Decaf Detox

I have a big announcement to make. BIG!

Decaf is NOT caffeine free.

Oh, you knew that already? Well, me too, kind of. But I didn't realize how caffeinated a decaf drink, **ahem**-a Starbucks Decaf Venti Mocha--really is. Let me tell you how I discovered (besides the fact that I Googled it). As you might have read, one of my New Year's Resolutions for 2010 is to only have one Starbucks a day. I know for those of you who are new to the blog this might sound crazy-that I was drinking more than one Venti Starbucks drink a day-but I was. But I'm not now. So, in my quest to keep to my resolution, there have been days where I didn't go get my normal drink...ALWAYS a Venti Decaf Mocha.

Jump forward a month or so...flowers are blooming, trees are budding...allergies are in the air. I've never had allergies, but an onslaught of a recent sneezing attack has made me rethink. I've always had headaches, and they seem to be more frequent, too. So, maybe, just maybe, I am acquiring allergies in my "old age." The sneezing is an annoyance. But the headache, oh, I can't handle the headaches!

Being the health conscious person I am, I started tracking when I get these headaches (I started tracking them mainly for hormonal purposes--sorry any dudes out there--it's just something that we women have to do to figure out what the heck is going on with these rockin' bods of ours. Just wait 'til I do my breastfeeding post). Anyway...I started to notice a pattern.

No Starbucks=headache.

Well, good for Starbucks, huh?

So today I've made an executive decision. I'm going cold turkey. Today, as I type this, I'm sipping on my last Starbucks. I'm sure it won't be my last one ever. But it's my last regular, get-a-coffee-once-a-day, have to have it Starbucks.

The main thing is this--I don't like my body depending on something to feel normal/good. I've de-toxed myself from caffeine before...about 8 1/2 years ago I went cold turkey from Diet Coke and Mountain Dew. It was tough...major headaches, fell off the wagon and went on a week-long Diet Coke binge, then said "enough is enough" and went totally caffeine free. Then a couple years ago I discovered I like Venti Decaf Mocha's from Starbucks. Being decaf, I thought it would be okay. But it's caught up to me and again, I say, "enough is enough." If I did it once, I can do it again.

So bear with me if I'm grumpy. If my posts are gloomy and grumpy for the next week (which is usually not like me, I'm kind of a "rose colored glasses" type of gal). Encourage me, tell me it will be worth it. I'll need it. (I sound like a drug addict getting ready to go to rehab, huh)? It'll be hard because I like the taste of my Starbucks and I'll crave that creamy, chocolatey goodness. But I can do it!

Plus, think how many calories will be taken out of my daily consumption (450 calories, thankyouverymuch).

And, cha-ching! $33 per week in my pocket.

So come on--LET'S DO THIS THING!!!!

Help me, what've I done?

Let me reiterate...decaf does not equal caffeine-free.

Sweet Dreams

I love watching my baby girl sleep. When she sleeps she puts her sweet little hands under her cheek just like in the old fashioned baby product advertisements. It's too cute. She's done it since the day she was born.

Here she is on August 16, 2007--the day she was born (we didn't pose her little hands like that-she just did it).

Here she is two nights ago (I know the quality of the photo isn't very good--it was a dark room and I was working with very little light and an iPhone camera).

I hope when she's a sassy teenager and I walk into her room after she's fallen asleep, that she'll be lying there with her hands tucked sweetly under her cheek. She'll still be my baby even then and my heart will still feel like it's going to explode because I love her so much.

Sweet dreams!

Perfect Pairings--Palm Sunday

Again, like normal, I'm a little late getting this posted today. This is Katie waving her palms that she got at church this morning. We walked to church today and as we walked home, she waved them the whole way. You can see more Perfect Pairings over at Baloney's Blog.

¹²The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. ¹³They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Blessed is the King of Israel!" ¹⁴Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written,
¹⁵"Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey's colt."

--John 12: 12-15

Have a prayerful and peaceful Holy Week.

What's He Doing??

Here's a fun game...

Can anyone guess what's going on in this picture?

Check back next week...oh, say Tuesday after noon. I'll give you the answer, and the person with the closest guess wins. Wins something...I just don't know yet. Don't get too excited, though, it'll probably be something like a $5 Starbucks gift card or, hey! maybe a box of Girl Scout cookies!! I've certainly got enough of those laying around. But it won't be some big monumental prize.

So, give it a shot. What do you think Crazy is doing in that photo? (WM, you can't guess...you know the answer).

Friday Morning Blunder

You know what I don't like. I don't like disappointing my kiddos. I had my kids all excited about going to the library and taking part of the Toddler Tunes they were having today. But when we got there, we were greeted with this:

Dagnabit! My kids didn't understand, so I had to explain to them we weren't going to get to do our special activity. They were disappointed. So I let them check out lots and lots of books. Even (maybe purposely) let them be not so quiet respectful, yet, be kids and make some noise and didn't shush them every 5 minutes. They were disappointed, after all, and I was disappointed that the library didn't come up with something. Trust me, I've planned events--MANY events--and it doesn't matter what's going on, if you've advertised it, posted it on the web, etc., you'd better be ready for 1 person or 100 people. Especially when it comes to kids. Don't disappoint the kids--and don't have the parents go through all the rigamaroll to get everyone excited about the event, dressed, in the car, etc. Surely there was someone there that could've put on even a storytime or something for the kiddos.

BUT, that being said, we'll probably give it another try. I'll call ahead this time. Probably won't mention it to my kids until we're on our way.

Now...I'm stepping off my soapbox and not looking back. It didn't ruin our day or anything, we were just disappointed. We love the library (even though this wasn't "our" library, it was a different branch than we normally go to). I'm not a complainer, really, I'm not. We were just bummed. So we went to Chick-fil-A.

We're going to have lots of playtime OUTSIDE!

Happy weekend everyone!

Best Friends Forever--A review

You're going to want to sit down for this. Are you sitting? Good. I actually finally finished a book that I started over a month (possibly two months) ago. I LOVE to read, but my Three Little Lams keep me busy so I don't have much time to just sit and read. But I'm finding time, I'm carving out little bits of my day to just read a chapter or two. Or maybe I've stayed up a little later at night than I should to catch up on my reading. But, finally, I finished a book I've been working on. So, like I've said in the past, if you don't like book reviews, just click on the little red "x" and closer 'er on down...see ya tomorrow.

The book I finished was Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner. It's a book I picked up at the library (they are probably wondering what happened to it--it's being returned today, I promise library people). I got it because I've like Ms. (or Mrs.-I don't know) Weiner's books in the past...In Her Shoes, Little Earthquakes, Good in Bed, etc., etc. They are quick, easy, chick lit reads. This was no different. It was not a deep, thought provoking book. It was about a childhood friendship that went off course in high school and came back together later in the girls' lives. It's totally predictable, yet some parts are completely unbelievable. The main character, Addie, who has a quiet, stable, boring (to her) life in suburban Chicago ends up going on a cross country road trip with her childhood best friend, Valerie, to help Valerie escape from what she thought was a crime. To me, from the development of her character, it didn't seem likely that she would take such risks. There are a few other characters, Jordan, the detective who is following the girls across the country. Jon, Addie's brother who was hurt in a car accident as a teen and has brain damage and depends on Addie's care. Dan, the guy whom the crime was committed against. His character could've been (should've been) a major player, but he was just mentioned briefly here and there and then at the end of the book has a life changing revelation--that the reader is never really let in on. That was frustrating, here's this guy who was a total, jerk athlete in high school, did something terrible to Valerie, was still a jerk at their reunion, but then has a life changing turn around? Come on, let us know what exactly made him turn that corner, because it was a little unbelievable that a guy like that would just instantly change.

Best Friends Forever would make a great book for a gal to take the beach or sit by the pool and read. Very light, just entertainment. Like I said, not thought provoking or world changing. What I did like about it was that at the end, the message was that you didn't have to have the perfect, cookie-cutter life to be happy.

If it was summertime, I'd probably give it a 4 out of 5 stars...like I said, it would be excellent beach/pool/airplane reading. But since I was reading it during snow storms and cold weather (when I like something with a little more depth), I'm going to give it 3 out of 5 stars.

What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday

Wednesday kind of crept up on me this week and I don't have a really good question for this week. So I'll throw out one of those random, weird ones...

So, for What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday, would you rather...

Be able to instantly heal yourself when hurt

or

Skip on sleep whenever you want.

Leave me a comment and let me know what YOU'D rather do.

As for last week's question...I'd take the Bailey's (in a Starbuck's coffee, thankyouverymuch) anyday!

Fool

Fool me once...shame on you.

(This is Josie's fingernail polish artwork on the white carpet in her bedroom-done about 2 weeks ago. You can read about it here).

Fool me twice...shame on me.

(What this photo doesn't depict very well is that area of fingernail polish art is about 2' x 2'-it's a huge area).

Yes...call me a fool.

What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday--Irish Drink, Anyone?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

From the Three Little Irish Lams to you.

Here's a St. Patrick's Day question for What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday...

Would you rather have...

A Guinness beer

or

Coffee with Bailey's

Slainte!

Getting to Know You

Last Wednesday Katie's Kindergarten class invited their dads for "Donuts with Dad." The daddies joined their little ones for a "D" shaped donut and some special one-on-one time with their kiddo. One of the things the dads brought home was a "Daddy Facts" sheet that the kids did. Their teachers asked them the question and wrote down the answer. I thought you might like to get to know WM a little better...via our 6 year old daughter.

She was doing pretty well...got his name correct (thankfully, that would bad if she didn't know her dad's name!), she got his age right (I'm sure he appreciates me telling his age-but if you've ever met WM, you know he doesn't look 46).

His favorite food and drink...beer and raisins. That's great...but we're not sure where she came up with this. Especially the raisins??

Cooking...macaroni? Yeah, he can do that, but really WM's a pretty good cook.

The one that cracked us up the most was his favorite thing to do is "do funny stuff to my mom." Hopefully she's not talking about 'funny' stuff.

And what he says to her most? "No?" I guess that's better than what the kid next to her said his dad says most to him, which was "I don't care."

(She did better with his questions than she did when she was in pre-school and was asked questions about me--she said I was 17 years old and weighed 61 pounds and did commercials).

Katie and WM on their way to the 50's Dance at Katie's school.

WM and Katie have a very special relationship. The daddy/daughter relationship that you read about. From the minute she was born she was wrapped around his finger. It's really quite special. They even have their own special song (The Promise by When in Rome).

Happy Monday--it's SPRING BREAK!!! Yeah!!!

Perfect Pairings-Think on These Things

I love my girl's pondering looks these days. Hopefully she is reflecting on the below verse, one of my favorites. For more Perfect Pairings, go see Baloney.

Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. --Philippians 4:8.

Let's all think about these things.

Will Ferrell Strikes Again

I'm a HUGE Will Ferrell fan. That dude simply cracks me UP! Just about every movie and everything he does is hilarious to me. But I have kind of an odd ball sense of humor. I can watch his movies over and over and still laugh out loud. So I saw this and thought I'd start your Friday morning off with a little Will Ferrell and Dana Carvey (I loved SNL back in the day when it had that fabulous cast with these two guys and a whole host of other hilarious people).

Anyway...here you go...

Presidential Reunion: Bush Sr. vs. Bush Jr. from Will Ferrell

Happy Friday!

Dessert a la Six Year Old

Every once in awhile I like to share a recipe with you, so I thought I'd give this one to you today.

This one come via Katie, my 6 year old. She's an aspiring chef creative with food.

It's very simple and makes quite a beautiful presentation.

You need 3 simple ingredients:

1 slice of bread

1 Tag-a-Long Girl Scout cookie

5 Strawberries

This is easy...tear up the bread and put it in a bowl, then put the cookie in the middle, then make a circle of strawberries.

Here's what your finished dessert should look like--so pretty.

Gross, huh?

Sugary Goodness

Remember the days when you were a kid and your mom would take you for a special treat at Merritt's Bakery? You'd stand there looking through the glass bakery case looking at all the sugary goodness trying to decide which delectable treat you'd indulge in? What choices...frosted cookies, colorful cupcakes, donuts sprinkled in the colors of the next coming holiday. What a treat those days were.

Well...I never had those days. I didn't grow up here in Oklahoma. I grew up in a small, SMALL town in Kansas. We didn't have Merritt's. We had a Peter Pan...and...Dairy Queen. If I did grow up in Oklahoma, I bet my mom would've taken us (all four of us) to Merritt's for "Special Treat Day." Because that's the kind of mom she is/was-the awesome kind! (I love my mom)!!

Anyway, today I took my two little ones to Merritt's as a reward (follow through on a bribe, really) for not fussing about going to the Y and being cooperative all morning. They gazed through the bakery case, jumping up and down, pointing at each yummy treat before each one finally picked a great big cookies decorated at cute as could be with lots of colorful icing.

Josie with her cookie--a flower with a cute little lady bug.

Patrick chose the Fish cookie

We got in the car, they each took a bite. About 3 minutes down the street Patrick declared that he really didn't like his cookie ("can we go to Starbucks and get me some pumpkin bread since I don't like my cookie?" Me: "no"). Josie took a couple bites then proceeded to take the 2" of colorful frosting and smear it all over her jeans, car seat, hair, hands, face, shoes, socks, shirt, jacket. It was a mess of epic proportion.

We're not going back.

Perfect Pairings-Isaiah 45:6

I'm a little late getting this done today. For more Perfect Pairings go see the ski bunny, Baloney! (Sorry the photo isn't better quality, I was out running on the river trail at sunset and this is the best I could get with my iPhone).

so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is no other. --Isaiah 45:6

Today is the Day

Today is the day.

Today is the day I've been waiting for.

Today is the day the sun came out.

Today is the day I saw the daffodils and tulip leaves poking through the ground.

Today is the day that it reached 70 degrees.

Today is the day the kids played outside for 5 hours.

Today is the day I don't care that the kids have dirty fingernails.

Today is the day...

It felt like SPRING!!!!

Simple Math

I'm not good at math. But here's a math problem I solved pretty quickly this morning...

+

=

Unfortunately it also

=

It's simple math.

What Would You Rather Do? Wednesday-Summer, Summer, Summertime!

I refuse to believe that the endless winter we're having here in the great state of OOOOOOOOklahoma (where the wind--and apparently snow--comes...well, you know...down the plains, blah, blah, blah) is going to last much longer. I was sneaky and looked at the 'long term' forecast. This weekend, we're going to be pushing 70 degrees! If you could see me right now you'd see the tears of joy silently rolling down my cheeks!

So, in the spirit of spring and SUMMER! (yay summer!) here's today's What Would You Rather Do (or say in today's situation)? Wednesday:

That little number that you wear to the pool, do you call it:

A swimming suit

or

A bathing suit

Grab the sunscreen, self tanner (ahem) and let's talk about summer!

Why I Blog

Things have gotten crazy in the blog world.

Some good...some not so good.

The virtual world has exploded with blogs and there are some out there that I think need a good smack across the flat screen. Come on, people, be real, be honest.

I thank each of you who stop by here each day, or whenever, and peek into my little corner of the world. But for your new(er) comers who haven't been reading along since the beginning, I think I should let you know why I blog.

First, I am not a blogger.

I have a blog, but I'm not a blogger. I'm a wife and mommy.

I started this blog nearly 2 years ago to help my friends and family keep up with the antics of my family, mainly The Three Little Lams. And that's what this blog is mostly going to be about. Sure, I'll throw in some of the crazy things that happen to me or my perspective on the world around us. I'll even do a book and review every now and then (if I ever get around to finishing the book I started last month). I'll tell you about the latest movie I've seen (um...that would be The Princess and the Frog--wanna hear about it? No? Didn't think so).

Yes, I have signed up for Business 2 Blogger and I did one review. Which was okay and all, but that's not what this blog is about. If it was, I wouldn't have turned down three "opportunities" that I was chosen for last week. I'm not about gaining followers or making money off of this. I'm happy with 1 follower or 30,000 followers. Either way, I'm good. And if I wanted to be held to deadlines and following up, I would have continued working and not quit to be a stay-at-home mommy. I'm not going to jeopardize the integrity of my blog turning it into the format of television...60% content and 40% ads. No thank you. My family comes first, not my review of a titanium tree trimming device. Sure, I'll continue to do my "Things I Love" posts every now and then, but those will just be everyday items that I've run across and really find useful in my life (say, like the Yoplait Smoothies that WM and I are loving right now--tell ya about those later) and if a Business 2 Blogger opportunity really appeals to me, I'll do that, too. But don't plan on counting on this blog to be the place to go for reviews.

Lastly, but probably most importantly, the thing you'll find on this blog is honesty, integrity, humor and truthfulness. There are blogs out there that I read (or used to read) that inflate the truth or vague about events and some that straight up lie. Ugh. So reading this blog, you'll know that everything is 100% real. As I often say, "I'm just keepin' it real, people."

I'm sorry if I offend anyone, or you find stories about my three little wild ones a total bore, but this is my blog and I can say and do what I want on it.

Whew--that was deep. Deep, man, deep.

Check-In Day

Today is March 1. Can you believe it? March...WOW! When I hear March, I think "spring is almost here." Thank goodness.

But today is check-in day. Kind like people who do those weight loss programs have "weigh in" day, today is Resolution "check in" day. I know most of you probably don't really care how I'm doing, but this blog is a way of keeping me on track. I put it out there, so I gotta follow through, lest I let you down. Umm....yeah.

So here's the abbreviated version of how I did with my resolution during February:

Resolution #1:

Work out 5 days a week

I could give you all sorts of excuses of sick kids, sick me, snow covered earth, etc. But I won't, I'll just tell you that I failed on this one this month. It was very hit and miss. But I got a new spurt of inspiration this weekend...I'm back on the workout wagon.

Resolution #2:

Recycle more of our household items

CHECK! Done--doing it.

Resolution #3:

Only 1 Starbucks a day

For the most part success. I think I had one "failure day." Not bad.

Resolution #4:

Do 20 or more posts on the blog

CHECK! Did it!

Resolution #5:

Read at least 1 book per month.

No comment.

Have a happy Monday!