The Music In Me:

My life is like one big musical. I blame West Side Story and Grease for setting my life to music. Both were seen at an early age when I was learning that I had to keep everything on the inside because the outside had to meet expectations. So I bottled and I bottled well. So music was my outlet. It wsn't until I burst free from expectations and became "me" that I realized how much music meant to me.

So I go through stages. Hard rock, classical, christian, oldies, punk, alternative, country...you name it, I go through it each year. But since I'm trying to let the Lord run my life I'm working on listening to more appropriate music, so far oldies and Christian music are the only things that meet those requirements.

However, today I met a brand new genre. My kids are truly the music in me. I'm so very proud of them and their accomplishments. In a world focused on getting ahead and the "me" factor, Dave and I wanted to raise our girls to think of others first. So we have incorporated a service factor into their homeschooling. Since we travel alot we have to look for areas where we can serve others in a short term capacity. Luckily here in this area, we found a nursing home where my kids go one morning a week to paint nails, give hand manicures and color with those residents in line. Watching them interacting with seniors in this long term facility makes my heart soars.

Duchess coloring with her "friends" while Princess and I paint nails. The way they wake up and are sooooooo ready to go, getting dressed ahead of time. The way they run to the front door when we get there. The way we drop our stuff and they head off in opposite directions to gather up their favorites, who await them in their rooms cause they love having the kids come hunt them down and driving them to the activity room. They know their names. It makes my heart sing to see them put themselves out there for others. And when we leave this area and move on, they'll do so knowing that they helped out in some very small little way.

So very proud of my babies

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Princess

the results of Princess' karate photo session are in

and this is my fav

she totally didn't get those long legs from me, no wonder she's almost as tall as I am at 10 years old

a little sad though, not sure if she'll have a place to practice karate in Texas, we'll have to see about that

but my baby is so gorgeous here

and red headed, geeezzzz.....guess she did get my hair color

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The Cure for A Rough Day

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Most Pain-in-the-Butt Present Award...

Of all the presents under the tree, two have just about sent me to the looney bin.

Both are Webkinz......

Stuffed animals which have an interactive website. There are pros and cons.......

Pro's - both children are learning about money. In Webkinz land, they have a room/house they have to decorate, which costs money. They have to send them to school and take quizes (which earns money). They can travel, again costing money. My favorite, shopping! Princess bought her puppy a toliet before anything else, so he wouldn't go on the floor. Most expensive toliet I've seen at 1200 webkinz bucks. Oh and their pet has to work every 8 hours to make about 50 webkinz bucks, so they can't get crazy with the shopping/spending. Then there is food. Which costs, you guessed it...money. You have to feed the suckers and play with it so it will stay happy.

Staying happy, another pro......unlike Murphy who is content with them throwing a bone and playing fetch, their webkinz needs constant attention. Bathing makes it happy, once it uses the toliet (simply move the curser over the toliet and the cute little sucker goes) the toliet flushes. Duchess bought her puppy a convertible so it has to be pushed around her room to make her happy. You following my drift here......

So it makes for truly happy, entertained children who are actually learning. Duchess earned money tonight by taking a 6 year old science quiz for her webkinz. She missed one and smacked herself in the head, cause "I totally knew that one". Nice.

Are you asking yourself what the cons are? Really, have you given it some thought.....

Two webkinz, two kids, two laptops and one regular desktop in the freezing basement. Guess who is stuck in the freezing basement now?

The Man is refusing to even think about getting them their own shared computer.

Thank you giver of the webkinz, you are the reason for my cold.

The gift that keeps on giving.....

I'm totally trying to give it to everyone I know.

Hey Bigest1, you got them kids' some webkinz yet? Cause if not, I'm totally sending them some for Valentine's Day. Forget chocolate.

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Happy Halloween 08

(can you tell it's cold outside?)

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Thank you Jesus, School is in Session

Well it's official, I'm old. I could ignore the crows feet and the slight fading of my features. I could ignore that my metablism is slowing down, I could also ignore that my eyesight and hearing are leaving me.

I can't ignore that my youngest started kingergarten today. OMG.

She picked out her own clothes, she decided on her own hairstyle and she was nervous "cause I want my teacher to like me and to make new friends". Damn, she's more articulate than I am.
So Princess stepped in and offered some sisterly advice. You know since she is a pro at this school thing. Seriously.....

1. If you go to the potty always make sure your skirt isn't tucked into your panties.

2. Never eat the healthy stuff in your lunch

3. Talk cool

So The Man came home from work and I went late into work, to see my girls off. (He's awful grizzly but it's hunting season, should I say more?)

And since Duchess told me specifically that I should "do my hair" I did my hair. Cause I refuse to embarrass my girls, well............okay, I refuse to unintentionally embarrass my girls...that's better. So I got me some Princess hugs, which is rare cause she keeps her distance now that she's growing up and all.
Not to be left out, I got me some Duchess hugs too.........
The Man just couldn't resist either, except he did it in front of the school......heaven forbid. Poor Princess was beat red.
So Princess left us to go "gaggle" with the girls and we escorted Duchess to her door. Except it wasn't open yet so we went to watch her play.

And play........................................
Until it was time to forcefully take her back to the edge of the playground so he wouldn't miss the bell....................
Where she promptly made a break for it and played some more.........

But finally we got her in her classroom. Where she was at a table with another kid from daycare. Sweet. Friends...............until Duchess just looked at her and turned around. Said the kid eats boogers.............um, sweetie so do you.........never mind.

Just once she says.........

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Open House

****I apoligize for not being around more this week, one of my coworkers has returned to grad school and I got his entire workload. In addition to mine. As in a promotion without a title, cause I'm a loser like that.....

I would love to post pictures of the girls' school open house for you, but sadly I forgot my camera. Which is just as well.....it was pandaleria (think Jeff Foxworthy).

We live in a children heavy area. Seriously we are the only people on our block that have two. The average family has five. Heck, one bunch have eight. Which kinda makes me want to cry whenever I see the mother of eight walking through the block. Cause my birth canal is having sympathy pains for hers. TMI, huh?

We pulled up and The Man immediately offered everyone ice cream if we could just leave, asap. But sadly behind that sea of cars, were my kids new teachers, I wasn't having it. So luck would have it and a minivan of moving truck proportions pulled out leaving a huge space in the bus lane directly in front of the school. Heaven shined on us, it was a beautiful moment. So once safetly parked in the smack middle of that spot, we departed the car and prepared to enter the fray.

The Man's football years came rushing back as he took in the massive crowds of people. He huddled us up and we made a game plan. We'd split and conquer, each taking a child and then reuniting on the playground and switch parents. Okay, we can do this.

Duchess was my first partner. As she was stuck clinging to my leg, this seemed the easiest method of surviving this without a meltdown. OMG. We found her room and I was pleasantly surprised to see that although her teacher was still wearing braces, she seemed to be very confident. She's been teaching four years. Greeeeeeaaaaat. When it was our turn at the meet & greet table she intro-ed herself and looked at Duchess.

"What's your name?"

Duchess stared. At her then at me.

I'm good at reading Duchess stares, so I tell her Duchess' name.

Then I get a dirty Duchess look cause Duchess prefers her nickname, the very short version of her real name.

Cause I'm an old fashioned sort of girl and gave my girls long beautiful, elegant names. Or so I though.

Duchess thinks I'm an idiot.

So I told her the nickname and that she prefers it.

Duchess nodded.

So we went through some more nodding, got our treasure hunt list (treasure hunt?) and went off to find, the door to the private playground (score!), the inclass bathroom (score!), the locker with Duchess' class number on it (she's #3) and the coat/bag rack. Then we climbed in her indoor reading treehouse and after I unlodged my high heel from a bean bag (hey no judging, I left work early to be there for my girlies) we ventured outside to test the playground.

Where through the fencing, I see The Man being drug all over the big playground by Princess. He immediately hails me and screams, Switch!

Seems Princess has found some friends she knew.

And went from his little camo wearing, bow and gun shooting tom girl into a squealing little mass of female. He panicked. The quitter. So we all met up and switched.

Then I got the puddle of squealing female hormones and we went to see the 4th grade.

My kids are once again, new at a school.

Even though we bought a house a mile from the old place, we were assigned a different school. And since this happened in mid summer, Princess was one of the last 4th graders apparently to sign up. Kid got stashed in one of the only portable buildings on the premises.

Reminds me of seventh grade when my junior high burned down.......sigh.

Her teacher seems well.......odd. She's an older woman, who apparently was just hired this week and is from Cali. Normally I would think this rocks, but she was a mess. Seriously her clothing and her hair just looked slept in. Hey, I'm not one to judge but another parent was going to town talking about it 5 feet away and I happened to notice.

Frazzled. That is a good word for how she seemed.

I hope this is temporary. We'll see......

Until then, my puddle of 4th grade girlieness is just excited to be back in school.

And Duchess, well Duchess announced that she was glad kindergarten was over.

Oh boy....

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Pre-Dating Prep

The Man has enrolled both girls into karate. He calls this the beginning of their pre-dating boot camp of preparations. He is kinda narrow minded at times, but we love him.

So both girls participated in a kick-a-thon tourney this past weekend. This is why I wasn't on my internet, I'm sorry. It's not my fault, I should totally have my own wireless card.
Duchess is pretty involved. She likes to yell and scream but otherwise she kicks like a girl and bites like a crocodile........(name that song? Anybody? I'll post it later) So most of her class time is play time and not very serious. Cause she's not a serious kinda girl at all......
Really, even though she totally looks serious here, it's only cause she was kicking her sister. But Duchess managed to kick over 100 kicks. She got an award for it.
Princess has got her some strong legs. Seriously strong legs. She is very focused and is already planning her acceptance speech for when she gets her first Olympic medal in karate. She's been going for three weeks. Except my baby has no form. Her form, it needs work.
And she giggles. No body can kick a giggler............wait a minute, scratch that. But she managed over 100 kicks as well. And to top it off, the kid got an invite to a tourny to compete in form. Gonna need alot of form work in the next month to get that kiddo ready. Me? I'll be there rooting her on, with my book and my drink and my shoes tucked neatly beneath my chair. I'm all about support!!!!!
Finally, we've found something they both love. Except now I'm not sure how the heck I'm gonna juggle ballet with this too? And choir? Oh Lord, help me now......

Next time The Man has a great idea...........I'm leaving him in charge of scheduling the results.

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Barking Spiders

Yeah, how is that for a classy title?


So last night, Duchess was having a rough night. She was exhausted, grumpy and just tired of even trying to do what mommy/daddy said. So she just kinda quit. Turned in her notice and tried to go to bed at 8. This is normally encourage, heck insisted upon by her parental units, except The Man walked in her room and realized OMG, hurricane Duchess had ripped it to shreds. This did not go well but honestly I think he'd have passed it up if only she'd not colored on her baby highchair. So after we did the whole "somebody will confess" thing, and she confessed (surprised she didn't hold out longer, she was really tired) and then her and daddy said a little prayer for forgiveness and we moved on.


The Man and I moved right on into my bed. We were hoping to watch "Fools Gold" but those children kept coming in and I never got past the opening credits. Dang. They needed this, or they wanted that, or she did this to me.


So we took away the hockey stick they were beating each other with, and firmly told them to pick up their rooms, it was bedtime. Move it monkeys, move it. The next step was getting my hot shot out.


So we turned our movie on and snuggled under the covers, me and my chick flick and him and his laptop. Cause that is how we roll. When Duchess came running into my room at high speed.

Now those of you who know Duchess, know that this child moves at her own speed. Which is usually just high of strolling. So for her to be seriously booking it somewhere means there is a problem.

I raised my covers and looked at that little face hiding down by my feet....

"There is a huge wellow (this is Duchess speak for yellow) spider in my woom."

I pulled her up next to me to snuggle and elbowed The Man and sent him spider hunting. Except he was busy looking at motorcycles and kept ignoring us. Finally after a good pinch and Duchess yelling "I saw it" 40-million times, he surrendered.

So as I lay there snuggling her, listening to The Man toss her room to find the large wellow spider.

He came back and jumped on our bed with the news that he found no spider.

Her eyes were saucer sized while she digested this piece of news. I could almost hear her thinking "ok, this means that it is still in there, and I have to sleep there, arhhhhhh"

So I started tickling her and somehow it came up with one of us asking her if the spider made a sound.........? Like talked? Cause obviously we watch too much Pixar.

She said it barked.

I don't think I need to tell you where that conversation went but Lord help the people around us the next time Duchess has gas in public. It's all about barking spiders.

Finally, after this stretched out my bedtime till past 10, The Man grabbed some wellow fuzz off the hall carpet and announced that he'd killed the wellow spider. She was asleep 5 minutes later.

Two lessons last night:
1. We have become better parents along this journey. Seriously, when faced with a 5 year old that blatently lied to his face, The Man sat her down and firmly explained the consequences. Then he waited her out. I can't say we'd have been that patient 5 years ago. Nope, I know we wouldn't have been.
2. All the bad/tacky things our children learn, yep they are getting it from their folks.........

Crap.

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The Farm

So early Saturday morning we made it to the farm.... I tell you, I really enjoy getting out and doing things with my kids. They are something else, and the things they think up to say and do, well they keep The Man and I in stitches.

Below: Both girls "auditioning" for the dance hall (why was this in the farm?)

Mommy and Duchess spend some quality time behind bars.......

Then they got lippy so I had to put them both away......

The Man let them out, cause he rolls like that (although he swears that he'll never actually provide bail money for either)

Then it was petting zoo time, couldn't take too many pics, as I was avoiding road apples and Tom the turkey......

Then we took a nice slow wagon ride.......

Then the parents went home and slept through the afternoon in sheer exhaustion.

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My children are experts at managing their parents. Really, it's a gift. It began when The Man was always deployed and during those precious visits home, the girls would just wind him around their little pinky like it was just cool. My only excuse is that he knows I'm half bat shit crazy, so it's best to keep me happy. So between me and my girls, we usually get what we want.

Let me demonstrate.......

Last night we were "talking" The Man into taking us to a local farm/petting zoo Saturday morning...it wasn't going well....

Until......the Puss-In-Boots kitty cat face from Shrek made it's appearance.

All the while I was sitting behind him, sniffling and whining about how I never get to see the goats and piggies and such........and it was all his fault........lol

So, this Saturday we're going to the farm.......

What are your plans?

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Wordless Wednesday

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Night & Day

There is so much truth to this statement, night and day. When I had my second little girl, I was warned by too many people that they would be night and day. Be prepared. So I wasn't prepared for hell on wheels. Just really never gave it a second thought. What the hell was I thinking? Aren't your elders always right? Duh? Well now I have two distinctly different kids. They are truly night and day.

Princess is my emotional, thoughtful, sensative kid. Yeah she talks alot but the kid is my heart. She is so thoughtful that since today was "bring a friend" day at ballet, she only thought to bring her bestest friend, her sister. Wow, that's so much nicer than me. So off they went. Now I don't get off work in time to take her to ballet but since the daycare is across the road, they make sure she gets there twice a week for her conservatory classes. They rock. So by the time I got there it was already ongoing......
But Duchess, she is my soul. That kid is truly a handful and had no problems leaving class to greet me with a hug and kiss and a "I missed you, I really like the field trip today at school and I didn't get in much trouble at all" speech, said without taking a breath and in 2 seconds flat. Much trouble? Then she hightailed it back inside cause she was there to be her sissy's friend. She let it be known several times that she was only there at silly ballet cause her sister needed her. Geez, and I heard her through the glass observation window too, so it must have been very loud. No wonder the poor teacher stopped what is normally a serious class to pound some pills and slug water. Wimp.

So as you can see, Princess is concentrating on the task at hand, she really loves ballet. Gives it her all. Whereas Duchess is trying, I'll give her that. In between water breaks, potty breaks and hug breaks all taken without so much of a care if they interrupt the class.

Since she was obviously not a normal student, I had quite the little crowd surrounding me as I stood watching from the lobby. Several older girls were ahhhh-ing and several parents were smiling. Cause she is just damned cute huh? Not to mention the parents sitting out in front of the glass windows in their cars, watching their precious ones too.

So when I was asked if Duchess was mine, I said with a straight face, "Nope, not my kid" And when class let out, and she attacked my legs wanting lovings, I said in a sing-song voice "Come on darlings, I'll take you to your mother" To which Princess and Duchess both assured everyone in the room that I was indeed their mother, the vassel that bore them light. Crap.....

Cause this was only one instance that I managed to document on film. I swear, this is going in her high school year book. She gets that from The Man's side of the gene pool.

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Wordless Wednesday: A Day in Our Life

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