"What's on my phone?" Wednesday

So, I read a lot of blogs.

I love them.  I drink coffee and read blogs every morning.  It's my ritual.  If I actually have somewhere to go and can't do this in the morning, I feel...weird.  Off.  Reading them makes me happy.

One thing I'm noticing is that lots of bloggers have a weekly post that they do.  Something that their readers can rely on, usually with a cheesy title. 

I love cheesy.  Really.  It makes me laugh.

So, I've decided to do the same.  Not because I feel the need to copy everyone else, but because it seems like a way to hold myself accountable to blogging.  And I need accountability.  I do WAY better with it. 

I mean, I used to get up at 5:30/6ish every morning.  Now I can't drag my rear out of bed before 9:00.  (Yes, my kids sleep late.  Yes, I totally realize how * lucky I am.)  What's the difference?  No one's going to fire me now.  Accountability y'all.

*My keyboard totally just ran out of batteries where I put the *.  I stole some from two different TV remotes.  I'm probably going to regret that tomorrow.  Why does technology hate me?  And why are there never enough double A's in this house?

Anyway, I'm going to do a "What's on my phone?" Wednesday post every week.  What is this, you ask?  I will post pictures from my phone along with some witty and hilarious (I can hope) commentary.

The best part about this will be that I will actually look at all of the pictures on my phone.  Half of the time they are a surprise to me.  I have a tech-savy 17 month old who knows how to slide the arrow over to unlock my iPhone and then he does whatever he pleases.

His tech talent obviously comes from his father. 

Two disclaimers (because I love them so):
1.  I know it is technically Thursday when I am posting this first one.  But as I type this, I haven't been to bed yet, so it's Wednesday to me.

2.  The pictures may be poor quality.  I have the first iPhone, aka-no flash and slow shutter speed (I don't even know if that term is right, but it sounds good.) It's kinda a dinosaur.

Enough typing.  Here we go...

I changed the batteries in the rocket toy for my boy, which explains my lack of double A's.  It had to be done.  What good is a rocket without sound effects?  After I did this, he wanted to "fix" it too.  (I removed the bit from the screwdriver before he was allowed to play with it.  Don't worry.)

My new wedge shoes.  I sent this to my fabulous sister-in-law, because she knows how to wear a wedge like no other.  I knew she would be proud of my choice.

 Here is a sample of Hayes' fine photography work.  What's a mom to do with a fussy boy in HEB?  Give him your phone.  Then you get a lovely shot of your foot, the cart, and his precious chubby leg.

This picture was also I surprise to me.  Bella took this lovely pic of her new Twinkle Toes shoe, a gift from her wonderful Mimi.  Apparently taking shoe pictures runs in the family.

Make it stop.  I'm sweating just looking at this.  (That 459.9 was not on one tank of gas.  I never remember to reset it.  Why bother?  It's just depressing.)

And finally, we went to Baskin Robbins for dollar scoop night yesterday.  Deliciousness for a dollar.  Yes, please.

He would not even look at me.  He was in the ice cream zone. 

 "I love Mama"

This is what Bella wrote for me in the car after getting ice cream.  Just when I thought peanut butter and chocolate ice cream was the best part of my day...she proved me wrong.

That's it for now.  Come back for more.

I already love this glimpse into my week, my day-to-day.  Good thing my phone doesn't rely on double A's....

Mountains, Shopping, and Truth

Warning:  This post will probably only apply/be interesting to women.  Men, feel free to stop reading. 

Thought:  I’m not even sure any men read this blog.  If they do, they are probably related to me and feel that they have to read, due to me annoying gently encouraging them.

Anyway, I went shopping for a dress yesterday.  We have a couple of fun events coming up, and I needed something new and fun to wear. 

 

(Note:  I did not wear high-heeled boots while shopping.  Geez.)

Our first event, in two weeks, is that Andy is marrying someone.  

Ok, no.  HE isn’t marrying someone else.  I would not buy a dress for that.  I would buy water balloons, posters to make protest signs, and a lawyer.  

Andy is officiating a wedding and we get to go on a weekend (kid free!) getaway to Fredericksburg for the ceremony.  Hooray!

I also have some theatrical productions to attend in the near future.  Yes, I said that just so you would be impressed by my level of culture.  I saw a Shakespeare performance last week too.  Again, be impressed. 

So, I went shopping for a dress for these things.  I feel so Kate Middleton using the same dress for multiple events. 

This shopping had me super excited, because it’s rare for me to go and get something just for me.  (I did look at kid’s clothes while I was out, and bought NOTHING.  Improvement.)

This shopping thing turned into quite an ordeal, though.  I have a talent for that-- taking regular things (that no one else even thinks twice about) and getting all worked up about them.  Making a mountain out of a molehill, as my mom would say.  

I call it passion.  I embrace it. 

What did I get worked up about?  Y’all, it’s hard to shop.  I realize how stupid and petty that sounds.  Stick with me. 

On a surface level, it’s hard to shop on a budget.  I saw one super cute dress…$230.  I’m sorry, but I just can’t do that.  If you do, more power to you, and is your job hiring?  Then I can have somewhere to wear all the fabulous Calvin Klein professional dresses I saw. ( I even tried one on.  It was beautifully done, lined so nicely, and had such great structure that I thought I looked instantly awesome.  I felt like a boss…and I enjoyed it.)

Also, it’s hard to shop as a (gulp) 30 year old.  It’s like the shorts issue I wrote about here.   There is LOTS of stuff out there if you are twenty and don’t have to wear proper undergarments.  There is a good selection if you are older, as well.  For ages in the middle, the lines are kinda blurred. 

Now here is the part where you should stick with me and realize I am not here just to complain about my American, suburban, very fortunate (not bragging-- just acknowledging and being thankful) life.

Most difficult of all, this dress shopping trip brought me face to face with the things I don’t like about myself:

I have so much, yet feel the need to have more to be satisfied. 

A lot of my self-worth is wrapped up in what I look like. 

I covet-other people’s dresses, other people’s dress sizes, etc. 

Kinda takes the fun out of shopping doesn’t it?  I told you…molehill=mountain.

I just reread all of the above and a large part of me just wants to delete this whole post and not share.  Because it seems shallow.  Because I’m scared.  Because someone will look at the monitor and roll their eyes (and even though I can’t see them), it will hurt my feelings. 

But, I’m going to be brave.  I know personally, I love happy blog posts with pictures of cute kids.  I read them every day. But I love, even more, when I read something that is honest, something that makes me feel connected, because I identify with what another person thinks or feels, even if it’s not pretty. 

In conclusion, I did find a dress.  And when I tried it on and modeled in the living room, my husband (the one who’s not marrying someone else) oohed and aahed and said he loved it.  When I told him shopping made me feel old, fat, and poor (three things that this world does not embrace), he reminded me that it doesn’t matter what the world thinks, because I have something better. 

“They are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world.” John 17:16 (The Message)

“Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.  Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.  Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you”  Romans 12:2 (The Message)

Truth.  

It’s a large personal change I need to seek out. 

I’ll probably make a big deal out of it. But mountains are so much more fun to climb than molehills. 

A Good (Hair) Day!

Today was a big day for my kids.  It was haircut day.  The FIRST haircut day for BOTH kids.

Yes, you are thinking correctly.  For both? It is kind of odd, since they are three and a half years apart.  But you are forgetting one important detail...

Someone was very, very bald for a very, very long time.

This brought me so much happiness too.  The more bald the head, the more you notice the big bow.

Oh, that girl is precious.  And now she is big, and no longer bald.  It makes my heart hurt a little.

Now...back to haircut day.  Hayes had really been needing a haircut.  Bella...um, maybe?  The ends of her hair were a bit dead and would tangle easily.  (I tried to type tangly there, but apparently that is not a word.  Who knew?)

Well, I didn't want to leave Big Sister, who has been begging to get her hair trimmed, out, so we decided to throw caution (and $13.95) to the wind and get haircuts together. 

 Bella went first.  While she looked very serious in this shot, she smiled throughout almost all of the process.  She was really excited.  It was fun to watch.

Hayes went next, and he was just excited about the sucker. 

He was a little too squirmy to have scissors next to his head, so I ended up holding him during his trim. 

Bella (at age 4 years and 10 months) before:

After:

 

Hayes (at age 16 months) before:

 After:

Haircuts are just an ordinary part of life, but today was special.  Seeing something happen for the first time is such a treat and is one of my favorite parts of parenting.  Especially when it took almost five years for it to happen!

Maybe now I can finish that last page her baby book.

Rainy Day Ring Toss

It rained here today.  Shocking, I know. 

Bella stated this morning, "Mama, I love rainy days like this because we can just cuddle up."  I couldn't agree more.  I love cuddling that girl.

However, we also get kind of restless.  And after a while, I feel bad that cuddling usually involves lots of TV watching too. 

So in an effort to not rot my children's brains, I whipped out an activity from my handy, dandy notebook.  (See...too much TV.)

My parents send me Family Fun Magazine, and it's filled with tons of kid-friendly ideas.  We tackled one today:

We began by painting our very expensive materials, a paper towel tube and paper plates.

Hayes even let his creativity run wild and painted the paper that was down to protect the table.

That is his first painting ever, and you can bet I'm keeping it.  He's obviously gifted.


After everything dried, I assembled it with a glue gun and we were ready to try it out.  Even our dog, Beatrice, had to check it out.

Hayes struggled with the concept at first.

But we all perfected our skills with each game.

Success! 

We're hoping for more rainy days, because Ring Toss was a hit.  (And my lawn could use it too.)

The Proper Way to Eat a Popsicle

A summer tutorial, by Hayes...

First, hold the Popsicle around the frozen part.  The stick is useless and just gets in the way.

This insures that you will get a messy as possible. What fun is it to be clean?

Next, take a really big bite.  It's delicious and refreshing.

Now, squeal with delight!

Keep eating.  When that pesky stick gets in the way, turn your Popsicle sideways.

Don't worry if this makes the frozen goodness fall to the ground.  Bend over, pick it up, and eat it anyway.  A little dirt doesn't hurt.

When it's all gone, you will be sad.  Try crying.  Maybe, just maybe, your Mommy will look at your cute face and give you another one.

If you are lucky enough to get a second treat, follow my steps from the beginning and make it a great summer.

This "bytes"...

We try to do the right thing around here when it comes to parenting.

You know what I mean...have our kids eat healthy, do physical activity, read books, and stay away from too much technology.

I want to talk about technology today.  On my blog.  Oh, the irony.

Anyway, we have tried to limit the role technology plays in the lives of our kids.  Sure, we watch some Nick Jr. around here.  And yes, perhaps for longer than the recommended 30 minutes.  There are times I like to shower and make dinner in peace.

I just reread that.  I don't make dinner while showering at the same time.  Just so you know.

Anyway, they don't own video gaming devices, we don't have kid games on our iPhones, etc.  I know those things will come, but for right now they are only 4 and 15 months old.  We can color, read books, or play "I Spy" when we have to wait somewhere.  They love this, and so I feel like we are doing a good job. 

And then I saw this...

My daughter thinks she's an Apple product.

Steve Jobs-1/ Shene'-0

Family and Friends

Whew.  It's been too long since I last blogged.

I have been busy doing two things:  sweating and checking things off of our summer list.

One of those things is a lot more fun than the other.

We really started our summer by visiting Corpus Christi, our hometown.  It is also the hometown of Whataburger.  I felt like I needed to mention that because that is CC's claim to fame.  And Whataburger is delicious.

We went down for the weekend to celebrate our mothers, who are both now unemployed and fancy free!  After 30+ years in education as a Speech-Language Pathologist, my mother-in-law, Lynda, retired. 

Her fellow SLP's threw a wonderful luncheon to honor her (and three other ladies that were retiring).

  

Hayes was clearly worn out from all of the excitement. 

My mom, Glenetta, also retired from teaching for 21 years at an Early Childhood Center.  Both families celebrated at the famous King's Inn in Kingsville, TX that night. 

 My dad and mom

 I was brave and tried a frog leg.  I definitely prefer shrimp.

Andy and I are very proud of our moms.  We are excited that they can be ladies of leisure and enjoy late lunches and pedicures whenever they desire. We are also excited about having free baby sitters, which explains our expressions in the picture above. 

The next morning, the kids and I got up to have breakfast with my friend, Krystal.  I met Krystal in the 7th grade.  We were friends all through school.  We took Driver's Ed. together.  As Juniors, we skipped 7th period to go get Chinese food together on a Friday (which my parents found out and they took away my car and my precious 17 year old self had to ride the school bus for two horrible weeks). Krys and I were roomies at Baylor.  We were in each other's weddings.  We have known each other for seventeen years.

SEVENTEEN years.

We. are. old. 

I wish I had a picture of us from back in the day, but the technology department here at Not Before My Coffee does not own a scanner.  Remember, we are old and our growing up pictures were taken on cameras with, gasp, film. 

The best part of our breakfast was meeting this beauty:

 

Emory was born in November and this was my first time to meet her.  I was in love.  You better believe I spent a lot of time kissing those sweet cheeks. 

Krystal also got to meet Hayes for the first time. 

He was a bit too busy checking his email on my iPhone to pose for pictures.

Bella was more than happy to pose and hug on Krystal.

Bella also couldn't wait to get her hands on Emory.  She knows cute when she sees it. 

My daughter, holding her daughter.  It makes me get all sappy and emotional.

It was a great breakfast and a special treat to get to see Krys and Em.  As she put it, it was the kind of thing that we don't do often, but it feels like we've been doing it every Saturday for years.

I hope we have many more times like that.  Maybe we will drink our Ensure together after we go to the beauty shop to get our hair curled.  Then we'll really be old.