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Monday, February 28, 2011

two year old paradise

You know how time can get this warp-like speed thing going on?  You think, wait, wasn't it just Christmas a couple weeks ago?  Well, I'm here to tell you my friends, that it was NOT just a couple weeks ago.  It is March tomorrow.  But we hadn't seen my brother and his family since before Christmas, even though they live a mere 1 1/2 hours away.  That's what happens when you have babies and toddlers, or in my brother's case, a 10 year old and a 16 year old!  So we planned a little get together this past weekend at a hotel down the road from them.  This hotel has a wonderful indoor pool, so it's a great way to beat the winter blahhhs.  What, a pool?  Well, sign my 2 year old up!


There was a lot of happiness going on in this pool.


 {Seriously, how cute is that bathing suit on Rowan?  Thank you, Millers!}





You may notice I am behind the camera in these shots.  And not in the pool.  In a bathing suit.  No way, jose.  I actually went looking for my bathing suit, and then realized I do not own one.  Uh, I guess I do, but it's a maternity suit somewhere in a bin of maternity clothes in the basement.  Better get on that before summer comes around.  Better get on a treadmill, too.

So after a very loooong swim in the pool.  We went back to my brother and sister-in-law's hotel room for pizza and cotton candy.  Yup, cotton candy!  In their cotton candy machine!  With flavors like pink lemonade and butterscotch!  Yum!  (Except for mango, which was so so yuck, sorry guys) 

Fletcher eating the "fruit" of Uncle Paul's labor
A good day catching up with family.  And whoa, the littles were exhausted and ready for b-e-d when we got home later that night.  Oh, and I think my nieces liked the hoodies I embroidered with their names just for funsies:

prettiest ladies around!



Friday, February 25, 2011

friday facts: how we wake up

Just a quick post today.  We've had a pretty basic week, much like the week before.  The absolute truth of being a stay at home mom is that the days are long but the years are short.  My baby is going to be 1 in less than 3 months, and the big boy will be 3 shortly after.  Not sure how this happened, when just yesterday I was in my 20's, sleeping in late on the weekends, shaving my legs, buying a dozen sparkly going-out shirts, and going out for dinner spontaneously with my husband.  But my kids are such a joyful addition to my life, especially when they wake up happy and look like this when I open the curtains:

{Sigh.  Isn't that a marvel?}


Fletcher used to wake up in a similar way.  Now when I open his curtains, he looks like this:


I like to think it's the sun shining in that makes him grimace like that.  But it just might be the fact that I'm singing to him, too.  Everyone is a critic.

p.s. Waiting on pins and needles to hear about a good friend who is in the hopital right now getting ready to have a baby!!!  Thinking about you, E!!



Wednesday, February 23, 2011

You Capture: Brought to you by the letter "L"

This week's You Capture theme is the letter "L."  Anything beginning with L.  I had a few favorites, so I'm gonna post more than one this week!  More bang for you buck here at My Trash and Treasure.  Well, more bang for your free viewership, but it just doesn't sound as nice.

Here's the first (and the reason I took my camera to IKEA) lamp light.  See what I did with the double "L" there?  Just checking:

And now onto my personal favorites, baby legs:

And lashes:


Next week is "Technology."  Hmmm.  I'll be spending the week trying to figure out how to get pictures of my kids involved in that theme.

Monday, February 21, 2011

clean-up on aisle 911

We had an interesting afternoon and evening here.  And when I say interesting, I mean really kind of crazy.  Plus we have bats in our attic, but let's not go there right now.  I'm really freaked out that one will get into the baby's room and bite her, but again, let's not go there.  Did you know they don't leave a mark when they bite?  Ok, focus, Ruthie.

So the other day we took a family trip to IKEA, which was pretty much awesome as is usual with IKEA.  The babysitting room was full, but no problem, because Fletcher likes the whole store, really.  We bought a few things along with the mattress we were there to buy, including some really cute lamps I had my eye on ever since a friend bought them with me on a previous trip.  I had assumed they used florescent bulbs, but when I got them home I realized they were some other kind of bulb that got superdy-duperdy hot hot hot.  Like I burned my finger hot.  And just the right size for a small hand to reach in and burn his or her fingers, too.  So back to the store they went, where I got the bigger version that DOES use the florescent bulbs, shown here beyond the original small burny hot one:


Yes, I took my camera into IKEA.  What, you don't?  Seriously, people looked at me weird, but whatever.  I'm practicing my craft.  Er, hobby.

Whoa, I've gotten off track.  So today we took the lamps back to exchange them, this time leaving the kiddos with the babysitter.  While sitting at a stoplight, we saw something really disturbing in the white Nissan in front of us.  The man was beating the woman next to him.  Like punching harrrrd.  And she was punching back somewhat, too.  And of course, Brian being Brian, throws the car into park and starts getting out of the car.  So I'm holding onto his arm with one hand and calling 911 with the other.  But my calls to 911 keep dropping, and my phone's not working.  Finally we call on Brian's phone and get through, telling them the details of who, when, where, etc.  Meanwhile we see the woman get out of the car and walk off.  We turn around and go back to see if she wants us to take her somewhere or wait with her until the police get there, but we cannot find her or the car she came out of.  So we go onto IKEA.  The cops keep calling my phone over and over, trying to find out if I'm alright since my calls were dropping.  I call them back and say, YES, I'm fine, stop calling.  So they call Brian and ask him what kind of car he drives.  What???  They are all shades of confused about what we called about before, so he explains all over again, and we think: the end. 

Thennnn, our babysitter calls, asking if we are OK.  Yes, we're fine...?  Okay, well, the police were asking about you... And so we assume they somehow looked up our home number and she talked to them over the phone.  But on the way home, I check my email on my phone, and find one from my neighbor asking if everything is ok, what with all the police cars in front of our house.  Wha???  When we got home, our babysitter told us the police came, asking where I was, asking to see in our garage.  And they were apparently not so nice to her.

Boo, police.  How did this get so messed up?  We gave the make, model, and license plate of the other car, and what do they do?  They take my phone number, look up my address, and come harass my babysitter because they thought I was the victim.  Meanwhile, they admit to me over the phone they have YET to visit the home of the Nissan owner.  Seriously?  Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the service of others, grateful for the policemen, firemen, military who risk their lives to keep us all safe.  But I really really hope that this is not the norm.

p.s. Brian will touch a burny hot light bulb if you ask him to test it after you burn your own finger on it.  But then he'll walk around IKEA holding ice and saying: Ow, ow, ow.  He's so pretty.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

You Capture

So part of playing around with my new photog hobby is going to include me participating in this loverly lady's weekly photography challenge, called You Capture.  I've been looking at her blog for a while now, envious of her enormous talent for not only photography, but for just being awesome in general.  And now I'm participating!  Yay!  So this week's challenge is WARMTH.  Very nice.  It's time for some warmth around here, and voila!  Here it is- 50 degrees here today, yahoo!!!  Here is my photo:


Warm bath, and oh, warm fuzzies looking at these two bottoms.  How cute is this?  I mean, this is so sweet I could go into a diabetic coma just looking at this.  What you don't see is them screaming at each other when Rowan tried to grab Fletcher's train.  But I'll choose to remember just this moment.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

reunited

Reunited with my blog!  I really missed blogging.  But I kept wondering what the heck to blog about.  So hang in there with me while I find my way again, cause I feel bloggy.  I really feel bloggy and like I'm overflowing with lots of interesting tidbits about my life.  Well, I may be playing fast and loose with the word "interesting" but, you know.  I'm trying to use a little of this creative energy I have returning to me now that my baby is getting older.  My 2 1/2 year old and 9 month old keep me busy, but I'm finding a little more time here and there to follow my bliss. Or, something less pukey sounding than that.  But that's the idea.  My littles make me happy, but I can always find more happiness in this world!

So for my first post, I'll share my Valentine's Day!  My husband is pretty awesome and takes really good care of us (and our country... he is in the ARMY).  So I wanted to do something special for him.  I found a yummy looking recipe involving two of his loves: brownies and oreos.  I found it here.  Basically it involves dipping oreos into brownie batter, throwing them in the oven, and then decorate them fancy-like.  Here is what they looked like out of the oven:
And then I put pretty red hearts on them so they'd look Valentiney.

And out of the oven, oh yum!  They were soft and gooey, and Fletcher ate 2 or 3 to help out.  We found out later that they harden to the consistency of coal.  Poor Brian.  I sent them off with him today to work with instructions to have his people warm them in a microwave for a few secs.  Perhaps I did something wrong, but the directions were pretty straightforward.  Sigh.

After helping out with the taste-testing, I made Fletcher a hotdog with a special side of ketchup for lunch.  His face says it all!  (And YES I also gave him some carrots and apples, and I give him nitrate-free hotdogs for all you judgy-judgersons out there)


Brian outdid himself and brought home 3 bouquets of flowers (including my fav- tulips!) cards, balloons and gifts for the kids, and chocolate for mama.  My 3 funny Valentines-


Anyhoo, I also made his favorite meal, steak the size of your head, and double baked potatoes.

And he likes it still mooooing.  Hey, this is true love when a vegetarian picks out a bloody steak for her carnivorous husband.  And then once the kiddos were tucked tightly to sleep, we ate and drank and were generally merry! 

 *burp*
Hope you all had a fabulous Valentine's Day.