thou shalt not covet

but i can't help it.  i'm dying for one of these right now.

and one of these, so that a certain little toddler can ride along.

what do you you think?

doesn't this look like fun?

photo pose

this is ethan's "photo pose" lately whenever someone points a camera at him. his tongue is out, trying to imitate kung fu panda po while he's having acupunture, and his fingers pointing at random things. the photo doesn't capture the sound effect though, a kind of "uuuhh?" noise like po makes. why does he feel compelled to pull this face when he see's the camera?  funny guy.

distraction

we did a ton of yard work last saturday, i'm sure our neighbors were singing hallelujia behind their closed doors. the kids were awesome, i don't know how i will ever be able to manage all that needs to be done without their help. ethan had several jobs too, but his attention span is shorter than the older kids. somewhere near the end of our weeding party, we lost him, and the older kids, to this:

sometimes, distractions are a great thing.

easy peasy

did you know, that you can wrap fabric around a frame and hang it on your wall and voila! you have beautiful canvas art?  it's true. and pretty inexpensive. especially considering that i just saw something like this in the pier 1 catalogue, each block was $30!! whatever. make them yourself for about $10.

these are the blocks that i made for my bedroom:

and these are the super cool ones that i made for ethan's room. i love that they fill up so much empty space on the wall - and that they hang so straight and perfect thanks to karrie's awesome laser level. thanks karrie!

the photos just don't do them justice, they are so much cuter in person.

 i have an idea for using old photo frames fro the DI without the glass to make a collage of little ones on allie's wall. i'll let you know how it turns out. easy peasy, just the way i like decorating to be.

more than you really want to know

i'm long over due for an addition to my 100 things about me list. so here we go.

1. i've always longed to visit the redwood forest, i think i need to see it in person because the photos are so stunning i don't really believe what i'm seeing.

2. i love to collect plates, especially salad size. i finally bought plate hangers and hung my collection on my kitchen wall. they make me so happy!

3. i feel baddly that i am NO help to my kids with their math homework. poor rich. he's their hands-on tutor and only hope of any help.

4. tiny sample bottles of perfume are one of my favorite things.

5. i have the world's best girlfriends. seriously.

6. i think i'm a pretty good cook, but i am a TERRIBLE cookie maker. it's just not my thing.

7. i try not to make my bed before i've said my prayers in the morning. then when i see my unmade bed, i remember to pray.

8. i found out tonight that i'm going to be camp director again next year. i wonder what the record is for consecutive years is? my biggest fear is that the girls will be disappointed when they hear it's me again.

9. at camp this year, i won the "dancing queen" award because of my late night partying in the cabins. it was the most fun i've had in a long time.

10. i found out this summer, that i love twitter. i don't really follow anyone on it, i just like being able to give short little blurbs about my life without the pressure of followers or comments. and i am obsessed with making each entry exactly 150 characters.

11. loving bananagrams lately.

12. i'm finding that driving lessons with taylor are not so bad. i'm more patient than i thought i would be, maybe because i remember how nervous i was at that age. of course, we haven't left the parking lot yet...

13. i recently got my nails done, a birthday gift from rich. they are too fancy for my plain jane self, but i love how feminine they make me feel.

14. i love cherry dipped cones from dairy queen, but only when they hand them to you fresh out of the dipper and the shell is still soft. once it gets hard, it's just not worth the calories.

15. i am needing a creative photography project right now. any ideas?

16. feeling TICKED that all the tickets for the midnight showing of new moon are already sold out. all the screaming fans made the mediocre twilight movie so entertaining. it just won't be the same without them.

17. i stopped drinking diet coke. i'm kind of scared to put that one in writing.

that's enough for now.

then and now

every time i remember to take a photo of kitchen with the cabinets all painted and hung, it's a total mess and i put it off for later. well, here it is about two months or so later, and apparently, my kitchen is never clean. so i'm posting the photo dirty dishes and all. just to remind ya'll what the kitchen looked like when we bought this money pit, er, i  mean house, a before photo.

green wall paper, and lots of it, brass light fixtures that made it impossible to talk to someone across the counter, super dry wood cupboards that looked like they needed a big drink of water, and of course, the gross floor. bleh. so here we are today.

new cherry wood floor, sanded, primed and painted cupboards with updated hardware, new lights that stay on the ceiling where they belong, and of course, no more wall paper. 

so there is still lots to be done, i have more plates to hang, a lot of touch up painting to be done, and i'm coveting some new butcher block style counter tops, but over all, it's finished and i'm THRILLED with the results. it was a loooooong processes and a ton of work, but worth it for sure.

ready, steady, GO!

ever since the first day of sunbeams caused such separation anxiety in the toddler, i've been feeling a little bit nervous about what pre-school would be like this year. with the older kids, i waited until they were four before i sent them, but ethan has such a hard time in the fall when everyone goes back to school, that i figured starting him earlier might be fun for him. and let's face it, with no little people in the house, he can definitely use opportunities to practice his social skills. so, in getting ready for school to start, we've been talking a lot about it, how fun it will be, his cool new backpack, singing songs, his great teacher, new friends, you get the idea. so yesterday, was the preschool open house, a good way to gauge his anxiety level since mom was invited to come along.

i started to feel less nervous when:

he marched on in like he owned the place. was THRILLED to see miss laurie and ran to give her a big hug. headed straight for the puzzles. went nuts over the big bucket of animals. dug in the sand with a new friend. tested out the slide.found a treat in the treasure box. and told miss laurie, "see ya tomowo fow pwe-stool!"

and he did.

today when i dropped him off, he waved bye to me on his way in not caring for a second that i was driving away and leaving him there.

so i'm starting to think, maybe i should try the "drop and drive" approach with sunbeams. what do you think?

for my honey

happiest birthday to my wonderful husband.

(this photo is an oldie but goodie, one of my favorites.)

if everyone were as kind, and peacemaking as rich, the world would be a better place.

i'm such a lucky girl, and i'm thankful every day for this sweet man in my life.

happy birthday babe, i love you tons!

now if i could just think of some awesome gift for you...

gLeek

hi, my name is wende, and i am a gLeek.

(no, not a fountain of spit.)

i am in
L-O-V-E
with this new show!

cheesie?
absolutely.
(but in a fantastic sort of way)

if you haven't seen it - check it out!