Look at me, I'm big like them.

It was decent weather today, minus the crazy wind, so I let the kids play in the front yard for a while. Macy watched the kids ride their bikes for a few minutes and then saw the little tricycle and got really excited.

The wind pushed her around for a little while, but then she resorted to just pushing it herself.

Could it get any worse?

The only dinner I ate tonight was the kid's left over ramen noodles straight from the pan. At 9:00 my stomach was kind enough to remind me that I was in need of sustenance so I ate a bowl of cereal. Not the healthy kind though, I had fruit loops. And, not just your regular sugar shocked fruit loops either, I had fruit loops with marshmallows. Did you even know they make those?

Yikes!

I wish I could say that tomorrow will be better, but I just don't love whole wheat and spinach. I know I'm a disappointment to my mother but I just can't help it. Pizza and chocolate is where it's at!

New, old, and new but old

New: Aqua waters on the isles of Mikonos. Roughly translated as I bought blue fingernail polish. I'm usually just a hot pink kind of girl. Occasionally I go red or do a french polish, but I couldn't stop looking at this blue color so I had to buy it. I even got really crazy and put it on my fingers. Although I did blend in with the young women on Wed. night I don't think I will make blue fingernails a habit. I am loving it on my toes though. Now I just need a tan.

Old: Oh, just this annoying pain in my right hip that won't go away.

New but old: 1) On Wed. night one of our young women and her mom brought me a surprise. I do her mom's hair pretty frequently and she knows that I am learning to sew and last time she was over I still didn't have my own sewing machine yet. And, on their way to the church they past what looked like a sewing machine case that had a sign on it saying "free. Still works." So, they turned around a picked it up for me. How sweet is that?! So, even though I actually did break down and buy a sewing machine not too long ago I am totally keeping this one.

2) I found a beautiful pink skirt at Good will the other day that I was honestly hoping was my size, but it was a large children's skirt that had been misplaced. It was so pretty though and only $4.99 that I had to bring it home for something. At first I was just going to try and take it in for Samm to wear, but then I had a vision in my head of a dress that I wanted to make for Macy. I finished it a couple days ago, but when I had Macy try it on I died laughing. Since I didn't have a pattern I was making it up as I went, and the sleeves ended up looking like something from Star trek. I wasn't going to post pictures until I fixed it, but it's good to laugh at ourselves every once in a while so I'll let you all laugh a long with me. And if your wondering why her mouth is purple, it's because she had just eaten a purple marker.

Stuff that didn't make the cut

I turned on my camera today and realized I had a bunch of pictures that I planned on blogging but never did. So here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

These are my sleeping beauties...apparently I'm the only one who suffers from insomnia.

One of Macy's favorite things to do is pound on my keyboard. She usually just stands next to it, but I let her sit on the stool finally and now she runs to it all the time wanting to get up.

This past week was spring break and unfortunately we didn't leave the house much. We did go to the zoo though one day with my sister-in-law Kory and her kids.

After the zoo all the cousins came over to jump on the trampoline with the sprinkler. That only lasted for a little while though because they decided the mud puddle next to the trampoline was a lot more fun.

And Macy chowed down on strawberries the whole time. Good thing her shirt was only $4 at Target. This is also the only picture I have of her poor little bandaged up hand, which is now healing up nicely and no longer requires the bandage.

And after a whole week of playing at home with half the neighborhood over every day our backyard was a disaster. On Saturday I made them go out side and clean it up and I was shocked at how much stuff was out there. I made them pose for a picture and make sad faces because mom was not happy about the mess!

PS. Do you like Samm's outfit? Those are actually Macy's pajama bottoms she is wearing as leggings!

PPS. If you want to see the pictures that were a nightmare to take go here and enter the customer name Sally Rollins

My name isn't Mom any more!

Have you ever thought/wanted/said those words? If you haven't it's only because you have not yet experienced the skin crawling feeling of two or three or maybe even more children all saying your name at the same time over and over and over.

I know I'm not the only one because my Mom informed us many times that she was no longer the Mom.

So, as I was standing in line at Target today, my thread of patience already very thin from trying to get all three kids to sit still and smile for their pictures which was nearly impossible, I had Samm and James both tapping me on each leg and Macy shouting to get my attention.

What I really wanted to do was start screaming at the top of my lungs, but heaven forbid all the complete strangers standing next to me find out I'm the kind of mom that yells. So instead I made an executive decision.

"My name is not mom anymore" I said. "from now on, you may call me Your Majesty!"

Happy Birthday R.S.

We had our annual relief society birthday dinner tonight and somehow I got roped into decorating a table. I guess that's what happens when your friend is in charge. Actually, I really didn't mind at all. It was fun.

I really didn't have any idea what my theme was going to be but Martha Stewart came through for me. If you get her magazine, you will recognize the eggs in my centerpiece. I also don't own any nice place settings, but my mother-in-law was nice enough to lend me some. She was also nice enough to come even though she didn't want to, because I was worried that no one was going to sit at my table. Thanks Betty!

My pictures aren't great, but Betty said that Martha would be proud.

There is sunshine in my soul today

With a little bit of glitter and mud mixed in, but it is still beautiful sunshine.

I love spring! I love how giddy everyone is to see the sun. Myself included.

The sun heals my cramped inside a house all winter with kids soul.

Thank you beautiful sun!

slowly but surely

The sewing is coming along.

I finally finished a dress for Samm and have vowed to never make anything with a zipper ever again. OK, I don't really mean that since Samm's Halloween costume will require a zipper but you get what I mean. It was not a fun experience.

It actually turned out pretty cute even with the finagling I had to do.

Don't you just love her pose?!!

Spring piggies

Spring has been teasing me and I really don't appreciate it.

Monday was 80 degrees.

Tuesday was 45 degrees.

You just can't play with my emotions like that!

So, in an effort to cheer myself up and to make sure I'm ready for when the next sandal day pops up, I decided to give myself a pedicure. You should too.

Even if your one of those people who gets polish all over the place (like me) you can still make your toes look pretty.

Here are the tools you will need. (L-R) base coat, color, top coat, file, orange wood stick, buffer, polish remover. The orange wood stick and the buffing block are super cheap and you can get them at any Sally's beauty supply. You might even be able to find them at Wal-Mart.

The tools underneath are ones that are nice to have but not a necessity. (L-R) cuticle nippers, metal ball thingy for making flowers, and toe separators.

Now the steps. This may be a little redundant for some people, but you would be surprised how many women don't know how to do a simple pedicure.

First of course would be to remove any existing polish.

Next you want to clean up and shape the nails. Start by filing gently until you have a nice squoval shape. Yes, that is an actual word. It means in between square and oval and is the most flattering shape. Next take your orange wood stick and push back your cuticles and clean out all that dirty stuff underneath the nail.

Next you can take your buffing block and gently buff each nail to remove any yellowing or ridges. If you polish your nails a lot I wouldn't buff each time. But if you only do it once a year than go right ahead.

This next step is one that most people don't do, but is very important. Take a cotton ball with polish remover on it and run it over all your nails again. This removes any oils from your fingers that got on the nail while you were cleaning them. If the oils are left on the nail than the polish doesn't stay on as well.

And finally you get to put on the polish. First the base coat, then Two coats of color, and finish with a top coat. Most of what I use if O.P.I but my favorite top coat is from creative radical and it is super shiny. It's OK if you get it on your skin, just try not to get it on your cuticles. If you do get color in places it shouldn't be just put a tiny bit of cotton on the end of your stick, dip it in remover, and wipe the skin. You can also just dab a little bit of top coat on the skin and the color will wipe right off with your orange wood stick.

Now, I'm not an expert on nail art by any means, but doing a simple flower is fairly easy. This is where it's nice to have the metal ball thing (does anyone know what that is actually called?) The one I have is actually a scrap booking tool that my mother-in-law gave me, but it looks just like the ones they use in salons. She said it didn't cost very much and you can buy them anywhere. You can also use the tip of the polish brush but it's quite a bit harder.

Anyway, start by making a circle of five dots.

Next, put the tip of your orange wood stick in the middle of a dot and drag it toward the center. Do that to all of them.

Then put a dot of color in the middle and your flower is done.

If you want to get fancy you can play around with different sizes of flowers and do decorative dots. Also, I forgot to mention that you can use either polish or craft paint to make your designs.

So, that's it. Happy spring piggies.

You've got to put your behind in your past!

Yes, I know my blog has been a little drab lately. And I had hoped to have something cute and fun to post today, but unfortunately my stars have not been aligned this week.

On Friday I accidentally downloaded a virus that has pretty much messed up our desk top. Even after buying the $50 software to remove it, we are still infected. The only upside being that our computer was old and crappy anyway.

And on Sunday after our family dinner at the in-laws all the kids went out to play in the back yard so I sent Macy out with them. Only, I forgot that the grill had been used to cook the pork chops. I would post a picture of the damage but it will make your Mommy hearts hurt. Surprisingly though even after six blistered finger tips and a blistered palm she is in a giggly good mood this morning.

So, there you have it. This is my "real" life. Tomorrow I promise to be back to my pretend glamorous life and have something fun or cute for your reading pleasure.