My Little Life

Well, we've finally decided to do it. We've lived in our house for nearly 10 years, wanting to do a major remodel of the upper level for the last 1/2 of our dwelling time here...and the time has come!! I'm equal parts excited and nervous...kinda like anticipating labor and delivery, I suppose, you know, not eager for the pain and hard work, but SO excited to see the finished product! Anyone who's read around here for awhile knows that I'm kind of, well...how do you say...FREAKISH?!!...when it comes to major purchases. I mean, for cryin' out loud, I spent WEEKS agonizing over whether or not I should buy an iPhone, or stick with my trusty flip phone! Sheesh. (Um, can someone tell me WHY it took me so long to make that decision?!)...and then there was last summer when our washing machine died and OH EM GEE I researched and read and shopped around and visited stores and poured over reviews...all for a dang machine that will clean my clothes. So, you can about

Okay. Guys. I'm totally taking a leap of faith here. Testing karma. Throwing caution to the wind. But... BUT... I think spring is here!!! And now, Minnesota can prepare to be blasted with another snow storm. ;) For real though...last weekend was full of gorgeousness. Absolutely jam packed full of sunshine and warm breezes. Yesterday I actually sat through my (though it wasn't Pal's) first baseball game of the season and did NOT freeze my buns off! (And, we won, so there's that.) I was feeling a bit guilty because I hadn't yet been to one of his games (for the record, I've only missed two)...in my defense the first one was a crazy, busy, "I need 5 of me" night (the Mr. went) and they lost by 10 (so I don't feel too bad about missing it) and played like poo (against our arch rivals) and the 2nd game was miserably cold (most other activities were cancelled) and they lost again (but not by 10) and I was a poor sport and just couldn't fo

What a wonderful weekend. And yes, I realize I'm posting this on Tuesday and still saying "weekend"...that's because our school district's "Spring (i.e. Easter) Break" is Good Friday-Easter Monday. Yup, we didn't have school yesterday! Anyway...I love Easter. Such a wonderful time of rebirth and renewal! It really does rival Christmas...only, nothing will ever beat Christmas in my book. To top it off, this Easter weekend was absolutely, positively, breathtakingly beautiful. If you haven't heard, we Minnesotans are emerging from the toughest winter in years. Bitter, everlasting cold, oodles of snow; it was like Elsa cast her icy spell on us and ran off into the mountains, never to be found again. But this weekend? It was truly an "Act of Love" weekend! Sunshine! Birds! Warmth! Goodness. I dare say that spring may just come afterall! Side note: Last Wednesday we got slammed with 13 inches of snow. THIRTEEN INCHES. Gross. But by Su

I have no idea if this story will play out as well in print as it did in real life, but I'm gonna give it my best shot! But first, a couple of backstories: Backstory #1: You know the whole "I love you/I love you more" game we play with our kids? Well, one day I told them I could prove it that parents love their kids more than their kids love their parents. I said, "Parents never leave their kids, but kids grow up and leave their parents. See? I proved it." And now it's part of our "I love you/I love you more game". Backstory numero dos: Hambone is HORRIBLE with his money. Super generous to others, which is good, but can't hold onto money for nothin'. He'll buy treats for his siblings, he'll buy eggs from his sister (and no, I don't make my kids buy their own food...he just wanted in on the egg business), he just can't hang onto it...and I'm frequently telling him to spend his money wisely. So...last night at b

Sometimes, I just feel like writing. Even when I have nothing important or earth shattering or silly or smart to say. I guess maybe I ju st like hearing myself talk? Who knows. What I do know is that I miss this place. This outlet. This teeny little voice of mine on the world wide web. I took some photos of a sweet 6 month old last weekend...he has the most amazing blue eyes and best chubby little rolls you've ever seen!  He reminds me of my Dubya...laid back little chubba. Speaking of Dubya, he missed out on joining a travel baseball league last year...and has been pestering us ever since to sign him up this year. So, we contacted coaches, discussed pros and cons and decided, yes. What the heck, let's give it a go. That same week he "won" (earned is probably a better word) a Kindle Fire from a school fundraiser for selling the most raffle tickets...special thanks to my mom and dad's friends that helped support his endeavor and purchased oodles of

Yesterday we celebrated Hambone's First Holy Communion. It was a day filled with family and focused on our sweet (goofy) boy. We had an awesome brunch with loved ones, followed up by mass...have I mentioned how wonderful our priest is? He's amazing. He captures your attention and gives his homilies in a way that is engaging and relatable. And, he looks like Jesus. OH, and, he thumps kids with his hymnal when he recesses out after mass...this has sort of become legendary and the kids clamber to the aisle seats to get smacked by Father. :) It's hilarious. While we were snapping photos of the boy of honor with various relatives, it dawned on me that the last First Communion that we celebrated (whoa...the "last first", 'cuz that's not confusing), which was 2 years ago, looked like this: See all that green? Yeah, we're still battling with a decent amount of snow on the ground...that is dwindling by the hour with the warm temps we'