Nov 04
Everyone,
I just bought backpacks and lunch boxes for the boys next year for school. I CAN’T believe they are going to be going to kindergarten next year! They are getting so big so fast.
Anyway, Land’s End was having their backpack sale and I figured now was the time to buy. I got 2 packs for around $10 each. And 2 lunch boxes for around $6. This is a better price than 2 packs at over $30 in the summer.
Score!
I also landed on a HUGE thing for Butterfly next year at the thrift store. It’s a barely used coat and snow suit from Hanna Andersson for $5. Yes, $5 whole dollars for a really, really nice coat and matching snow pants. I know the brand will last. It’s a size bigger than Butterfly wears now but I can store it for a year and still enjoy the amazing deal.
Now if only I can get some amazing Christmas shopping deals!
Safire
SafireNaBloPoMo, shopping
Mar 16
Everyone,
Today Butterfly stayed home from school, sick. She was up several times last night complaining that she couldn’t breath. All the kids were up at least once from midnight to 4am. Which meant I was up every hour during that time. By the time Butterfly got up the second time, she woke Juice up from a Nyquil induced coma because I just did not hear her. She was in my dreams crying, though, so that’s something.
This morning I sent her up to get dressed for school (after a late wake up) and she just never came back down. Searching for her found her on top of the stairs, dressed. She was too tired to walk downstairs. Could I carry her down? Uh, no. Back to bed you go! She stayed in bed all day and still looked tired tonight.
Although she was bouncing around this evening yelling, “I get to go to school! I get to go to school tomorrow!” I think she missed it or something.
Juice was also feeling poorly so he stayed home too. On my regularly scheduled shopping trip, could I actually go by myself?! It was so nice. I got to browse Target without worrying that someone was going to run off, get stolen, or break something. I got to eat a lunch out with my friend Lala with no screaming kids. Grocery shopping was a breeze! We went to the craft store! It was very nice.
I may have to take up my neighbor’s offer to watch my boys more often. This was like a mini vacation for me! And a much needed one.
Lala watched my kids tonight too so Juice and I had a date. It was amazing to just sit and talk with him without small children jutting in. Although by the end of the night I missed them and had to go watch them sleep for awhile.
Yay school tomorrow!
Safire
Safireshopping, sickness, Sickness 2011 shopping, sickness
Feb 15
Everyone,
Hey! Look what it did today!
SNOW. Again! Seriously, we’ve had a run with the snow this season. This has been the most snow Maryland has seen since 1899. And you can bet no one had plows back then. Or central heating. And probably rode around in sleds with tons of robes on their laps. The sleigh ride sounds fun, but not the other things.
Despite the snow, Butterfly had dance class today. We also met some friends at Tarjay for shopping and lunch. Yay, I feel like we’re slowly getting back into normal life. At the store, I bought some Valentine’s day candy and light bulbs. I was excited to have a big heart shaped box of chocolates all to myself during nap time.
I think I had 2 or 3 pieces (out of 12) and shut the box so I could enjoy a few more each day. Then the phone rang and I talked to my best friend Mink in Utah until I had to get Butterfly ready for dance class. Then we rushed out the door and got there on time.
About 6pm I get a call from Juice. He asks if I bought a heart shaped box of chocolates at the store. Why yes I did! Did he want some? Uh, no. Apparently, I left it on the couch in my rush to get Butterfly out the door. Juice brought the boys down from their nap and started to play on the computer. They were playing so nicely and quietly! But when he turned around…Professor was covered from eyebrows to chin in slimy black goo.
Guess who found my chocolate?! And ate it ALL? And guess who decided to drive their cars through what they smeared on the couch? Sigh…
Now I have to figure out how to get it out of my couch. And I have no chocolate to console myself with.
It’s a sad, sad day.
Safire
PS- Also, I can’t even go to the bathroom without Pirate climbing over the child gate and slipping outside via the dog door. I just keep putting him in time out in hopes that he’ll get it and knock it off!
Safire2 boys-double trouble, Lolli, shopping, snow
Jan 09
Everyone,
Today was a busy day. I spent the morning at the grocery store with my mom. It’s fun to talk and push carts around and talk about the up coming week or the past week with her. I bought some socks for Butterfly and some more wipes. Yes, I forgot to bring any more socks for Butterfly than the ones she had on. Oops.
After the store and some lunch, I went to the big outdoor store with my dad. We looked around at a few things and I bought myself some new pants. I was down to one pair of pants so I really needed some more. Although now I’m not happy about having to take them back with me!
We were able to get everyone ready for the viewing tonight and we made it there on time. Everyone was talking about how bad traffic is and to make sure we left on time. Uh, I hate to break it to you guys, but this traffic is nothing! Nothing! It was rush hour when we were driving through Salt Lake. It seemed like mid-day traffic in DC. Juice and I talked about how much DC has changed us now. We’ve been there long enough.
The viewing was nice. My Nana was looking good in her casket. Her nails were done in a pretty pink nail polish. The flowers were very beautiful. They had several tables set up with a few of her things and a bunch of pictures of her and my family. Butterfly discovered her fans on the tables and carried them around all evening. The boys were pretty good. Juice was awesome and kept tabs on them so I could talk to my family. Then my cousin Bee came with her parents and helped Juice out. So helpful!
Butterfly was very excited to see everyone. She almost bowled over a few of my cousins that she’s seen maybe twice in her life. But she was happy to see them! She also told everyone why we were here. “We’re here to see Great Nana’s body. She died. Her spirit is gone.” She’s asked a lot of questions about death the past few days and it’s been interesting to figure out what to tell her.
She was also very interested in looking at Nana’s body. She asked me why she wasn’t breathing and if she would ever sit up again. She asked Juice why she was holding flowers. She pointed out Nana’s nail polish. She really wants to stay through the whole funeral tomorrow and hear “all the scriptures and all the prayers.” Okay then.
I really had a nice time seeing all my cousins and aunts and uncles. My aunt has twin boys too and she and I had a great talk about the fun of having boy twins. I was also able to see my great aunt and uncle who lived in Maryland when her kids were small. My other grandparents came as well as several members from my mom’s side of the family. I did not think we were going to be able to come to Utah this year so this is a nice treat for me.
As far as a funeral goes, I guess.
Anyway, we left the viewing and the boys fell asleep in the car almost instantly. Professor even fell asleep with out his binkie which was huge. Butterfly pointed out all 5 temples we saw on our drive and played “I Spy” with us on the way home. She is really congested and sounds very gravelly when she talks. It’s very cute to hear her little voice crack when she gets excited.
I played photographer for my dad tonight so I have no pictures to share with you. (Plus, my lapple is getting an upgrade!) Hopefully I’ll be able to share something with you tomorrow. Until then.
Safire
SafireButterfly-isms, funeral, my family, shopping
Jan 05
Everyone,
A list (I am good at making those!) to me about our little trip.
-Go to bed early! When you have to be up by 3:30am, it’s nice to go to bed around 9pm.
-Do not stress that your only pair of winter church shoes ripped open on Sunday. You can actually go to the store and buy things at a physical store. The internet is not your friend when you have a close deadline. Also, if you do not find something, realize that your mother has this week off and might love to go shoe shopping with you. Possibly your Nana too.
-Do not stress that the only pair of jeans you own ALSO ripped. (Juice got clothes for Christmas…maybe I should have asked for some too?) Knees don’t really feel cold, right? Edited to add: Yes they do! New jeans in my future. See above for information about shopping.
-Do try to remember everything you need to remember. It will be early when you leave. Get everything ready tonight.
-Do not try to clean the entire house before you go. You can leave the house messy. You can clean when you get home. Stop using your new steam cleaner for a few days. The thing needs a break! And you don’t have to sanitize the house right now.
-Do try and finish the laundry today, however. There is nothing good about mildew smelling clothes in your washer when you come home.
-Find time to give Juice a back rub. He is using his vacation to shelp you and the kids across the country so you can spend time with your family and hasn’t complained about it yet. Nice guy. Gold star for him.
Safire
Safireclothes, Juice., shopping, trips to Utah
Nov 26
Everyone,
I stayed up late talking to my mom tonight for our weekly chat (hi mom! Great to talk to you!) so tonight’s entry will be things I did today.
All four of us up, dressed, fed, and exercised. The kids love to do my exercises with me (and get in the way sometimes) and it’s very cute. You should see them try and do push ups!
All four of us out at the mall exchanging too small pajamas for not too small pajamas. And seriously, for a children’s store, the Ch*ildren’s Pl*ace is really NOT stroller friendly.
All four of us out at Ikea on an errand for Daddy. He needed a new lamp. I go there to get the $8 lamp and leave minus $50. Why is that? Butterfly had a grand old time in the kid’s play area and then we had lunch there. Yum!
All four of us drive home in horrible rush hour traffic. The kids napped…I did not. The kids were awake when we got home. I was tired. They refused to come inside. We ended up playing outside for over an hour. In this hour the following happened: Pirate made himself a mud puddle and promptly sat in it. I spent at least half of the time trying to wrangle both boys down the street to get the mail while Butterfly fought the remaining leaves off the tree out front. I finally managed to get everyone inside when the sun started to set. It was not without some tears.
All four of us rejoiced when Daddy came home. We had dinner, the kids had baths and then to bed. I braved the store for a few things for tomorrow and a free redbox movie rental. Now to find time to watch it!
Happy Thanksgiving Eve!
Safire
Safiredaily list, NaBloPoMo, shopping
May 22
Everyone,
We went to another birthday party today. This time it’s for my good friend AJ (Lolli’s last baby). She and I actually became friends because of these two little kids. We were pregnant at the same time and had our babies 8 days apart. (Yes Splats, his birthday is Strong Bear’s birthday too.) We spent a lot of time talking in the nursing lounge at church. I was a brand new mom and looked up to her to see what she was doing with #5.
Now I still look up to her and Butterfly and AJ play well together. Probably because they have been playing together from very early on. 
Either way, I hope these two stay friends. (PS- This picture is of them over a year ago…they have grown up so much!)
Since it was AJ’s birthday this week, we had a party. Lolli invited 3 other kids AJ’s same age (Butterfly being the only girl, didn’t stop her!) and of course, my boys and another younger sibling of one of the boys (I think she is almost the same age as the boys) and an older sister (much older, 11 I think…she is home schooled). We went to the park by their house and the kids played so much! We had cupcakes and little snacks and opened presents and swung on swings and ran and ran and ran. Butterfly had a ball.
Thanks Lolli for another fun day together!
After the party, Juice was home and I went grocery shopping. And then I came home to the house in chaos. The boys were screaming for me, Juice was feeling ill (stomach thing) and Butterfly was cross. I got everyone fed, changed (not Juice), soothed and back in order. Guess I’m doing okay at this mommy thing so far. Once the boys were in bed, Butterfly and I went off to buy more birthday presents for our last party next week.
We also stopped by the mall because the camera store there is closing and I wanted to see what they had (next to nothing). We got some milk shakes and came home. It was nice just to have some time with Butterfly and not have to worry about who else to take care of.
It was a great day but I am beat!
Safire
Safirebirthday parties, grocery shopping, Lolli, shopping
Mar 10
Everyone,
I’ve had a really busy day and yet nothing seemed to get done. At least, nothing really on my to do list. Well, okay I did actually get one thing done but that was all. I heard of a pretty cool diaper deal at the bulls eye store so I thought I’d head on over there and get diapers (always needed) and get my $10 gift card bonus. I did that this morning as soon as the boys were up from their first nap.
It took us at least 45 minutes to get out the door. I have no idea why. But from the time I harassed Butterfly into leaving and the time I actually drove out of my parking lot, it was 45 minutes. No wonder she dawdles when we leave. Or perhaps the dawdling is why it takes us 45 minutes to get out. Either way, we got out.
I used the stroller in the store today because I was by myself. I think I’m out of practice. By the time I got everyone out of their car seats and into the stroller, I was ready to put them back into the car and go home. But no! I was on a mission.
The mission failed, though. They did not have size 3s, only 5s and 6s. Arg! I did get a few craft stuff I need for my church thing tomorrow and we left with a stop off at the pizza place for lunch. Yuck, something was really wrong with the dough or something but it tasted awful. I took it back and got my money back. Both the boys were rubbing their eyes while I was loading them into the car so we went back home. I was planning on trying to go to another store and see if they had the right size.
Turns out going home was the best idea. The boys napped for almost 2 and a half hours and Butterfly for almost 2 hours. Our old neighbor came by to get her puppy, and stayed and chatted with me. Then Juice showed up (unexpectedly) from his trade show downtown. He came to have lunch and go back to work. Then our other neighbor came over and we all sat and chatted for almost an hour. It was fun and a really great adult conversation break to my week!
By the time everyone left, the kids all woke up and I spent the rest of the evening trying to make dinner and getting Professor out of minor scrapes. Like, getting stuck underneath the chairs and his hand stuck out of the doggy door.
Before I knew it, dinner was on the table and eaten, boys were in bed and the kitchen cleaned up. I left Juice with the kids and went to another store to get eggs and the diapers. Success! But now it’s really late and I am beat. And I feel like I’ve spent my entire day looking for these diapers.
Goal for tomorrow? Look at 4 birthdays that are coming up in my family (out of 9 in the past and next few weeks) and get them all planned/bought (mostly) so I will quit worrying about them. I swear, my brain has turned off lately!
Safire
Safiredaily stuff, shopping
Mar 07
Everyone,
It’s been a day of freebies for us. I had heard about our favorite ice cream place giving away free cones if you wear your pajamas on Thursday when I went out with a friend there. Free ice cream! Who could pass that up?
So, our day started off with free ice cream in a waffle cone for me, Juice and Butterfly. Butterfly got the pink one (strawberry) and it was as big as her head. Seriously! She ate the whole thing too. Juice got blueberry cobbler (not vanilla! I know!) and I got raspberry truffle. Each cone would have cost around $3.50 for each. So, $10.50 saved!
Next on our list was a free burger from Arby’s with this coupon. Arby’s is kind of far from us. I had a coupon for something else free near Arby’s so we thought we’d go there too. (And yes, we are all still in our pajamas.) 2 free burgers at Arby’s, along with 2 drinks, 2 potato wedge things, and a kid’s meal, later, $14.00 saved! $15.00 spent.
Off to a local computer store where I had a coupon for a free SD memory card. I needed another one for my camera because I often run out of space. Juice decided to use my “give to a friend” half of the coupon and get one for the Wii. Each one cost $7.00. So $14.00 saved!
So let’s sum up:
Total merchandise: $53 or so
Total spent: $15
Total saved: $38 dollars!
It was a good shopping day.
Safire
Safireshopping
Sep 13
Everyone,
Around 4am this morning, I woke up a little freaked out because neither boy had woken me up. Wow. I made sure they were both still living, and tried to get back to sleep. Once I was right on the cusp of sleep, Butterfly woke up screaming. She had a bad dream that Grandpa was going to eat all of her/my strawberry shortcake dolls. Great. (Like a good sick person I made Juice go see what was wrong. Or maybe like a good lazy person. Who knows.)
About 10 minutes later I hear her coughing and then she started screaming for Juice. He lept up again (he is such a good daddy) and I hear him say, “Oh Baby Girl!” Uh oh. I knew instantly what had happened. She caught my sickness. And there was puke everywhere. The sad thing was that she had had fruit punch for dinner and so this puke was red. All over herself, her bed sheets, and the carpet. Eww…
I sat with her by the toliet as she continued to empty her stomach and Juice gathered up all the sheets and got out the spot cleaner for the carpet. By this time the boys are up and screaming. I quickly put them in the same bassinet (hello play time) and cleaned Butterfly off. Juice is still messing with the carpet. Nothing is happening. Hmm… I suggest we pull out the carpet cleaner my parents have. So we find it and can’t figure out how to get it going. Or where the soap is. By this time Butterfly is jumping up and down on her bed absolutly loving having both of us paying attention to just her.
By now, the carpet cleaner is in pieces and Juice sends me in to wake up my dad to figure the stupid thing out. He wakes up, helps us out, and we get the red out with some up and out and a bunch of passes with the carpet cleaner. At least it came out! I take Butterfly downstairs for some ginger ale and she throws up several more times into a bowl. Ugh…I hate to throw up. But she says it’s like coughing. “Only your tummy comes up instead of your lung!” Funny girl.
By now the boys had had enough and so I had to go feed them back to sleep. Butterfly finishes her drink and Juice puts her back to bed. He climbs into bed and is out instantly. I am up with the boys for another half hour or so getting them into bed and feeling totally ill myself. 6:30am rolls around and I finally fall back asleep.
She woke up at around 9 pretty happy. I slept another half hour or so with Professor and then decided I needed to get up. My mom had taken the day off of work to spend some time with just me. So we went clothes shopping. I was feeling better. Not so woosy and crampy. Mink and Spider joined us because this is one of the few days I have left here. I left Butterfly at home watching movies (I think she watched 3 and a half today) and the boys came with me. I got a great new dress and some Christmas orniments for the kids. We were home an hour later than we expected, but we had a really nice time.
After feeding both of the boys (who were hungry hungry and cross today…I don’t think days of being ill and not keeping anything down helped my milk supply), Mink and I were able to go have a girly lunch at our favorite little resturant. I had half a veggie sandwich and some french onion soup. I don’t normally eat soup but it was very soothing on my stomach. Mink and I talked up a storm and just enjoyed being together. I am sad to leave her.
I came home ready for a nap and the boys were very tired. But both wanted to be held/nursed and I just couldn’t do it. Pirate kept making faces every time he was jostled and unlatched and Professor screamed and wiggled and kicked and made a ruckuus. I gave up and brought them down to grandparents who were happy to hold them.
Butterfly took a very long nap and woke up moments before I was going to get her up to go out for my birthday dinner with my family. That’s right, my birthday is tomorrow. I’ll be 28. So tonight we went to a Thai resturant and really enjoyed ourselves. But by the end the boys were done and screamed all the way home. I was able to get them both nursing with about 10 pillows and Juice’s help.
We started packing after they were done but I got hungry (yay a good sign!) and went down for food. I then got sucked into a movie with my mom, and now it’s very late. I hope I can sleep a little better tonight.
Tomorrow is our last day here!
Safire
SafireMink and Spider, my birthday, shopping, sickness 2008
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