a different kind of ant, this one is for you Aunt Bop. Braxton busted out "that's what she said" on the drive home today. I don't remember what it was in response to - I was driving after all - but it made me laugh and make a mental note to tell you about it anyway.

A painful lesson...

So - Mark and I are getting new furniture for our new digs. Pretty cool. We get to actually plan and paint and decorate a room. Not just a room, but all the rooms! So, we're getting rid of the old stuff. This morning we got rid of the desk for a nice sum of 50$. Honestly, we just want this stuff out of the garage. Plus, we don't like to schtick people. So, during naptime I listed our living room furniture set and entertainment center. Within twenty minutes I had two pings. One for each. The lady that wanted the furniture set wanted to know if she could barter to 150. Sure why not? (listed at 175) After several emails, we end up agreeing to renting a uhaul (in the ad I definitely said you haul!) and taking it up to her and her fiance this afternoon. Well, if they pay full listing price. 116 dollars and a completely wasted afternoon later, we've made about 60 bux. At least we didn't lose money...

When we say YOU HAUL, we mean YOU HAUL! (well, at least after this we do... sometimes we're too durn nice)

A little bit of Ketchup.

Nope, has nothing to do with the red stuff. I just felt like being a dork. Anyway...

There are moments when my kids don't think I'm very awesome. These are the pictures to prove it. Braxton was trying to put on a backpack (a task which I remember being very difficult at three) and was having a rough go of it. All I did was take pictures of the event... In my defense - he did refuse help. He kept telling me he could do it.

Even when it became apparent that he needed some assistance. After much frustration and sweat he put the bag down, looked at me and told me he was going to take a chiiw piw. (Chill pill). He fell asleep like that.

He was "helping" daddy tie down the first tier of stuff in the POD.

He's too stinkin' cute. Yeah, we still need a couch. Keep your fingers crossed for this weekend.