Crumbs, couch, crazy children, and cleaning.

I enjoy alliteration, in case you have not already noticed.

These are my new couch pillows. Aren't they dainty! I love them.

When the face looks like this:

Then your floors look like this:


This is how scriptures are read at our house. She's rowdy rowdy piper and is often booted from scripture proceedings.


You'd think with all this blogging I'm not getting anything done. You'd be very wrong indeed. Today I have cleaned all the blinds upstairs and on the main level. I then cleaned all our ceiling fans (we have 6) and even cleaned Daphne's room, now THAT'S a feat! Now's it's lunch time and then i'll work out afterwards. I do this everyday and never, ever am lazy, ha ha.

I am the Eggman

Last sunday was a fantastic sunny warm day, so after church we biked over to the neighborhood park and had a jolly good time. Sean and I were playing tag with our kids and a bunch of other kids at the playground. There were a few parents that were disgusted at our display.
(read this with a snooty british accent) "I say, who actually PLAYS with their children at the park, hmphf!?!"
Two boys were probably about 10-ish, there was a 7 year old girl and then 2 other little boys about 4. Where they parents were, i don't know. But we all had fun. I lasted about 15 minutes and was pooped. Sean went for about half an hour and the boys were telling him he needed to drink an energy drink and were asking him why he ran out of energy so fast. He replied "i'm old, you don't have as much energy". Apparently they thought he was a teenager. He WAS, after all, climbing on top of the monkey bars and running across them and freaking me out!

When we got home I got a brilliant idea to decorate our trees with plastic Easter eggs. Probably not "brilliant", but Faye and Daff were impressed. Sean broke out the fishing line and away we hung.

Faye turned to me and showed me her new "bosoms"...perky.

Two Knit Monkeys

Two Knit Monkeys

Is it just me, or is this person completely nuts?

Wild thing, you make my heart sing.

We rented Where the Wild Things Are friday night, and I have mixed feelings about the movie. This was one of my favorite books when I was little. We didn't have it at home, but I got it from the library at school a lot. I still remember the first time the poofy haired librarian at Orchard Elemtary read it to us. I was mesmerized. I don't know why, but I just was. We drew pictures or told about books after they were read to us. Of course, I drew a picture. I was very proud of my picture and I guess it was pretty good for a second grader because the librarian asked if she could keep it and put it up in the library. I wish I had it now, it probably wouldn't be as good as I thought it was though.
Well, I did like the movie. Though it was a bit boring at parts. Pretty artsy fartsy for a kids movie. They could have taken out about 15 minutes of the movie in my opinion. The middle part was just too long. Faye and Daphne watched the whole thing and liked it, BUT my kids are weirdos and love weird movies, so I wasn't surprised. We heard faye sniffling at the end and Sean said "Are you crying?" In between sobbs she answered "yes, because I'm so sad that he had to leave the wild things, but he missed his mom, and I will never run away because I will miss you guys". She's sensitive, but i'm glad. I had heard a lot of reviews that said kids won't understand it, I say that's crap, Faye totally understood it. She said she knew he just imagined the wild things because he was mad at his mom. Kids are smarter than many adults give them credit for. As for Daphne, she tried to tell us she cried a little too, but she didn't quite get it all, plus she's the devil and only cries if she's hurt or is told to clean up her room. Phoebe got kicked out halfway through the show due to rowdyness and it being way past her bedtime.

Satisfaction.

Oh, I can get some. And I did. Don't you love when sex is perfect? and if you're saying "our sex is always perfect" I say to you "whatever!!!" or if you're saying that you can't believe i'm blogging about it, grow up or block me. My blog is my journal, so I write things that are on my mind or that I want to remember. I do censor to a degree, otherwise you'd really think me a freak, you can't really put EVERYTHING you're thinking into writing. I really hate when people say "making love"... sounds way too cheesy for me. Really though, sex is such an odd thing. Kinda gross really, but still, satisfying. Epecially when you truly love the man you've been with for almost 11 years, have had 3 children with, and you still like them. Really like them and even enjoy them. That IS amazing. I remember thinking people who said sex got better as you got older were smoking crack, but now I believe it. Maybe i've just started to peak, who knows.

I don't know if was the fun weekend away from Sean and the kids or the super innappropriate/equally hilarious TV series we were watching called Life As we Know it (very attractive teenage boys in it, i know, I guess i'm a cougar) but we were both in the mood at the same time. That is rare, and things went well. They usually do, but I mean really well.

I spent the weekend up in Midway with my sisters; Susan, Amy, Nellie, and my 2 friends, Jessica and Trina. Susan is part owner of the condo and she's the one who put it all together. The condo is absolutely beautiful and the view even more so. There was also about 15 stranger ladies who were scrapbooking fiends. We watched WAY to many movies and I ate and ate and ate. We watched The wedding singer (classic), Sixteen candles(another classic that i can repeat every line), Couples retreat stupid funny), 17 again (man, when did Zac Efron go from teeny bopper pretty boy to HAWT?!), Precious (so good, but OH, so sad), Mean Girls (back when Lindsey was not a crack head) and I think a few more I don't remember. I only scrapbooked a little friday night and the rest was, like I said, movies, talking, and eating. There was a little drama with some of the ladies, who knows what their flippin problem was.

On Saturday we went to a cute little boutique in Midway, and then a cool furniture /home decor store... and that's where it hit. Oh NO! my gas was in full swing. I was stinking up the whole joint! It's pretty bad when you make yourself sick. (did I not mention I say too much?) With not enough sleep, too much soda and junk food, for me, it's the perfect storm for some raunchy smelling farts. I'm laughing at myself right now. It's just not a weekend with the Bray's without farts and someone peeing their pants. Did I mention I peed my pants? just a little. We were laughing about something stupid. It was late and everything is funny the later it gets. Well Susan (who claims she doesn't fart, yea right) was laughing so hard she lets one rip. There was also about 8 other women in the room, and Nellie and Amy and I lost it, and that's where we all almost peed ourselves.

Oh, it was a good break and hopefully we can do it again in the fall. Sean is all for it if I come back in the same sort of mood. I'm sure my girls had crazy hair and were in their pajamas all weekend.

At some point in the night I was also trying to spoon Trina, though she didn't wake me so she must've liked it.

Happy St. Paddy's

hmmm, you see what i'm seeing?

my p day.

pickles, pretzels and prunes. These are a few of mine and phoebe's favorite things. She was missing yet again today. She was discovered at the next door neighbors in their garage. She must have been sent to the wrong family. She's one of Nellie's kids, I know it.

I can't seem to finish anything I start today. Ever have one of those days? Finished the laundry nice and early, like 1:00, half of it's folded on my bed, then somehow I got side-tracked. I starting packing my clothes for the weekend for the girls getaway/scrapbooking retreat with some sisters and friends... got sidetracked there and, again, never finished. And, i still haven't gone thru fotos to see what I want to scrapbook. And, great, it's time to figure out dinner.

Sometimes I don't like facebook. It makes me feel like a loser. I see old friends who have these fabulous careers and lives traveling, etc. and then I feel like I haven't accomplished much of anything. Then I remember I chose to have our 3 girls, stay home to raise them, and not do the careet thing, and it makes me feel a little better. But still, I wish I would have finisehd college. Even just my associates. I'm the queen of not finishing things, and it bugs me.

This post for example, it's random and there are a lot of run on sentences. I'm not even going to finish it

Assistant, Artist or Scientist?

Either way, she's a pain in my butt. Daphne would be who i'm referring to. Last week she was helping me do laundry and clean bathrooms. As she was spraying the Windex she said to me "I'm like your assistant hun mom?" She was a good little assistant on bathroom duty.

Then after the last load of laundry I was telling her how I used to get into the dryer when I was little, and I told her to get in. She tried it out and I grabbed the camera to get a photo:


Then she wanted me to do it. I've been known to squeeze myself into small spaces and I knew I could do it. And so I did. I was proud of myself.


Let us go to Monday. I was out doing yard work, getting all the dead perrenials cut down and bagged. It was a nice day out, so Daff and Phoebe were out with me, but they were in the backyard and I was in the front. It had been a while since i'd heard them so I thought i'd better check things out. I went into the back and only saw Phoebe. I asked her where Daphne was and she said "Nanny in the house". I walked into the house. Stopped. I smelled nail polish. Oh, she's dead! I called her name. No answer. I yelled that she better get her butt down her or... she came down the stairs. I asked her where the nail polish was and she said "I'll go get it, you just stay down here". Yea, red flags go up. I follow her upstairs to her bedroom where she hurries ahead of me into her closet and comes out with my silver nail polish. I asked her what she painted on. No answer, just starting at me. This makes me more mad, I hate no response. I asked her again, with a couple threats. Finally she said "nothing". I went into her closet to see if there was anything in there (she has a big closet) and found a postcard painted from end to end in, you guessed it, fresh silver nail polish. Luckily, she only got a little on her dresser where she painted it, and then she had carefully placed it on a tote in her closet. I was still mad and she got to sit in her room for 45 minutes. She bawled the whole time.
Good.

Fast forward to today. She and her friend Noah are playing all afternoon with no incident. Almost anyway. I come out of my bedroom from folding laundry and walk into the hallway by the office. I smell toothpaste. (if only she'd do stuff that had no smell, maybe she'd get away with this crap!) Phoebe is just sitting there watching Martha speaks, so not her. I follow my nose up the stairs and hear the bathroom door being promptly shut and locked. I knock and say
"daphne, are you playing with toothpaste?"
She says "No, i'm just going to the bathroom". likely.
Me: "then why is Noah in there, you know you don't go to the bathroom in front of boys?"
Silence... but this time it's not golden.
Me: "Noah, are you in there?"
... a little "yes" comes from the other end.
"Noah open the door".
He opens it and , sure enough, there is toothpaste all over the sink and part of the counter. Not as much I was thinking, but still a mess. But wait.... why did I smell it so strongly clear from downstairs?
"Daphne, is it anywhere else?"
"no" followed by that stare that tells me it is.
I again follow my nose into her bedroom where sitting on the floor is a little dog water bowl (a toy one) smeared with toothpaste. I bring it into the bathroom where Daphne is still playing the charade that she was going the bathroom, so she's still on the pot.
Noah was trying to hide in the little nook next to the bookcase.
Again, I ask "DAPHNE, IS IT ON ANYTHING ELSE?"
Noah: "just on her teddy bear. But I didn't do it, but I just watched."
I believe him because, hello, have you not just read this post!?! I wasn't even mad though and Daphne saw right through me. I mean it's just toothpaste, it can wash off. So Daphne smiles and says "I was being a scientist mom."

And this little one likes to go potty. Does she leave anything in there? No, but she sure enjoys the thrill of sitting, wiping and flushing.