Photostory Friday My Christmas Presents...

For the past year I've been online window shopping portrait studio setups. Stands, lights, backdrops, the works. I guess my sweet husband must have noticed because between him and his parents I got the whole deal for Christmas. YAY! This is just one of my first trial runs with it of my sweet but bored out of her mind daughter, Erica.

Hosted by Cecily

Through The Lens...

A dear friend of mine has started back her "Through the Lens Thursday". I don't have any new pictures today but this picture is one of my favorite over Christmas. This shot was just a random click of the camera and I didn't even know I had it until I downloaded them onto my computer. I couldn't stop laughing at Eddie's expression. Kinda reminds me of those cartoons where the eyes bug out with the old car horn sound effect.

After years of begging for a cell phone Santa finally came through for him. Can you tell he wasn't expecting it at all?

What's through your lens this Thursday? Visit my friend over at Our Life in Focus at http://ourlifeinfocus.blogspot.com/

HELLOOOOO...HElloooo...helllooo...echo... echo...

*Looks around* *gets out swiffer duster cause feather dusters are so not hip* *proceed with dusting off blog* *cough cough sneeze*

There now. WELCOME to 2010! What happened between March of 09 and today you ask? Well birthdays came and went, vacations to Mesa Verde, Moab, Florida, Holiday World, and New Orleans occurred. All three kids became student of the month, the baby started kindergarten *sniff*, Dave got a cool little 2 seater car (yay for midlife crisis), I got more and more camera stuff (yay for more midlife crisis), my brother-in-law moved far far away (to New Orleans) and took my favorite sister-in-law with him (how rude!), and just plain life and all the craziness that goes along with it happened. We've been relatively healthy. And, I had an unfun adjustment time after sending Jon away to Kindergarten. What's is it with little kids demanding to grow up? But now, all's good! Hope to keep a semi-regular new post up. For now Happy New Year! (13 days late)

Aloha Friday...#77...

Today I usually participate in Photostory Friday but I have been a bit remiss in my picture taking this week. Instead I bring you my first Aloha Friday.

Finding a gray hair has been discussed on a message board I belong too. More specifically finding a gray hair on a young child. Now it is possibly a fluke stray gray and nothing more. That's what I told myself when at the age of 13 my BFF who sat behind me interrupted my daydreaming deep concentration (ha) during algebra by yanking out a gray hair. I stared in horror at the stark white offender. I knew it was highly probable that something like that would happen, after all my mom went gray early too, but still, 13 years old. Just. Not. Right. That's the last time my hair has been it's natural color.

So now when I recently filled out an application that asked me for my hair color I had to think about it. Do they want my natural hair color? That would be some shade of brown with gray highlights. I hardly ever color my hair one single color, that just too boring. And never use the same color twice in a row. It is usually a shade of red but I've done a dark blonde a couple times. I considered just filling in Feria shade #77 in the blank on the application but instead just went with brown.

So my questions are this...

Do you color your hair? Do you do so to cover something or just to change the color?

Have you ever had a self color job go bad? (I have matched my mother in laws burgundy couch before and told how cool my hair was by a girl wearing blue lipstick)

If you are brave enough to admit it, how old were you before you saw your first gray highlight?

And finally what would you tell your 8 year old daughter if she asked to have pink hair?

Visit An Island Life for more Aloha fun.

Ladies And Gentlemen, May I Direct Your Attention To The Center Ring...

*The crowd quiets, the lights dim. A spot light follows a tiny little car to the middle of the ring. After the car stops the door slooowly opens. The suspense builds...*

Hello all you blog partiers!

I'm Missy, stay at home mommy to three gorgeous, smart, funny kids (no, I'm not bias) , wife of 14 years to my best friend, and owner of one stubborn, trouble making little furbaby. I've spent almost my entire life in the same 20 mile radius in the Midwest and am currently living in a beautiful rural community. Although I love where I live now I am a total beach bum and would love nothing more than to sit on the sandy shore of Destin, Florida. I dream of owning a pastel pink stucco house, sitting on my balcony and smelling salty sea air. I have never figured out what I want to be when I grow up, maybe that means I'm already doing it. I love to read and love animals and would probably have a small zoo if my husband allowed it. I attempt to find the funny in whatever happens. Even though I throw some of our personal life out there in cyberspace on this blog I really am quite shy, at least until we get to know each other.

My husband Dave and I are high school sweeties and he has been my best friend since I was 17. I think that is my one bit of advice to the unmarried set out there. The guy you can call you best friend and share everything with makes great husbands. He has been everything from a trash man (for two whole days) to upper-middle management of a large corporation where he can work from home. He worked hard and made lots of sacrifices to get where he is today and I am very proud of him. He is one of those people that just ends up in crazy/funny situations. He has fallen asleep on a jet and woke up landing in the wrong city, told off by a little person (is that the p.c. term for midget?), slapped strangers for touching cheese, and went on and on about most alcholi (you would have had to been there for that one) written on a sign at a local eating establishment.

As I said I have three adorable kids who never fail to entertain me.

First let me tell you a bit about my teenager Eddie. He recently turned 13 which was a bit hard for me to accept. So far, the ugly teen attitude has pretty much been non-existent. I ask you allow me to live in my denial that this is as hard as the teen years will be. He looks very much like his daddy. But to make up for not having any outside appearance of his mom he has my personality completely. Both the good and the bad. He is very laid back, is not a worrier, is extremely sensitive to those around him, and a master of sarcasm. But do not ever expect him to be in a hurry. His one liners are so funny at times that if he decides to rebel and not go to college he better go into stand up. One evening as my husband and I were trying to watch TV Eddie walks in and gets distracted by the show causing him to stand right in front of us. My husband said "Dude, you make a better door than a window." Without missing a beat Eddie looks over his shoulder and replies "Yes, but I make a pretty picture." Yeah, we could have gotten mad but it was just so funny all we could do was laugh. For the record he did move and find a better place to watch. Right now he is involved in Boy Scouts, karate, youth group, band (plays the trombone) and chess team at school.

Next is our only little girl. Erica is one of the Millenium babies born in 2000. She is my little mini-me in appearance except with blond hair. But 100 times more confident and self assure. She does have her daddy's organizing gene. That girl is always concerned about the time and being on time. She is a planner and is very good at taking charge. She hasn't decided yet what she wants to do when she grows up. She has talked about being a police officer, personally I think she'd make a great lawyer. She will argue a point until she just wears you out and you see it her way. She is also very sweet and thoughtful. She will take her award "dollars" at church and when they have their "store" she almost always buys gifts for her brothers. She was also recently awarded the student of character at her school for the month they practiced caring. As her teacher announced her winning the award she said that she not only walked in with a smile everyday and gave encouraging words to other classmates but she also volunteered to stay in from recess to help a classmate clean their desk. I had tears of joy watching her get that award. She is involved in Girl Scouts (where I am a co-leader), dance, gymnastics, and AWANAS.

Next is my baby (and last), little JonJon. He is the spitting image of neither mom or dad, but of his Aunt (my baby sister). Strawberry blond, freckles, gigantic for his age, and mischievous green eyes he went from the easiest baby ever to a walking pile of trouble. I don't know if he was just that much busier than his siblings at that age or I was just more tired and not on top of him like the others but those toddler years were a series of one crazy mess after another. We had doors colored on, a peanut butter covered living room (and dog), permanent marker on a Mercedes, shoes thrown away and Leapster cartridges flushed just to name a few. Thankfully he is past that stage now (I hope) and will start school this fall. That thought breaks my heart so I refuse to talk anymore about that. He is a very happy little guy that is always quick to smile. He is always the entertainer and is always having fun. He can melt your heart in one second and make you bust out laughing the next. Right now he is a huge momma's boy. I'll take that for now because I know not much longer it will be all about dad and then slowly it will be all about his friends. He is in swim lessons and Cubbies.

Being pregnant with Erica is what opened my eyes to online communities and friendships. I found a message board of other moms pregnant with babies due the same month she was. At first I was unsure and a little weirded out talking with strangers but 9 years later a good portion of us are still together now sharing more than just tales of morning sickness and baby kicks. And although I have still yet to meet most of the girls I still laugh with them, cry with them, share their joy, and pray for them. I consider them great friends. Eventually I found my way to the blogiverse.

So all you wanting to party join me and a whole lot of others at 5 minutes for mom and their Ultimate Blog Party.




PS- if I were to win one of the prizes I'd love the Kitchen Aid mixer or the mom/daughter flip flops.

Wordful Wednesday...Dare I Say It...

I think winter might be over.

Mind you we are still on the weather roller coaster but our highs have been almost summer like and there doesn't appear to be frigid freezing temps in the near future.

The grass is greening up.

My daffodils are coming up.

The trees are budding up.

People who we've not seen in the past 5 months are outside again. Kids are playing outside.

The birds are singing.

Shorts have been dug out.

Sandals have been bought.

Life is grand.

I love spring.

Goodbye Winter! Don't let the door hit ya.

For more Wordfulness visit Angie at 7 Clown Circus.

Look! We're Vandals...

A few days ago spring was teasing us with a taste of warm sunny weather. Being that we are suffering from last days of winter cabin fever, we loaded up our kids and headed out for a hike at a nature preserve near us. This particular area has cliff carvings done by ancient Native Americans. There were pictures of men hunting deer and buffalo. There was also some carvings of horses, a dragonfly, and a bird that resembled an ostrich. There were signs warning against defacing the cliffs punishable by hefty fines. And then I caught my son Eddie standing near this.




Busted?



Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

* Just so the FBI doesn't raid our house to take my oldest away, the cliff was like that when we got there.

Wordful Wednesday--The Worried Little Boy Part II...

Today for Wordful Wednesday I give you the conclusion of my prior blog entry. While holding a toy in his mouth JonJon's first tooth fell out. He wasn't upset at all and instead very excitedly handed me his baby tooth. I handed him a cup to place his tooth in. We don't do under the pillow thing here, the Tooth Fairy has told me she is afraid of waking up people when it's time to collect (said she is a bit clumsy). The next morning JonJon was the first to wake up and found a five dollar bill left in his tooth cup (Tooth Fairy has gotten generous, I got a quarter). Later that morning mommy bought her big boy some gummy letters to show him his sweet tooth was still there.



For more Wordful Wendesday visit Angie at 7 Clown Circus.

One Worried Little Boy...

JonJon has his first loose tooth. It's been wiggly for a while now. He has been a little concerned about it hurting when it falls out or that he won't get a replacement tooth. So far I've been able to relieve his fears, until a couple days ago. Over the weekend the little guys walk up to me after just eating a brownie that I baked. He has tears in his eyes and chocolate on his face as he says, "Mommy, I'm going to lose my sweet tooth. Then I won't want to eat anything sweet anymore."

Well that notion both made me smile yet horrified me. To not like sweets anymore? How awful. Imagine being 5 years old and thinking you won't like ice cream, cakes, cookies, or candy anymore? Isn't it written somewhere as a childhood rule to gorge oneself on all the sugary goodness one can find when ever possible?

I try to explain to my depressed little boy that the teeth only chew the food, it is the tongue that does the tasting. He sighed and said "Good I still get to eat sweets but I bet they won't taste as good."

Would it be wrong if I left a note for the Tooth Fairy saying along with the five dollar bill to please leave a sugar coated treat too to prove he hasn't in fact lost his sweet tooth?

That Will Teach Her...

A little over a year ago we brought home an adorable little ball of fluff that was part Poodle and part Schnauzer. A Schnoodle, so my creative children named her Noodle. I would love to say she is well behaved and never causes any problems. But along with being a four legged paper shredder, a destroyer of plastic army men, and a stuffed animal hunter she is also a trash digger. She is just tall enough to stand on her hind legs and get her head in the trash can to look for discarded goodies. She knows this is bad because all we have to do is say her name and she tucks her tail and gives us that "I'm so sorry." look. But like children at her respected age she suffers from "I forgot mom said don't do this"itis. The other night after our long drive home from Kentucky I was making the kids a quick easy dinner of chicken nuggets and fries. After I get dinner in the oven I head upstairs to do some quick unpacking when suddenly I hear loud laughing and my husband telling me to come quick and grab my camera. Apparently Noodle was trying to get herself a little snack and she somehow managed to get the fry bag stuck on her head and she couldn't get it off. I did get it off her but not until I snapped a couple pictures.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek