Name that Photo Contest!

It's been awhile since I've had a contest on this 'ol blog.  I'd say we're about due, wouldn't you?  

You know the rules***:

1.  Look at the photo

2.  Leave me your clever response in the 'comments'

3.  Sit and hopefully wait for me to choose your answer

4.  Come back and visit again soon to see if you won

Simple as that.

I usually give away Starbucks gift cards, but since that's not a very original idea or appealing prize during these HOT summer days (though it would be to me), I'm going to up the ante.  How 'bout a $5 gift card to...to...oh, I know!  Sonic!  A gift card to Sonic!  (they have really good pina colada slushes).  Hey, $5 at Sonic can go a long way...Happy Hour, people!

Here's the photo (I know what she's doing in this pic, but I'm not telling):

Name it!

Winner will be announced on Thursday (or maybe Friday).  

***Contest ends tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 7:00 p.m.***

Peaceful Sleep

I'm going to do as Baloney asked and do her Mr. Linky thingy and give you my inspirational photo and Bible verse.  I'm sure I'll get better at this...this is just my first shot.  I hope I linked it correctly.  

I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.  Psalm 4:8

I love that verse and reflect on it often.

Have a peaceful day!

Swimming Pool Confessions

You won't believe what I bought yesterday. I can't believe what I bought yesterday. Even last night when I got home, I took it out of the bag and laid it on the bed and just stood there staring at it, shaking my head. What have I done? I mean, it was a great sale, but...but...what have I done??

I'm throwing all caution to the wind and (literally) jumping in the pool feet first.

I'm stepping out of my comfort zone...BIG TIME!

For the first time since giving birth to 3 babies within 5 years 2002, I'm going to wear one of these to the pool tomorrow.

(this is not me).

A bikini! YIPES! (I've been a tankini girl for the past 6 years--more coverage, you know).

(Deep breaths--you can do it).

I have not exposed my belly to the public in many, many years. Once upon a time, I had a pretty good bod...which included a flat stomach and big, well, you know...boobies. But now I have a bit of a tire 'round the middle and my you-know-what's have had the life sucked out of them (literally--I breastfed all three babies for at least a year--they are NOT what they used to be). But I'm going to get over it. I've spent the last month checking out all the other moms at the pool and I've decided if they can do it, so can I. So tomorrow I will parade around the pool cower in the corner of the baby pool in my new black bikini feeling like I'm wearing my bra and underwear in public. (Thank goodness it was 50% off in the store, I won't feel bad if it ends up in my drawer for the rest of time).

I'm going to be like the Little Engine That Could..."I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...."

Wish me luck! (betcha I chicken out and put the tankini back on).


Here's my answer to yesterday's What Would You Rather Do? question:

This one was SO easy for me...I had to give it absolutely no thought. When I posted the question yesterday, I already knew my answer. I would definitely rather see into the future. Many reasons...I could protect my family and myself from hurt, etc. I could comfort and prepare people better knowing what was in store for them, I could be ahead of the fashion curve (that would just be a fun perk, huh)? But mostly, I wouldn't want to hear the hurtful things people were thinking about me and my family and my friends/loved ones. And hearing all those thoughts all the time...that would sure be a lot of noise in my head.

What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday

I finally finished the Twilight series about a month ago, so I decided that today's What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday will have a Twilight feel to it.

That being said...Would you rather....

Be able to see into the future

or

Be able to read people's minds/thoughts

Let me know what you'd rather do...I'll give you my answer tomorrow! (this is an easy one for me, I had to give it very little thought).

Stay cool and happy Wednesday!

Splish Splash

Today we made an very impromptu stop at the new park/splash pad.  Our city really did a nice job with this park.  It was a raggedy, run down old park but over the winter they wiped the slate clean and now we have a sparkling new, fun park with a splash pad added.  Good job on this one, Tulsa.

Since I haven't posted any photos in about a week, I decided to post a few pics of our morning of splish splashing.  Let me give this disclaimer...we were quite the ragamuffin group...we were NOT planning on being out in public this morning.  But it didn't matter--what you wear doesn't determine your amount of fun! (However, I did make the kids run to the far side of the park when our local NBC affiliate showed up with their TV cameras.  I was NOT going to let the kiddos or myself be seen on camera looking like we did).

Here we go...keeping cool on a hot summer day... 

(oh, one other disclaimer, sorry for the quality of the photos...these were taken with my iPhone, not my big camera, so...you get what you get).

Josie spent much of the time sitting on this rock with her piggy toes in the water singing.  In this particular photo she was singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."

Ah--refreshing cool water.  On that note...if you are reading this from Oklahoma, please use the brain that God gave you and don't do anything silly and get overheated (like mowing or exercising in the middle of the day).

Happy Monday!!

MIA

I know, I know...I've been MIA these past few days.  If you follow me on Twitter you know that I've overbooked myself/family for a few weeks.  And my poor blog is being neglected.  Here's a quick...no photos included (because I haven't had time to download) rundown of this past week:

But first things first...my answer to What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday...

I would take the ugly, nice guy.  Niceness can make a person beautiful.

Now for our week.  We had:

Vacation bible school every morning...

Swimming lessons every evening...

Ballet...

Going away party for Katie's teacher she had last year (more on this later)...

Many hours clocked in at the pool (I know this was a decision that we could've passed on during this crazy week, but it's summer, we have to take advantage of it)...

WM in a golf tournament for 3 days...

On top of a stressful week at work...

And that's just stuff that was out of our normal weekly routine.  Now, let me say, I don't like all this running around one bit.  I'm not one of those moms who has every minute of their kids summer scheduled.  Actually I'm the opposite of that.  I only let them choose one activity, but it just happened that VBS and swimming and the golf tournament all fell during the same week.  But it's okay...I can go with the flow.  Luckily next week is just swimming lessons.  Then, we'll start getting ready for the birthday marathon (all 3 of the Little Lams' birthday's are within 6 weeks of each other...Katie's and Patrick's are 5 days apart).

I'll be better about keeping up this week.  I think I'll be able to find some spare time...

Happy Sunday!

AND--I love my husband...he's the best dad ever!  I knew I'd married a great man, but what an awesome dad he is!!  HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, WM!!! I love you!

And I love my dad, too!  I don't see him often enough, but I love him!  And I love my stepdad, too.

Happy Father's Day to all the daddy's out there!!

What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday

This What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday questions come via WM. This is for the girls (as if there's many dudes reading my blog). Here we go...

Would you rather...

Marry a super hot, super rich guy who treats you horribly and is a real jerk

or

Marry a super ugly, super poor guy who treats you wonderfully and is nice to others.

Leave me your answer in the comments section!!!

I (Heart) Movies

Because I've been super busy this past week and because I've overbooked myself and my family for the next 2 weeks, I can't come up with anything clever to post about and my weekend was so wild that I can't even do a Weekend Wrap Up.  So for today, you get my Top 10 Favorite Movie lines.  Yes, I think you'll be able to tell what some of my fav movies are, and you'll also see that some of the best lines come from children's movies. (I have way more than 10 favorites, but I had to draw the line somewhere).

Here we go:

10.  "Cars didn't drive on it to make great time, they drove on it to have a great time. -- Sally, Cars.

9.  "I don't know what to do with my hands." -- Ricky Bobby, Talladega Nights.

8.  "You know, I've never understood what that means, but no, I'm not 's@%*ing' you. -- Melanie Carmichael, Sweet Home Alabama.

7.  "Miss Truvy, I promise my personal tragedy will not interfere with my ability to do good hair." -- Annelle, Steel Magnolias.

6.  "And 'cause I was a gazillionaire, and I liked doin' it so much, I cut that grass for free." -- Forrest, Forrest Gump.

5.  "Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina." -- Ron Burgandy, Anchorman.

4.  "Chip, I'm gonna come at you like a spider-monkey!" -- Texas Ranger, Talladega Nights.

3.  "You have to do the best with what God gave you" -- Mrs. Gump, Forrest Gump.

2.  "Your Grace! Your Grace!  Please wait!" -- Cinderella, Cinderella.

And my #1 favorite movie line (get the tissues ready)...

1.  "I realize as a woman how lucky I am.   I was there when that wonderful creature drifted into my life and I was there when she drifted out.  It was the most precious moment of my life." -- M'Lynn, Steel Magnolias.

Oh my gosh--I'm totally crying right now.  Sally Field's cemetery scene in Steel Magnolias gets me every time...even more now that I'm a mother.  That is my #1 all time favorite movie...EVER!  I think every line of that movie is one of my favorite movie lines.

Hope you all have a have a happy Monday!!!

Love Ya!

My Gross Answer

I really haven't put any thought into what my post would be about today because I've been too busy basking in the sun of my reign as the newly crowned Queen of the Gross.  So I thought I'd give you my answer to yesterday's completely disgusting What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday question.  I admit that I was proud that a few of you actually answered it.  It was just SO gross.  Like I've said I'm a germaphobe, so it was tough for me to post it.  But here's my answer:

I would lick the floor.

I know that sounds completely disgusting, but I think that I could find a teeny tiny remote spot on the floor that wasn't completely gross then I'd stick my tongue out and barely, barely, barely touch it to the floor.  And that would be it.

But chewing other people's gum--that sickens me.  There's just something about putting something in my mouth that has been chewed by someone else and has their saliva all over it...uck.  And then add the whole stuck on the handrail with all those nasty, unwashed hands touching it.  No thank you.  (and haven't you read those reports that show that handrails are dirtier than toilets/bathrooms).

There you have it.

Our gross-out lesson is over.  Thank you very much.

What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday

Hold on to your stomachs girls (and boys)...this week's edition of What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday is gross...it grosses me out to the core, but my pre-teen niece and nephew were having this discussion, so I had to put it out there...here we go...(I can't believe the germaphob in me is asking this)....

What Would You Rather Do?

Lick the floor of a dirty public bathroom

or

Chew previously chewed gum that was stuck on a NYC subway hand rail.

BLECK--is that gross or what?

But what would you rather do???

I'll give you my answer tomorrow.

Summer Lessons

I've been promising a post on our "Summer Lessons", so I thought I might as well just quit procrastinating (ahem, yes...I do that...A LOT) and get with it. So here goes...

In an attempt to continue my 5 year old's love of learning and keep her skills where they are/need to be when she goes back to school, I decided to plan a summer of fun learning lessons. I've also tweaked them a bit so that I can work with Patrick (3 year old) on things such as letters, numbers, etc. Things a 3 year old should be doing. Poor Baby Lam, I didn't adjust things for her...she gets to be a couch potato or waste away in the Land of Barbie's and Hotwheels.

Before I start let me give this little disclaimer: I AM NOT A TEACHER. Nor do I plan to be a teacher, I'm just doing what I know to do to keep Katie's skills up and to teach Patrick to read/write letters, numbers, etc. I'm not claiming to be educating my children in the sense that school does. I'm just supplementing.

Each week I have a lesson plan that follows the theme for the week. Our little lessons take about 30 minutes. It is summer after all and the kids want to have time to play and be kids. Here's what this week's looks like:

This week's theme: Nature
Letters we're working on: R, I, K
Numbers: 4, 5
Words: dirt, tree, flower, bird, bug
Activities: planting flowers, naming different types of flowers and trees, nature walk
Sight words: earth, color
Art: leaf rubbings
Religion: story of Noah's Ark

I could try to explain to you what we're doing with the letters for a 5 year old vs. a 3 year old, same with numbers and colors, etc. but that would make this post too long. Let's just say that all of our worksheets and activities revolve around these things, and like I said a adjust things so they are age appropriate.

So there it is in a nutshell. I have all 12 weeks of our Summer Lessons planned out, so hopefully Katie will be able to pick up right where she left off and Patrick will be doing calculus and biophysics when school starts back up in the fall.

If you have any questions or need ideas, leave me a comment or email me and I can go into more detail for you or tell you what the rest of my lessons are for the summer. I'm all about sharing ideas...one mama to another, right!

Now, in the words of Forrest Gump...that's all I have to say about that.

One more quick thing...not sure how many of you are blog "super users" (a.k.a. read many blogs from across the country/around the world), but if you are, in light of whether a certain blog is a scam or not, I would like reassure you that I, in fact, am a real person, really do have three kids and a great husband, and two dogs and a cat. Yep, I'm real...so real in fact that I'm going to wrap up this post because I've got to go pee! (I know, TMI).

Love ya--get ready for tomorrow's What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday. It's gonna be gooooooooooooood (just make sure you put on your steel stomach, it's a little gross)! hee hee!

Love ya like a lemondrop! See ya tomorrow!

Yummmmmm, Yum!

This is going to be a quick post. I'm busy and WM just got home from being away for on a guy's hunting/golfing/fishing trip since Wednesday so I have family time to be enjoying. But I have to say....

Is there anything more yummy on a summer day than a nice cold ice cream cone?

And is there anything cuter than daddy's little girl sneaking a lick of his ice cream cone?

I think not.

Happy Sunday!

Feel the Burn

One of the curses of having pasty white (Irish) skin is that you can't be out in the sun for more than about .37 seconds or you'll get a nice little sunburn.  Being that I've dealt with the "Irish skin curse" for nearly 40 years (NO, I'm not 40--but I'm closer to 40 than I am to 30) you'd think I'd be smart enough to not go out in the sun without a good slathering of sunscreen.  I'm telling ya, I've had some of the world's worst sunburns--I've seen my skin do things that just don't seem natural.  My sweet WM has that great skin that tans easily, but unfortunately for my kiddos, they've inherited the Irish skin gene. It's a strong gene, that Irish gene...don't mess with it.

So last weekend we made our Summer of '09 debut at the pool.  We got there, I whipped out the sunscreen, got everyone covered and in to the pool we went for a couple of hours of fun in the sun.

I apparently forgot the back of Baby Lam...

Poor baby...but she didn't and hasn't fussed about it a bit (that photo was taken 4 days after the initial outing, so there's some fading going on).

Again, I'm sure that I'm a shoo-in for the World's Worst Mom Award.  Seriously, what is wrong with me?

And my answer for yesterday's What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday? is...(drum roll, please)...

Gosh, I really don't know.  But I think I have to go with Los Angeles even though I pretty much like everything about NYC better (fashion, shopping, architecture, spirit), I'm not sure I could handle the weather.  That's just how bad my dislike of cold weather is.

What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday

Here's this week's question (I know, I know, it's kinda lame, but still, I'd like to see your answers)...

What Would You Rather Do?

Would you rather live in New York City

or 

Would you rather live in Los Angeles?

Leave me a comment with your answer.  I'll give you mine tomorrow!

Happy Wednesday!!!

It's Okay to Just be a Mommy!

I think most of my readers know that I work part-time out of the home. I fall into that gray area where I can't identify with either set of moms...stay-at-home (yes, kind of)...working mom (yes, kind of) and neither group will really accept me into their realm of mommyhood. It's a tough place to be, but after nearly 6 years, I've learned to be comfortable with being an outsider. It's a nice balance for me.

Anyway, I don't work on Mondays or Fridays (or Saturdays and Sundays, for that matter). Those are my days at home with the kiddos. Lately, however, it doesn't seem that those days have been spent "with" my kids. Sure, I'm here with them, but not really with them. During the school year, I spent my M/F (that is short for Mondays and Fridays) volunteering, logging onto work email and working, doing all the laundry/housework, etc., etc. I didn't decide to stay home with the kids so I could be the maid...I stay home to be the Mom. I think I've blogged before about the difficulty of finding balance in my life. But I'm at a point in my life where the scales aren't going to be balanced. And I'm okay with that!

But this weekend I decided "enough is enough". I am my kids mom, the only one they've got and they need me to be present. So you wanna know what we've done today??

Yoga--yes (me and kids--well the kids were in and out, but Baby Lam stayed with me the whole time and attempted to do yoga--it was SO funny. I'm not sure how "centered" I was because I was laughing so hard at her cute little poses).

Library--yep

Summer lessons--yep (I promise, I really am going to do a post on this sometime soon).

Outside play time--yep

Naps--yep

Dance party--yep

Made cookies--yep

Read books--yes

Jump on the bed--yes

Make the beds--no

Laundry--nope

Clean up the kitchen--nope

Pick up the toys--nope

House is a total mess--yeppers

Logged into work--not today (that was a hard one not to do).

I know WM is going to come home, take a look around and wonder what in the world I've done today. And you know what I'm going to tell him????

"Just been being a mom to our kiddos"

And I've loved it!