Fridays? Grrr!!!

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This year, with Mr. Man's new schedule and the growing kids' desire to be little litterbugs, my Fridays have become a day I don't look forward to.

It's the most hectic since field trips, competitions, concerts, deadlines, fees due dates and budget reconciliation-- all fall on this day! It plain bites! And then there's the cleaning...

For example, this morning, I spent over 10 minutes picking up in the smallish kiddos' room just to get all the stuff strewn on the floor! And since our ex-guest/free tenant set the bad example of "dining en suite" by sneaking out snacks from the upstairs pantry, I also saw empty snack packs on the floor! (can you say fuming? She's already gone and yet I'm still cleaning up after her mess! Grrrr!!!)

So for "correction tactics", snacks were rescinded for today, all laundry have to be done tonight, bed was made (my way), clothes are being folded right after the dry cycle and dinner is simple and they had to help. I figured since they expended their brain and body energy into being "mischievous", I am within my parental rights to "redirect it" and make them productive!

I will achieve two things-- clean space and clothes (albeit temporary) and clothes sorted out to what fits now and next year. Simply, more reduction and organization compliments of their laziness and sneaky ways!

It is true, opposition is needed in all things... It cures complacency and deceit- in my house anyways...

Gotta love my kids!

Sometimes you just know...

When a great day awaits you... Like TODAY!

First, we had a great (though not so healthy) cinnamon rolls and milk breakfast (Mom of the Year nominee here. LOL)

Then the kiddos again (whoa, totally impressed) finished and helped each other with, their chores. (Do I have a fever?)

After that they rested a bit with some books and tv and I started to make the lumpias on the table. While I was preparing the Lumpia Shanghai (Filipino eggrolls), I heard repeated happy chirping. At first, I thought our cockatiel Dexter was in a singing mood, but when I looked in his cage, he was quietly moving around. Then I heard it again! I asked I-Dude and J-Pony, who were on the couch if they heard the chirping. "It sounds close" was enough to have them turn off the tv and investigate up the trees through the window. Sure enough, there was a bird up in there singing its heart out. "I see a red bird up there!" squealed I-Dude and I quickly washed my hands, grabbed the camera and looked through the window myself. Of course, I didn't see anything. So I went out and saw it, but as if teasing me, jumped out of sight a few times until I had to circle the tree and caught this beautiful, but "camera shy" red cardinal bird trying to hide from view.

So shy in fact, that right after this shot, it flew away into the small wooded area from our unit. Isn't it beautiful?

I went back to making the egg rolls and though many of the wrappers were hopelessly stuck together and thrown away, I still managed to stash away, 2 1/2 gallon bags of lumpias in the freezer! Yes, I'll have about 165 lumpia pieces after I cut each one into three smaller ones for the party's appetizer! Will have to show the cooked version on Monday. Arms too tired to test out any. ;-(

(That's due to four hours of gently separating, restacking, filling, rolling, sealing each lumpia; and keeping moist the wrappers just right; and... breathing through the frustration of "almost done separating just to have it rip" moments, a bit too many times!)

In the afternoon, we had planned a dinner/swim playdate with a great family in our ward. They just bought a house with this great pool that my two little ones fully tested out. LOL

Inside, she made a great dinner of steak, rolls, corn, mac-n-cheese and Sprite. Everything was delicious and now, I think my children want to be adopted. LOL

They even invited us to come along and hang out at Costco and the mall. It was inspired since I needed to order J's cake for Monday. Then we headed to the mall and that's when the kiddos let me take their pictures. But of course, it's never that easy... Their friend "M&MS", had a great smile, but J hid and I-Dude had a sour face...

Then the silliness came out full force! Let's see, "Peace to tongues hanging out?" ;-D

Or maybe, "Look at the different ways we can make the letter V with our fingers!" (While our faces look distorted) LOL

L-Infinity was with us, but me, Amy and L didn't want to have our mugs grace the lens, so we enjoyed these three's willingness.


This impromptu "street" glamour photoshoot happened on this side of the parking lot.

At this mall...

While people are passing by! There's my great friend, Amy. I promised I wouldn't get her in the shot, but I didn't promise accidentally shooting a wide shot with the back of her head in it. (Let's hope she doesn't mind...) She's a working mama, so I don't get to hang out with her much but we have so much fun when we do! Glad I got to see her today. (Yay!)

You can't beat a great day of swimming, good food, good friends and simple activities.

Amy and "M&MS", love ya for inviting us today!

Memorial Day Crack-up

We had a late start today, about 1pm late. ;-) But we made the best of it of course.

Got errands done after we did a quick rearrangement of the storage. We even managed to do a barbeque within two hours of dinner time with a matching tablescape!

But the highlight of the day is I-Dude's quick witted ways. We love his ability to come up with songs or sayings or stories even, on the fly. Like tonight, during dinner... One of our veggies was steamed broccoli. He loves the funny sound of the song "Barbie World" or something rather and starts to announce,

"Mommy, look at this broccoli." Then he started singing with the broccoli floret as his mike, I'm a broccoli boy, in a broccoli world. It's fantastic, being eaten! (The lyrics go, I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world. It's fantastic, being plastic.) We all, were just lucky enough to not have too much in our mouths when he sang. We laughed so hard that there was a 5-minute lapse in our eating time! LOL

If you laughed, have a cupcake, if you didn't have a cupcake anyway. It's a white cupcake with chocolate frosting and raspberries. I made too many. Ok, I only made 22, but my family's only allowed one so there are many left. Go on! I even put powdered sugar on yours. You know you want one! I won't tell anybody... ;-)


(Psst! That saucer, I mean, dessert plate, it's a Mikasa Intaglio Collection called, "Annette". I got it at Goodwill for 59 cents each and I found 6! Perfect for today, huh?)

Bet you weren't counting on getting a song and a treat just for reading this post, huh? ;-)

Hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend!

MM# 6: Tele-what?

Setting: Last night, around the dining table after a late dinner...

Plot: Jasmine correctly guessed what Ian (or somebody on the table) said.


Jasmine: (pointing to her temple, giggling from pride) "You know Mommy, I'm good. I'm telepathetic!"

Me: (I barely heard it) "What? Tele-what?"

Jasmine: (still beaming) "TELE-PATHETIC! Cause I guessed it right, so I'm TELEPATHETIC!"

Everyone: (Laughed till our sides hurt!)

I think she meant TELE-PATHIC, don't you?

"Ring aound da wosie..."

Not much to report, just that I had soooo much fun playing, eating (we had two birthday boys and Sis. Cook broke out the big guns and brought delish choc chip cookies!) and playing in the Nursery with the "cutie" crew. Between the squeals of laughter and the running and spinning around, we got a lesson squeezed in there about the proper way to pray to our Heavenly Father.

All of them know how to pray, mind you, with emphasis on how thankful they are for their Mommy and Daddy and Mommy and Daddy and a pet or two then their siblings if applicable. Toy cars seem to be the #1 on the WANT list. Oh yeah, we love ending our little circle with "Ring aound da Wosie" about 3-4 times.

How can you not looooove such a calling?

MM #5: Bad Note Free

Lately, between the long winter break and their recent 4-day weekend, Ian has been having a little trouble keeping still at school and has been bringing home reminder notes from his teacher for us to sign. He's been quite upset at his own behavior because no good day means no access to his Hot Wheels or Legos.

Yesterday afternoon; Ian after getting off the bus and meeting up with me at the mailbox:

"Mommy, bad note free. Mommy, bad note free."

Me: What?

Ian: "Bad note free."

Me: What do you mean?

Ian: "I got a stamp! No bad note! So, "bad note free!"

His teacher gives out stamps for every day that they behave well enough in the classroom. He wanted to emphasize that he didn't get a note, he got a stamp!

MM #4: Do You Get It Now?

Jasmine is in the room right now practicing, Old McDonald on her recorder. This is what we heard:

Rather slow and beautiful to listen to:

Toot..toot..toot..toot..toot-toot-toot...

Then she gets to the E-i-e-i-o

Toot-toot-toot-toot-toot!!! (on steroids)

Me: What was that?

Ian: (laughing on the floor)

Me: Jasmine, what was that?

Jasmine: I'm playing Old MacDonald, you know, "e-i-e-i-o!"

Plays it again two more times then asks, "Do you get it now?"

Ian: (still laughing on the floor!)

I guess I'll just have to listen better, huh? (Can't type well, still laughing myself!)

MM #2: There Were Three Presidents...

Ian loves telling this joke...

There were 3 presidents and each was holding an apple, a potato and a bomb. Each president decided to throw away what they held, so the first president threw his apple away.

The apple hit a kid who cried all the way to school. His teacher asked why and he said, "I was just walking and an apple hit me on the head!"

The next day, the 2nd president threw his potato away.

The potato hit the same kid. When his teacher asked him why he was crying again, he said, "I was just minding my own business when a potato hit me on the head!"

On the third day, the third president decided to throw his bomb away. The same kid arrives at school and he started laughing because the third president hit the school with the bomb!

I still don't get this joke, but Ian can't tell this joke all the way through without laughing so hard!

Memory Maker #1: The Faucet Kept Running

Jasmine: "Mommy, what happened when A LETTUCE, A TOMATO and A FAUCET entered a race?"

Me: "What?"

Jasmine: "Well, the lettuce is ahead, the tomato is trying to ketchup, while the faucet kept running!"

I busted up laughing, but I guess the joke was meant exclusively for me because between the two of us, I was the only one who thought it was funny...

I want to capture more of these moments while my children are young and their funny bones are at its peak. So, starting tonight, when you see this balloon happy face, and the title, Memory Maker, it's about what our funny children came up with...