My Turn to Brag!

Mr. Smarty is now an official Triathlete! Sunday he competed in a Olympic distance triathlon- so a 1500
meter swim, 24 mile bike, and 6.2 mile run. His very respectable results were:

Overall Time 03:15:10
Swim 41:53
Bike 1:27:13
Run 1:00:51

Belle's convinced Daddy won, and I haven't told her otherwise. He did so great, and we're all so proud of him!

Happy Birthday Boo

WOO WEEE, Things have been Biiiiiii-Zeeeeee! Busy, but good. And I'm loving the weather that has come with the aftermath of Ike. I feel a little less silly for having these on my mantle now:
or these cones atop my fridge:


Tuesday was Boo's third birthday, so we had a little par-tay with the fam. I set up a little waffle bar and let the kids try spray cream (what do you call that stuff? ) anywho, they loved it, and ate all of the cream. Not much of anything else, until Tata broke out the cupcakes. Then they ate the frosting.

Here a few moments from the chaos party:








Happy Birthday, Boo.
I love you!

WARNING: WHINEY MOMMY MOMENT APPROACHING....

Okay, I know in light of my Boo's entire academic career, this is a minor step back and will not necessarily negatively affect his ultimate life success, but let me whine for a minute...

Yesterday I got a phone call from Boo's Mother's Day Out director. This is the second time I've gotten a phone call while he's there, and both times, I can't breath until they tell me, "He's fine, but..." The first time, he had fallen and hit his head, but was "fine." This time, the phone call was due to a wet diaper. Apparently, to be in the Three Year Old Class at this MDO, there are to be No Wet Diapers. Or Diapers. Pull-Ups are acceptable, provided they are dry and stay dry. So the director said since he is not fully potty trained, he needs to be in the Two-Year Old Class. And tomorrow he is to report to that room.

Now, this is my pride getting all in a huff here, but this is the first time I've been told to my face (or ear) that a child of mine is not performing as expected and needs to be held back. I know this is not a big deal, and not unusual, but what I heard on the phone was, " You are failing as a mom. He should be at this benchmark, and is not good enough, so we are going to put him in the nursery indefinitely. Thanks for your understanding."

My instinct was to reply, "Well, forget it. I think he's doing just fine, and we'll just keep him home then. Thankyouverymuch."

BUT...in the four hours he was gone, I was able to accomplish:

-two calls to doctors' offices
-Belle's Bible, Spelling and Math lessons with her
-a load of laundry
-put away another load
-complete a phone diaper survey and earned $10 (Thanks Darby & Arquest!!!)
-upload first day of school photos
-post two posts to my blog (you're welcome)
-enjoy three cups of coffee (okay, that I can do with three kids, too, but i think i enjoyed them a bit more yesterday-and it was just half-caff, for those of you who are concerned)
-grocery shop for the week (after this incident, there is NOOOO Way I even attempt to grocery shop with three)

SOOOOOOOO, Boo will report to the Two Year Old Class tomorrow. I will be sad, he will likely not even notice. I hope he doesn't. And I keep thinking that maybe this may be a blessing in disguise. Maybe his new teacher will really help him in his potty training, and will be more understanding of the stage he is in right now (another post, another day...maybe)

Okay. I feel better now. Thanks.

(Update: Since getting the biggest bag of candy Albertson's sold, Boo is making BIG progress in potty-ing. A side note, I'm now two inches bigger around my mid-section. But we are called to rejoice with those who rejoice, right? Just doin' my part...)

Popsicle Stick Labels

Can't take credit for this idea. I saw this in a magazine but I made it my own by using my new rubber stamp alphabet set from a friend's garage sale (do you ever do that-snag your friends' stuff? ahhh, I have a horrible habit of doing that, but I happen to have very cool friends with very cool junk...did that come out right?)





Now go check out some other blogger moms' ideas for Works for me Wednesday!

I'm not afraid of color! sorta...

I'm not saying that this furniture rehab (Kimba's term) is an actual improvement. But it is an addition of color and a new color in our kitchen. I'm afraid to ask what you think, but in the context of our kitchen/living area (since they blend together), I'm really happy with it. It makes me feel brave and sunny. Actually, the color was Honey, not Sunny. Okay, since I'm such an approval addict, what do you think? Did I mess up a good thing? (Read: Love me, affirm me. Tell me my baby's chair is prettier now...)

Before

After

Back to School

Yesterday was the first day of our new homeschool coop, N-tech. It was such a long day, barely beating Mr. Smarty home. But it really went so much better than I anticipated. Baby, who still fights the nursery staff each week at church, was brave all day. I got to spend two hours with Boo in the Terrific Three's. And Belle shared with us all the Native American signs she learned at dinnertime. Here are a few pics on our way out the door in the morning:

(Note: Wardrobe provided by Aunti Christi. Thanks!!!)

And here's my Mr. Smarty at Sunday's Corporate Challenge event:

New Grout!

I'm so excited over my new floors. Okay, they're not new and they're not done, but what I've got finished so far is amazing! I've been detesting my grout for a while now. I know "detest" is a strong word, but it's like the grout would just stare out at me and say, "Look at me! What a horrible housekeeper you are! You let your babies crawl all over me? Ughh!" Yup, that's my inner monologue. I never said I didn't have issues.

So last week, Rhoda at Southern Hospitality mentioned using Patio Paint to paint over her gross grout. Don't know if she actually called her grout gross, and I'm not accusing her of poor housekeeping, but she did say she was ready to rip up her tile for an alternative to the grout situation. Then Judy at Gracious Southern Living used Outdoor Paint by FolkArt. It's sold at any craft store for about $5 for the big bottle. This is the picture she posted-so I knew I was using the right stuff. She used the color Linen, so I did too.

And here is my Before-And-After-All-In-One shot!