Oh Yeah....We Are Family!!!

I never post pictures, mostly because they stay on my camera several months before I download them. Last week I finally got around to getting them off the camera, because our memory card had run out of storage capacity. Here are some pics from 2007....I am confident that by the time you get to the end of this blog you will have to agree that I have some REALLY FREAKING CUTE kids.....and my husband is not too bad either.

Christmas in the Oaks
We took the kids to Christmas in the Oaks when we got back from Colorado. K-K and Paw Paw came with us. LuLu loved it!!! This is the fam inside of the whale's mouth in Storyland

Colorado 2007 -
We went to Crested Butte, Colorado the week before Christmas with family. It was awesome. On our last night it actually started snowing, LuLu loved eating snow so catching it on her tongue was right up her alley. The first day up there we bought DBug a sled, his car seat carrier fit perfectly inside of it, so he was pulled all over Crested Butte and loved it. I would often check on him to see he had fallen asleep. Sean hit the slopes but I stayed behind with the kids (yes, I am still bitter) maybe next year!

Christmas 2007
We did not send out Christmas cards this year because we could never get both of them in a picture without one or both crying. The top picture is LuLu with Chad, then DBug doing a cheesecake pose, then two of DBig and LuLu. Notice, in the picture where they are on my bed, DBug is pulling LuLu's hair, which should explain alot.

Thanksgiving 2007

If you do not believe me but this point that I have cute freaking kids you are either a) blind; b) jealous or c) blind.

November 2007: Because of the brace that D-bug has to wear, which connect his feet, he is unable to be easily put into a walker so I bought him this so at least he would have something fun to look at. Of course, LuLu thought it should be hers. They spent over 30 minutes laying side by side in this thing. The best $18 I have ever spent!

Halloween 2007: D bug was Superman. He had on his costume for maybe 30 minutes due to the fact it was SO hot outside. LuLu was supposed to be an angel but refused to wear her costume except for the halo, which she wore the entire day. Dbug still had on his casts.

My daughter, the penguin

When I got home last night Doodlebug was sleeping and LuLu was watching Happy Feet. Now, when I say "watching" what I mean is running around the den like a crack head and then sporadically breaking out into a wild stomping dance which would result in her trying to jump in the air and scream "Mambo!"

Since I do not have an actual picture of LuLu, this is the closest thing I could find that looked like what she was doing. The dancing lasted for almost the whole movie except for a five minute window when she fussed "NO! NO! NO BITE! OH NO MOMMY....UCK...GONNA BITE MOMMY" at the leopard seal for trying to bite Mambo. I am almost positive her father fed her pure sugar for dinner, especially since half the bag of marshmallows has mysteriously disappeared.

Yesterday was the end of my first 21 day habit and the beginning of my second. My first habit of the New Year was to perfect a "before bed" routine. Although it is not perfect, now I wake up to a fresh pot of coffee, ironed clothes that were picked the night before, a perfectly packed diaper and work bag, a table set for breakfast, and the kids clothes neatly laid out waiting for them. This is an amazing improvement to the frantic race to the door which used to be my morning.

Yesterday, I also started habit #2, which is to get my ass in shape. I went to my Doctor on Friday to get the go ahead and he gave me the okay. So yesterday Jess, Britt and I walked 2 miles after work. I do not know if it was the exercise or the B12 that Britt slipped me after lunch but I felt incredible last night. The only bad part is that by the time I get home Dbug is asleep. I think I am going to have to ask Sean to keep him up so when I get home I can at least give him his bottle and put him to bed. If all goes well my health habit will finish up before Valentines Day so i can totally pig out on whatever I desire.

I Got Told !!!!

My daughter has decided she knows the words to ALL the songs on the radio. Being only 2 years of age, I promise you she does not. Yet, her not knowing the "exact" words does not prevent her from making up her own noises and sounds to mimic the songs. At first it is adorable to her hear echo "brella, brella" as Rihanna belts out "Unbrella" or chant "NONONONONONONONONONO" throughout the entire 4 minutes of Winehouse's Rehab, but is gets very old very fast. I have a 45 minute ride from home to work every morning and Lu's singing I can only tolerate for about 15 minutes.

I devised a game of distraction that we now play every morning. I start the game by asking "Where is K-K?" and it goes something like this:
Me: "Where is K-K?"
Lu: K K at wurk.
Me: Where is Paw-Paw?
Lu: Paw Paw boo quaine (read: boom crane)
Lu: Wear Kin?
Lu: Kin seepin (read: sleeping)
Lu: Wear Cow? (read: Kyle)
Lu: Cow al gowne.
Lu: Wear Chad?
Lu: Chad Outside.......

You get the idea. I start asking the questions but after the first two rounds she asks the questions and then answers herself. She goes through everyone she knows: animals included. Today we got to Mr. Kitty, MiMi's cleverly named cat:

Lu: Wear M'Kitty?
Lu: M'Kitty outside.
Me: Oh, my goodness I bet Mr. Kitty is cold, cold, cold.
Lu: yeah...cole, cole, cole
Me: OOOOOoooooooo doggie!
Lu: No mommie, kitty cat.

A New Orleans Hidden Treasure

Setting: Whole Foods

Time: Lunch

Characters: StellarMom (born and raised NOLA), BlackWhiteYellow(transplant from Texas), AllThingsFly(born and raised NOLA)

BlackWhiteYellow: "There is nothing to do in NOLA"

StellarMom/AllThingsFly: "WHAT"?????!!!!!!?????

BlackWhiteYellow: "I mean there is nothing to do that does not involve drinking"

StellarMom/AllThings Fly: "OOOOOOOOooooooooooooo"

Jess had a point, New Orleans is known for drinking and most things New Orleaneans hold dear involve massive amounts of booze: Mardi Gras, Crawfish Boils, Church Fairs, Jazz Festival, St Patrick's Day, and Bourbon Street....just to name a few. But there must have been things I did and enjoyed before I started drinking.

I finally remembered something in New Orleans that I love to do that does not involve drinking, it involves drugs! The New Orleans Pharmacy Museum.

Located in the French Quarter, the Pharmacy Museum is actually in the very location of the apothecary shop opened in 1823 by Louis J. Dufilho, America's first licensed pharmacist. Inside you can find the ingredients and actually sample "Love Potion No. 9", as well as some voodoo potions to cure aliments ranging from the common cold to death. Old microscopes, tons of herbs and apothecary jars. The tour guide goes over the evolution of pharmaceutical practices from leeches to Lexapro. There is even an old school soda fountain.

My favorites include: The drill used to alleviate headaches, the leeches, and the water purification system.

Not a shabby way to spend the day!

The Official 2008 resolutions.....

1. have my house "Police-Ready" at aLL times.

I can have my house "company ready" in an hour. I run through like a crack addict picking up clutter, debris and trash and throwing them into my "company free" zones. These happen to be the hall closet, Quinn's room, the office closet, my room, the laundry room and the garage. I can have my home "company ready" in about an hour. When the company leaves my husband and I have to carefully open the closet doors to avoid being crushed by clutter, unpaid bills and miscellaneous toys. We wade through the rooms that we through our company clutter into and just form paths promising to clean it all "tomorrow".

I started reading an article in Good Housekeeping about author Cynthia Townley Ewer, who wrote House Works, Cut the clutter, speed the cleaning, and calm the chaos. She told a story about the moment she knew she HAD to do something about her house. One night, she had returned from a Christmas dinner to find exterior signs of burglary. She called the police and anxiously waited while they entered her home to survey the damage. One policeman exited with a puzzled look and explained to her he had never seen anything like it, someone had broken in and went upstairs and tore her house apart.

She was horrified as she had to explain that it looked like that because she had to clean for the holidays and just through all her crap in the two upstairs bedrooms. Her house was not "police ready". Her home was "company ready".

I am reading her book and already beginning to use her principals. Sean and I started on New Year's Eve and we have already had 4 garbage cans full of trash, about a truck load to go to salvation army and we are only 1/2 way though the initial "decluttering process.

2. health

I used to be able to eat whatever I want, think about exercising and lose 5 pounds. Those days are OVER. I think my diet is okay. I mean of course there is room for improvement but my inner new orleanian foodie will not allow me to cut down on every luxury. So to contend with that I have decided I need to start cooking more, dining out less, drinking more water and less beer and actually participating in some form of exercise. So far Sean is on board, even with the no red meat thing (for at least one month) but we will see how this goal goes.

I have started finding some recipes that will work for the family and I am scheduled to see a family nutritionist in a couple weeks. I purchased some new dinnerware and cooking utensils to get me excited about being back in the kitchen. I love cooking with new foods so I went to the grocery and purchased things I had never heard of....like spaghetti squash, Gorgonzola beans and couscous. I think I am ready for this cooking thing. Of course, lunch is my real temptation. I was glad to hear that the lunch group is on a health kick too so maybe we will all cut down on going out to lunch.

I hate to exercise. I hate to exercise. I hate to exercise. I have no clue how to work around this. It makes me sick just thinking about having to get on a treadmill or an elliptical. I hate to exercise, I hate to sweat and I hate the gym. This will be the most difficult part of this resolution.

I hate this particular goal because it is on my list EVERY year and I am never able to follow it. So this year I have decided to break it down and each month focus on a different aspect of the "big goal". This month I am concentrating on drinking more water, less beer. (I will be putting off the exercising thing as long as humanly possible)

3. do my part

I am not a tree hugger. I will never switch from disposable diapers, paper towels, deodorant, or driving my suv; but, I would like to try some things to combat my environmentally evil ways. For example, boycotting plastic bags, using a water purifier, buying a insulated cup for my morning coffee, a lunch sack, and a plastic, reusable water jug. I am tackling this resolution the same way as my health resolution one month at a time. And since for health I am drinking more water in January I decided filtered water would be the new concept for my global duties as well. Sean is presently installing out new Britia water filter. So I will be saying so long to plastic water bottles.

4. and lastly..... organization

This resolution goes hand and hand with my first resolution. I will not be able to focus on this until my home is empty of all the clutter but Ms. Ewer will walk me through this process right after I finish finding a "home" for all my worldly processions.