Some Recent Decisions

I have decided....

1. I will never coupon (I've probably mentioned this before). The last time I went to Meijer the dude at the checkout asked me if I had any coupons. When I responded, "no," he proceeded to hand me the coupons that print out at the end and told me that I should use them. I say to you Meijer check out dude, that coupon you just handed me will be shoved into my garbage can of a purse never to be seen or heard from again and I do not appreciate you making me feel guilty about that $1.50 I could have saved on the box of cat food I would have never bought anyways.

And to all you couponers out there who have saved $579.65 this past year, don't even try to convince me. My black hole of a purse proves I am incapable.

2. Parents who have their children's toys all organized and labeled have children that never play with toys. I swear on my life that every time I venture to the basement and spent forty five minutes organizing toys it is a challenge. A challenge to two little girls to see how quickly they can undo that work. Julia and Audrey sit and bide their time until I leave. I can just hear their maniacal laughs as they toss dress up clothes, little plastic shoes and the little teeny tiny eensy weensy Polly Pocket junk. Why do they only come equipped to destroy? Wouldn't it be awesome if kids found joy and learning in cleaning and organizing like they do playing and making a mess?

3. My house is turned into the princess compound every single day and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. I give you exhibit A:

This is built and cleaned up on average 4 times a day. It keeps Julia so occupied and so happy I can't bring myself to stop it though it drives Bryan insane. Cooking dinner certainly is a challenge. You should click on it to see the precision with which she creates this little world of hers. Oh to be a kid again. I hope she doesn't ever outgrow her little imagination.

4. I have a love/hate relationship with the two seater shopping carts. You know the ones. They are literally ten feet long and so difficult to maneuver. They allow my girls to both sit while leaving the shopping cart free of their bread smashing bodies but I swear every person in that grocery store can hear you from a mile away and good thing because if they don't get out of the way you'll probably inadvertently mow them over with the ginormous contraption (I kid you not I nearly plowed into three people today). Then the girls are sitting right next to each other which leads to, "Audrey touched me," "Doowee's laying on me." I have yet to decide if they're worth it.

5. Having friends move away doesn't get any easier with time, but it does help me remember how much I miss/adore them. I have had so much contact with old friends this week it is ridiculous. I have had so many phone calls and even visitors. I just wish I could create a perfect little city where we all could live within 10 miles of each other.

When we went to SC I forgot to mention that we visited the Lindleys. How could I have forgotten! They fed us the most delicious BBQ and all I could think while we were there is that I just know our girls would be best friends.

The Hagbergs came and visited the other day and I couldn't pass up this photo op even though they were pretty hesitant. Matchy matchy. Kara and I have very good taste.
The Gailey came and visited us again and we had the best time (We were supposed to have a visit from the Yeates too, hopefully soon!). Jessica had her baby this week and oh it just kills me to not hold little Emmy and help Jessica out. I chatted with several of my BFF's from the past this week and it was so great to catch up. I suppose the purpose of this rant is that even though having friends move away doesn't get any easier I am just so lucky that I am able to have such incredible friends. I love them all to pieces.


6. Audrey HATES the carousel. I took the girls to the zoo an thought I would splurge with a ride on the carousel. Audrey was totally game until I foolishly said, "Now hold on tight so you don't fall off." She took that to heart. Can you see the utter fear in her eyes?

Julia on the other hand was in heaven. Her ideal world consists of white horses and unicorns a plenty so you can imagine this was right up her alley.
Can you see that Audrey is getting prepared to start screaming and freaking out? Well that is exactly what she did. Pretty soon she was clinging to me and then the guy running the carousel told me she HAD to be on a horse. So you can just picture me shoving her back on the horse, while she's screaming and reaching for me. Good times.
7. The new exhibit at our zoo (polar bears) is so amazing. We were finally able to get down into the viewing deck because of smaller crowds. It was awesome. Something about a floating bear is quite serene.
These bears were enormous. I just LOVE the zoo in the fall. No crowds and the animals are usually out and about. Side note: Can you believe how long Julia's hair is these days? I also have a love/hate relationship with that as well but the love is winning over.
8. The oreos and milk I am consuming at this moment are a healthy snack and no one can convince me otherwise.

9. I cannot bear to watch t.v. without a dvr. Our dvr is freezing up and is in need of fixing. I tried to watch a show yesterday and couldn't do it. I should cancel our dvr because I could no longer watch television. Commercials sap my will to live. I cannot justify spending two hours watching a lame show when I could watch it in 30 minutes. I cannot do it. It must get fixed.

10. My little Audrey has the sweetest little singing voice. Her current favorite song is, "I Love to See the Temple." You will notice in this video a few things.
1. Julia anxiously flailing and whining to have a turn at singing.
2. Audrey jumping of and on the bench because she wanted to watch her singing and didn't realize in order to watch you must first sing.
3. I am painfully featured singing at one point in this video. Please disregard my "for the..."