If You Really Know Us....

.....You'll find this comic strip all too funny. I think I just about snorted my oatmeal this morning when I read it.


I want royalties, you know. And I think I am going going to have my house scanned for bugs.

Valentine Blessings

Every once in a while, my sweet Tim throws me for a loop. Guess you could call me a Roller Coaster gal....cause I really liked this loop!!

I really expected my Valentine's day to just be another date on the calendar. To say that Tim isn't a Romantic is an understatement. I've learned to just take what I can get. I certainly have learned to never expect anything grand for Valentine's Day. Totally a retail holiday.

The day started out pretty normal. Wished I could say that I slept in, but Murphy's law says that one must get up early when we want to sleep in. Even though I was up early, I was lazy....until we had to head out the door for Daria's two soccer games. (They won both...and Daria was amazing....again! Gosh, I'm proud of her!)

After we got home, the kids and I crashed a little bit while Tim helped the neighbor service the church tractor. That is pretty normal....but then he comes home and begins doing things that are extremely atypical for him. Like....picking up the living room. Putting things away in the kitchen. MAKING THE BED!!! And offering to buy pizza for dinner...even after we had to eat out for lunch between Daria's games!! Wow...he's being awfully attentive.

WHO IS THIS MAN AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY HUSBAND??!!??

Then....he gives me my Valentine's gift. Wow. He actually got me more than a handwritten note!!! I'm shocked. I didn't think that I could be even more shocked...but when I opened it....I would have fallen over if I wasn't safely planted on the couch!! He bought me a Wii Fit!! I had just gone the day before trying to find one and they didn't have one. I couldn't have been more excited. Even the fact that he dashed to the store that day before Daria's game to get it didn't dash my excitement. Even the fact that the kids were just as excited and consumed for the rest of the time didn't dash my excitement.

As I was enjoying watching my kids' enthusiasm, I hear my kids yelling that someone was here. I look out the window to see Tim's sister and her husband drive up. Hmmmm. That's awfully interesting....for Valentine's day. Why would they be here to celebrate their Valentine's day??? I thought for sure that they were just here to say a quick hello. Then they come in and start settling in. I began to wonder if our one pizza would be enough to feed us all!! I wasn't sure what to think.

As conversation went, it slowly came out that they were here to babysit....while Tim took me out!! Well, blow me over! Quick....run in and change your shirt. My Soccer Mom sweatshirt doesn't cut it on a date with my sweetie!

So, Tim and I headed out to one of my favorite places, Burgerville. Nothing grand. But I did get to pick out anything I wanted off the menu this time!! That's awfully generous for my miserly hubby. And....we didn't have to wait for hours at a restaurant....or for Tim....we didn't have to pay a tip!! We had a good dinner....and good conversation. And....that IS good!!

We came home to let Jeff and Debbie go home and do some celebrating of their own. The kids needed baths for church the next day. And I wanted a turn on the Wii Fit. Even with the usualness of the evening, we had a good Valentine's day.

I felt blessed.

Mr. Slick Willy

Today's blog is courtesy of my guest blogger....Tim. He was like a kid caught in a candy store, he was so excited about his topic. So....please don't disown me for this blog....just love me in spite of it. So without further ado....here's Tim:



Last Monday, I grabbed a bag of cereal in the garage to bring upstairs. As soon as I picked it up, cereal started falling on the floor because a couple of small holes had been chewed in the bag. I set a couple of mouse traps and caught a mouse before the end of the day. I think my wife was relieved that I caught it. I noticed though that all the cereal that was spilled on the ground was now gone. I asked wife (don't you just love his words of endearment?) if she had been sweeping in the garage but apparently she had not. By Thursday, I had caught 5 mice; but then the traps stopped tripping yet the cheese and peanut butter kept disappearing. The cheese would be nibbled back to the very edge of the narrow plate and the peanut butter would be licked clean. For 3 days, I baited the traps at least twice a day but nothing.

On Sunday, I decided to get serious and broke out 2 more traps for a total of 4. Within half an hour of setting them, all four were licked clean even though all 4 traps were next to each other. My friend, Ryan, gave me an idea. I reset all four traps and set up our video camera. I was determined to know how Mr. Slick Willy was licking them clean without setting them off. I set the camera on night shot and extended play and went to bed. This is what was recorded 2 1/2 hours after going to bed.

Mr Slick Willy's luck finally ran out. So far, no other traps have been licked clean so we might be rid of the mice in the garage for now.


So, there you go. Have I ever mentioned the sick humor that Tim has? You should have seen him watch and rewatch this clip. He'd chuckle every time. The kids thought it was just as hilarious.

Help me...please...I'm living with a bunch of sickos!

Gag Me!

Disclaimer: All content of this post is the responsibility of Tim. If you become gagged out on this post, do not blame me. Send all complaints to Tim. Do not, I repeat, do not shoot the messenger. If you are squeamish at all, please stop here. Consider yourselves warned.

When we moved into this house 4 years ago, I was thrilled that I was finally in a house with a true foundation. Our previous home was a manufactured home and it seemed to have an open invitation to all critters. Particularly mice. It was just gross. I have a particular memory to being awakened in the early morning hours to a trap going off and hearing a mouse flopping through its death throes. Gag. Tim thought it was so funny that he taught two-year-0ld Daria to do the "Floppity Mouse." She would throw her self on the ground and flop her legs around. She was cute....the memory of the mouse was not. Now, I know that homes on foundations are not exempt from getting critters....but my impression has always been that the likelihood was less. Until a couple of weeks ago, that proved true for ours.

While attempting to get things in order for our vacation, I was doing a little cleaning. It was then that I found a lot of Mouse Rice behind our couch. WHAT???? Of all places to find evidence. Yuck. I moved our couch out and gave a thorough cleaning under there. Tim set the traps out for a couple of night...and nothing. Then we left on vacation. I was hoping that with a week of absence, the mouse would somehow disappear. (Die.)

When we came home, I checked around and found a little more mouse rice. Not much, considering it had been a whole week. I cleaned it up and checked every day. I didn't seem to find any more. Good news. Then two nights ago, while we were sitting on the couch, Tim sees a mouse dash into the kitchen from the direction of the stairs. YUCK. Gag me. Out came the traps again. The first night, we put peanut butter on it. Nothing. It just looked like the mouse had a tasty little treat as he licked it off. Darn.

Then comes last night. We pulled out the big guns and used peanut butter and cheese. I was fearful last night that I would wake up again to hearing some mouse flopping to his death. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well at all last night. So, when Tim headed off to work this morning, I asked him if he'd caught anything. He gets this devilish look on his face and says, "Maybe."

Victory, I thought. Yeah. So, I get up and get ready for the day. I turn on my computer and this is what I see:

My precious husband decided to take a picture of our little house guest and placed it as our wallpaper on our computer. So here is this LARGE, beady-eyed bugger staring at me this morning. If he'd been around, I'd have been tempted to slap him. He practically dared me to post this on my blog. So that is why I did. Here is his response to my tirade about the picture: "I thought your blogees might get a kick out of real every day occurrences so I
got you a picture. Love ya!!!" See. This post is all Tim's fault. Blame him.

I am seriously hoping that this mouse was a one-mouse show. I don't know how it got in here. It could have been the time that the front door got left open for several hours while we were gone a couple of weeks ago. I've been checking around for other signs....but haven't seen much. Please, please, please....let this be the only one.

Yech. Gag me.

Twelve Already????

It is a strange thing. I won't divulge my age, but I tell you that I don't feel nearly as old as I am. Lindsay says that I'm not old....so...I'll stick to that. Even so, I know that the years are sneaking up on me faster and faster the older that I get. Before I know it, I will be an old lady with grandchildren grabbing at my ankles.

Today, Tim and I celebrate 12 years of marriage. I swear it was another one of those "I blinked" moments. It seems like it was yesterday that I was putting on my beautiful wedding dress and Tim was decked out in his hot tuxedo. (Hot in more ways than one, if you catch my drift.) Our wedding day was one of the best in my memories. To be princess for a day is every girl's dream come true.

It has been a good 12 years. I won't say that they were perfect, but they have been good. When I look back over the years...and where we have come from...and where we are now....I truly feel like I am blessed. We have been blessed. To find a man who loves God as much as I do...who has the same values....I feel so very fortunate. I pray for my own children to find a partner such as this.

I couldn't let this day pass without marking the day here on my blog. To be blessed, what more could I ask for? I love you, TimJ and I look forward to many more years with you. To the good. The Bad. And the Ugly. We'll have an adventure for sure.

He Loves Me.

My sweet TimJ has been a busy man. For me.

He must actually be reading my blog. I mentioned a couple of days ago on my blog, that one of the downsides of my laptop was the lack of accessibility to pictures.

I don't know how he knows what he knows....but somehow he linked our two computers and now I can access my pictures. Yee haw. He is really quite amazing sometimes.

Then, I batted my eyelashes at him tonight, asking him to help me change my blog template....again. What a sweetie. He just looked at me.....then said he would. He spent much more time on it than he should have...but he did a great job. He fiddled with it until things looked just right.

I don't know how he knows what he knows.....I tell ya....he's one good man.

Thanks, TimJ. I love you oodles and bunches. You're the greatest.

Oh What Fun.....Times 2!

I've never been very good at using the label function on my blog. Today, I realized the full benefit of it. I was looking back over my blog to see if I could find the post I made about sharing the computer with my kids. On that post, I yearned for a laptop of my very own so that I could blog any time that I wanted. If I remember right, I said that it would probably never happen and I just better buck up and deal with it. Well.....

I AM WRITING THIS POST WITH MY VERY OWN LAPTOP.

Sorry. I didn't mean to yell. But, it is pretty exciting!! I can hardly believe that my sweet Tim actually bought one. Even though I am sitting here on the couch, watching TV while I blog, I still feel like I must be dreaming. I am pretty sure that someone is going to wake me up in a minute and harsh reality will slap me in the face. I may have to sleep with it tonight to let reality set in!! It feels like my Tim is supporting my growing passiong for blogging/writing. I love that.

I did have hopes that once I had a laptop I could post whenever I wanted without fighting my kids for computer time. Luke has been just about desperate to get his hands on my computer....but...I've declared it Officially Mom's. I could be in for a few battles. The other drawback? I'm a little slow on the mouse action. Thus my on-line gaming is having some issues. I'm sure that I will adapt.

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The other fun thing to report on was Caden's soccer game last night. He sure is having a fun time! He's doing pretty good, too. He scored two goals last night. It just cracks me up to watch him hopping across the "field" as he celebrates. I wonder if he could be a cocky little bugger. He gets this funny little walk/strut going on that makes his hair bounce so cute. I know...that doesn't make much sense....but how do I describe it? It is like he is this little man on a mission. So determined. He is such a little Man Cub!


**notice that I put labels on this post. Gotta get in the habit!