Random Day

My kids are cute. 

These pictures prove it.

But Darcy was in no mood to have her pictures taken this particular day. So, there's only 2 of her. But she's still cute.

A couple of things... which resulted in a really long post.

Our 230 gig hard drive is full (What?!?!) 

Thus not allowing me to add any more photos to iphoto.

Which is ironic since it's all of our thousands of pictures taking up all that space anyway. Ha ha.

We have a new hard drive waiting patiently. We just need to install it. 

Josh is planning on replacing it in his, ahem, spare time. :)

 When that grand event happens, I will be able to write about my mom coming to visit. AND Some fabulous friends from our beloved Pittsburgh also came to visit. It was a wonderful September.

 Also sitting on my camera is our pumpkin picking for the year, a fall foliage drive, my Halloween decor and other wonderful events (I'm sure) that I can't remember right now. 

In the meantime here's what we're up to:

Josh is doing a Pulmonology Rotation right now. He's been working with a Pulmonologist that also specializes in using self-hypnosis to overcome health issues like vocal chord dysfunction, anxiety, epilepsy, and also to improve athletic performance. It's been interesting to hear the stories.

Next week he starts two weeks of nights though. 

Two weeks of nights seems like an eternity.

I hate nights.

I get lonely. And frustrated.

The kids and I don't get along as well. 

It's like no break whatsoever. 

I'm sure there are many moms out there nodding their heads in agreement. 

You know what I mean.

But Josh is loving residency so far. And you know what? They like him too. He's been getting excellent reviews from Attendings and med students that he works with.  Go Josh! Forget all those dumb Pitt people who told you that you were too quiet. You are a GREAT doctor.

Brinkley loves school and riding the bus!

Her favorite teacher is Miss Milly because she shakes her bum to get her wiggles out. 

Her favorite toys right now are Lalaloopsys.

Her favorite colors are purple and brown. 

She loves her swimming lessons and looks forward to Tuesdays for those.

She still loves to draw. The other day she was drawing a picture of a bunch of girls. The girls were talking to each other. 

One said "Where do you get your clothes?" The other girl replied "The DI. Where do you get yours?"

"Walmart."

Hmm. Poor girl. What have I done?

In my defense, most of my kids clothes are from Target. And the ones from the thrift store are actually really cute....

Oh well.

I guess the positive spin would be to say that I'm teaching my daughter to be frugal.

Speaking of teaching, she is quite the little teacher to Darcy. She taught her how to tell "knock knock" jokes. It is hilarious. 

And she is so praiseworthy when Darcy does something good, like shares. She is a great big sister.

Darcy, Darcy, Darcy.

Makes me laugh.

Makes me crazy.

She is at such a fun stage.

She is at such a bad stage.

She draws on my couches, asks for movies all day and throws fits when I tell her no, won't stay in her bed or her clothes, tries to talk whilst sucking on her arm and gets upset when I have no idea what she's saying. She throws tantrums at the drop of a pin, sometimes even when no one is around. But then she's over it in two minutes.

On the bright side, she loves to make us laugh. She is pretty darn good at sharing theses days, she is so good at using polite words like please and thank you and you're welcome. Sometimes she'll say them all so I don't have to. For example I'll get her a drink and she'll say "Milk, please? Thank you. You're welcome." 

She's probably beyond ready to potty train, but I can't seem to get myself to do it. Sorry baby.

She's reached the stage where she plays really well all by herself. Yahoo!

She loves when Brinkley comes home from school and getting her off the bus. She always has a big hug waiting. She gives the best hugs. 

Here's her 'knock knock' joke: 

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Orange ball.

Orange ball who?

Orange ball.

It's cute.

I've been good too. 

Working on a few projects here and there, but not as doing as many as I have in mind.

My motivation disappeared and I can't seem to find it. I think I'll just give it time. It'll come around.

I've been working out a lot at the YMCA (the must have membership in this area).

There is this kickboxing class there that is so awesome, I am seriously panting like a dog when it's over.

Unfortunately with all the exercising, my weight is not budging. 

Uh. ?

I guess I'll have to start dieting. 

Ugh. I even hate that word.

My singing time calling is going alright. The program is in two weeks. We had our first rehearsal this past Sunday. I'm hoping the excitement of being in the chapel up on the stand was the reason the kids hardly sang. Otherwise I'm in trouble. I know they know those words. What happened??? But honestly, they are the best group of kids. The parts they wrote themselves for the program are so amazing. Such strong testimonies already.

I've been loving the fall here. Just gorgeous.

I think we have soup about 5 nights a week. Soup and fall just go together, you know?

With Josh gone so much, I do tend to get a little bit sad sometimes.

Sad that I'm not as awesome of a mom as I should be (Brinkley just figured out that Heavenly Father is Jesus's Father too... oh dear did I ever drop the ball)

Sad that I don't have as close of friends here as I did in Pittsburgh.

Sad that my girls don't have as close of friends either. 

Sad that my motivation is still non-existent. I feel like that funk should have ended like 2 months ago.

My house doesn't stay clean, my yard doesn't stay mowed, some of my house still isn't decorated, and stuff is already building up in the basement. What's up with that?

But I have managed to budget better, exercise more, and get the garbage out to the street every Monday. Not to mention Brinkley is always on time for her bus. Pat me on the back.

Here's some random pictures to go with the random post:

Took these one day while Darcy was napping, otherwise I would have had more of Darce. 

I'm not trying to be unfair. Promise.

 

Goofball:

Here's a little project Brinks and I did one day. They are Popsicle stick dolls, made with Washi Tape.

We were on a kick that week. We also painted clothespin dolls witch I have not yet photographed, but they are even cuter. So fun!

Lion's New Clothes.

Brinkley's creativity had grown at an exponential rate. She's drawing abstract things like wind and perspective (a horse close up and the horse far away). All on her own, I'm not teaching her these things. It's pretty impressive. 

One of my favorites that she did was some clothes for Lion. She taped them on. It was so cute. 

 On his shirt is a picture of his Lion family. 

 

Best Part of the Day

We're so glad when Daddy comes home! 

(Don't mind that Darce is in her pj's and Brinks is half naked.)

Critz

I love visiting cool farms that capitalize on stuff. Businessmen would be a more accurate term verses farmers. Those folks know what they are doing. 

They plant a few things, have a couple animals and then fill the farmland with lots of other stuff to fill your time and take your money. But it's fun! And we love it.

Actually, we lucked out though on the money end of things. Critz farms does an annual fall festival thingy that costs like $15 a person. We (unknowingly) came a day early and missed the crowd and all the hullabaloo and just got to enjoy the beauty, {some of} the activities, the many animals... ahem... like 4 of them, and even snuck into the gift shop that wasn't quite open. But what are they gonna do? Say "we don't want your money." Umm. No. So we got to peruse at our leisure while they filled up a bunch of balloons in the back room. 

The kids loved it. A hay maze, a variety of slides, a giant wooden boat (freaking awesome), a big wooden train and a playground. Not to mention the stinky animals. The chicks were brand new! We even fed the horse some grass. 

After appeasing the children, we did mommy stuff and visited the apple press (which wasn't up and running for tours and that's fine by me cuz it mighta been boring. But maybe not. Who am I to judge?) We accidentally happened upon the winery. We turned down the wine but said yes to corks with wobbly witches legs dangling off the top to add to our Halloween decor. 

We picked out a few perfect pumpkins and called it a day. A very perfect day.

Skaneateles

On another day while my mom was here, we visited Skaneateles. 

Guess how that is pronounced? 

You'll never guess.

Skinny-atlas.

Yep.

Anyway, it's like this fancy little town that people around here rave about. 

And it was cute. I give it that. It had a cool feel to it and a nice walkway out onto Lake Skaneateles (one of the finger lakes), plus a gazebo for some impromptu kid dancing.

But we didn't quite know what else to do there. We walked up and down the main street. It had a few boutiques we stopped in. But everything else was so ritzy and high end. Clothes I'd never buy. Shoes that I guarantee are too skinny for my wide feet. Purses not from thrift store. Restaurants we couldn't afford. There was a thrift store on the side of a building in a basement, but it closed at like 4:00 p.m. (as did most places) so, we missed it. And that was it. 

Oh, except the library was having a random honor code book sale on the front porch. You could pick out books, stick some money in an envelope and shove it through the mail slot. 

Oh, yes we did. 

It was beautiful though. I hate to sound all negative. We enjoyed it, really. I got a wonderful picture of the back side of some buildings. It made me feel so artsy and authentic. And I actually did buy a local artists line drawing and watercolor of the main street for 2 bucks. So, there's that. 

Maybe I should have talked to a local before visiting to know what the 'thing' to do around there was.

Okay, before I offend anybody that loves the place here's some pictures of our adventure.

Pretty rad, right?