Another Consumer Poll

Now that all of my paint drama is over, I have another poll for all of you. Washers and dryers. Hmmm. I remember a few years ago when a few of my friends were raving over their new high efficiency front loaders. At the time, I just saw how expensive they were and thought, A washer is a washer. What does a $1000 washer do that a $400 washer doesn't? You'll never find me buying one of those! But it never fails, I always end up eating my words and now that I'm in the market for a washer and dryer, I kind of want a high efficiency front loader. I haven't done any research on them yet--just seen all the commercials, but I thought while I do my own research I'd poll you guys again. What kind of washer and dryer to you have? Do you love them? Do you hate them? What do you recommend?

Silly

I love that my boys are silly. They both have a sense of humor which they got from their dad. This morning I captured Anderson being silly as can be. Despite the fact that his entire outfit in this picture is one that Carter wore when I was preggo with him, when I put shorts and t-shirts on him (happening more frequently right now, but I'm currently knocking on wood!), I'm reminded that yes, he is still in fact my baby. His chub (found on his feet, ankles, thighs, wrists etc.) is proof alone!

NBA Playoffs: Where _____ Happens.

Anyone who knows anything about my husband knows he has only one true love, besides me of course. Besides our boys, too. Ok, so there might be quite a few things that top this one true love I speak of, but that's besides the point. So, let me start again. Anyone who knows anything about my husband knows he is a die hard Lakers fan. He grew up watching the Lakers with his whole family--his mom even likes to watch which I think is fantastic--so he is no fair-weather fan. Winning or losing he loves his team. When we moved to LA, we were lucky enough to have friends who had season tickets so for the three years we lived there he attended quite a few games. (Me? not one!) This past December I wanted to get him tickets to the Denver Nuggets/Lakers game but he talked me out of it because of other holiday expenses. I shouldn't have listened, but I did and we just thought, we'll go next year. But then an amazing thing happened--and believe me, Marc was hoping for this the last few games of the regular season as he knew exactly which games every viable team had to win to make this amazing thing happen--Denver and LA sat at just the right spots to be playing each other in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Marc sat up until after midnight a few weeks ago to see the game schedule posted. (Am I painting a clear enough picture of his loyalty?) He decided we should definitely go; he'd never been to a playoff game before. Then he changed his mind but I convinced him we shouldn't pass this up--who knows when the Nuggets and the Lakers will ever play against each other in the playoffs again? So, we bought the tickets and secured my sister as babysitter. (Besides the one time she put Anderson to bed with out changing his diaper (just kidding you, Allison) she's the BEST babysitter in the world. The kids adore her!) Saturday. Game day. We drove to the first train station in Denver, then took the train to the Pepsi Center. I already felt a little out of place--we met a handful of Nuggets fans on our ride up. Marc was hoping that even though we were the only Lakers fans we saw on the train, there would be a decent Lakers following at the game, and when we got to our seats we found we were sandwiched between a pair of Lakers fans and a pair of Nuggets fans so I felt a bit more comfortable, except as the game drew on both sets got a little drunk and the banter became a bit ridiculous. Even though our seats were at the tip top of the stadium, the game was super fun and held my attention until the 4th quarter. Marc made me promise before the game that I'd shout "MVP" every time Kobe was at the free throw line--I kept my promise. It's really easy to cheer for a team that is clearly superior. I may have had a more difficult time if I'd had to cheer for the losing team. The train ride home wasn't quite as uncomfortable as the ride there because lets face it, the Nuggets and their fans had to walk away with their tails between their legs--they lost 102-84. YIKES! As I finish typing, Marc is keeping a close watch on the fourth game in the series as it winds down. Nuggets are down, but only by three and there are five more minutes left in the game. Let's go Lakers! (clap, clap, clappity clap)

PS-- If you (or your hubby) watch ESPN, you'll be able to fill in the blank from the title :)

oh mister sun, sun, mister golden sun, please shine down on me

As I've stated before, weather here in Colorado is a little weird. Back in March we had one day to break out the flip flops and then we were back to boots and coats for quite a while. Last week we experienced one day of almost 80 and sunny and the very next day it was literally blowing snow all around and Carter's school was cancelled. Seriously, it's April and definitely time for some serious sun! It must be the roller coaster weather patterns that have thrown me off because it's only when I look at the calendar that I realize it's almost May and we should have some consistent amount of sun soon. I am hoping that the bottle of sunblock can become a permanent fixture on my counter top instead of hiding in the boys' medicine cabinet. We did pull it out the other day, and as I slathered it on the boys' arms, ears, cheeks, and necks the smell of it took me back a few years to when Carter was one and we would take our weekly trip to Hurricane Harbor, the Six Flags water park that was only a twenty minute drive away. We had so much fun splashing, swimming and going down the kiddie slides. We'd play until we were both tuckered out, then I'd change Carter into some dry clothes, walk to the car and he'd sleep all the way home. I miss those days when we smelled of water and sunscreen. I've been seeing advertisements for season passes to the water park in Denver and I really want to get some, but this time, I'd have to pay for two plus drive at least an hour to get there. I wonder if it would be worth it. Maybe next time I have to pull the sunscreen out of the medicine cabinet I'll decide that yes, those memories or definitely worth the $120 + gas.

Linus

Nemo, newcomer of orange and white you have been called forth to the summit of Mt. Wannahockaloogie to join with us in the fraternal bonds of tankhood

I'm sure you have noticed there has really only been one thing going on in our lives lately--our house project. It has been sucking the energy out of all of us, the boys included. They've been so patient with the project, probably more patient than I have been, to be honest. Last Monday Marc called from work to see if we couldn't schedule a real Family Fun Night (as opposed to family time spent working on the house!) and go see Finding Nemo on Ice. What a fantastic idea! So, last night we took a break from the mundane and headed out to see the show. We got there early so we had plenty of time to listen to Carter beg and plead for the $10 cotton candy with a Nemo hat and the $10 snow cone in a Nemo cup and the $20 Nemo flashlights that the guys were walking around with. It was definitely a good night to set boundaries-- instead we walked off with a cheaper set of Nemo Go Fish playing cards which seemed fitting since Carter's been playing Go Fish with our normal set of cards lately. We also got a few treats and waited a while more before the show started. Besides the underwater mine explosion and the scary fish with the light, Carter thought the show was pretty great and Anderson wasn't phased by any of it. As a mom, I thought the whole thing was pretty magical, especially when I watched my children's eyes light up as they pointed, laughed and clapped. Unfortunately, in the last year, our children have become unaccustomed to staying up past bed time, so the ride home was a whiny one and getting pjs on pulled us into a full blown melt down by one of the boys. They say bedtime routines are great and yes, they are except when you want to skip it because it's two hours past bedtime. But even that didn't ruin the fun time we spent as a family.

Quote of the Day

Today during the passing of the Sacrament in church, Carter dripped a little bit of water down the front of his shirt and his pants, just a little, not a lot and much to his parents (I don't know who on earth they are?!) chagrin, he said, "ahh, that sucks!" I'm not sure anyone around us heard it but I certainly hope not.

Disclaimer I used to use that word a lot before I had kids. Now I hardly use it ever, but I do remember saying it yesterday. It only takes one time, friends. One time! And amazingly, the kiddo will use the word in the right context, too. They are true geniuses!

hey, wanna here the most annoying sound in the world?

At this stage in my life, (specifically, young mother of two) there is absolutely nothing more intolerable to me than hearing one of my children screech in anger or annoyance. I hear it innumerable times a day. In fact, I've heard Anderson screech three times since I began typing this post--it's been a minute thirty, tops. It seems Carter takes great delight in stealing toys or being a substitute Mommy. Anderson in turn lets out a high pitched and LOUD screech and immediately my blood pressure sky rockets. It makes me want to shout (and sometimes I do) "Guys, enough!" which if you can quote Dumb and Dumber in it's entirety like my hubby, you'd know that's exactly what the guy shouts to Lloyd and Harry because of their "no erasies fight" just previous to the quote above. Should I be counting the days until Anderson can express himself in words or will that maybe just exasperate the problem?

Word of the Day

NERDIS. Can you guess what Carter was trying to say? If you guessed nervous, you guessed right! Are you laughing like I was laughing?

The House Chronicles Part III

We have been hard at work and moving right along in getting our house ready to move into. It hasn't been without ups and downs, that is for sure. I'm feeling very accomplished today though so instead of writing during my Paint Melt Down last week, I thought I'd wait until I was feeling better and all was decided, and that just happens to be today, folks! So here goes:

When I last wrote about the house we thought all paint colors were chosen. We were oh so wrong! Marc and a friend of his got busy a few Saturdays and finished the 2nd floor paint. I walked in the house the next day and my heart sank. The supposedly beautiful creamy, neutral color that we had decided on for the stairway and hallway, the 2nd floor bath and the downstairs bath and laundry room became butter yellow on the walls. I panicked and I mean truly panicked. I'm not necessarily a yellow person and since the LR, boys room and 3rd bedroom were all in yellow tones, it seemed my whole house was yellow. We had already purchased $100 worth of that color and spent a few hours painting the walls so we had wasted the two things that elicit the most guilt for me--money and time. Oh the guilt! That just caused me to panic more but thankfully I have a dear, dear husband who wasn't worried about it at all. We were able to salvage one of the cans of paint by taking it back to Home Depot and having them toy around with it to make it close to the replacement color I chose. Then, last weekend Marc, my dad and I (mostly Marc and my dad) dug in our heels and repainted almost everything that the boys had done the weekend before. In a nutshell, choosing paint colors has been nothing but drama with a capital D for us, but a little trial a little error and a lot of stress never killed anyone. . .yet! I do have to say that even though I have been quite indecisive about the colors, I am now confident that I LOVE every color we've chosen. And I mean LOVE! Here's a list:

Beachwalk
Expedition Khaki
Cliff Rock
Gobi Desert
Harvest Brown
Shortgrass Prairie
Mississippi Mud?

As far as the other developments go, we've ordered our carpet, but haven't scheduled the installation yet. We've also hired my friend's hubby to do our baseboards and door casings but haven't purchased or painted them yet so we haven't scheduled that work either. However, it looks as if we should be ready for carpet and baseboard in 2 weeks. YEA!!! So it's about time for me to start thinking of the P word--packing. UGG!!!

The low light of today was this--when Marc came to the house this afternoon to help me finish the 2nd coats on everything we painted Saturday he found the back 1/2 of the rabbit we had discovered was living in our yard. On Saturday he got caught in one of our window wells so before we locked up we built him a ramp by propping some baseboards down in the well. He obviously made his way out of the window well but unfortunately found his way into the mouth of a predator. It was horrible to see his little white tail and hind legs sticking out of the grass today. I almost cried but Marc told me to pull it together otherwise Carter would have definitely lost it--he feeds off of our emotions quite a bit.

In other news, Anderson has learned to say "Amen" after prayers! It's his fifth word!