it's been a while....

but she's still here and up to her usual fashion modeling. I haven't really posted anything about the girlies lately. I see from the photos in iPhoto that Lauryn is sorely lacking in pics (something to do with Liyah being of a model frame of mind). So today since I have them I'm going to post a few pics of Li-Li doing her favorite thing.... strutting her stuff!

 Got the pose, still working on the facial expressions!

 I'm ready for my close up...

 

What do you mean "So You Think You can Dance?" I know I can!

 This is my outfit, and I'm ready to go.... where I don't know, but my back pack is packed!

I'm just soooo about the pose y'all

If you can't get the hair right, scarves are soo stylish (of course nighties and heels are too)

 Even when camping I must have my "look" done

The swim princess... of course

MUST get my beauty rest, even princess fairies need to sleep!!

So, there she is... and there are MANY more.  I don't want to bore you.  Before you send me comments about favoritism and showing the little one more than the older... I've found that most of Lauryn's pics are on my phone, as we snap things when we are out and about (she loves being out and about... as much as Li likes posing).  So when I remember to bring the cord and download her pics you can bet your sweet bippie that she will get her righteous bloggy post too!!

Enjoy your Friday friends, tomorrow I will FYBF with all my awesome Aussie friends!

How I met Your Father...

 (idea taken from here )

Well, it was NOT the first time we'd met, but the first time we'd been out without friends.  So, Greg and I somehow decided that we would like to go out.  We were both in our 30's and living in Nashville, TN (shoutout to all our friends there, who probably don't read this blog ).  I saw him for the first time playing drums for Praise and Worship at our church there.

My thought, "hmmm cute drummer, wonder if he's single" exactly!  So somehow after meeting each other at some singles get togethers we ended up going out for our first date.  Truth be told, I don't remember who asked who out.  If you ask Greg, I did the asking  begging.  MY theory is, I was old enough to know what I wanted and went for it him.

So our first date was going to be the proverbial; dinner and a movie.  Easy peasy, yeah!  So we checked out the times for the movie we wanted to see ( Nicole Kidman in this movie) and then decided we had enough time for dinner, before the movie.

We had ourselves a yummy Italian meal at a new restaurant in town (do you order the least expensive item on the menu, just in case you go dutch?  I did).

Food, delish. Drinks, vino.  Date, handsome.  Convo, smooth.  Perfection!

Oh, but you know the nights not over....

We went back to the theatre to get the tix for the show..... only they were sold out for that time.  Did we think to get them before dinner?  NO  So, not to be deterred, and being in the suspense/horror movie frame of mind ('cause we know what can happen when we are scared and there's a big strong man beside us) we chose a different movie to see.

I KNOW!!  How bad is that?  For a first date?  The sad thing is someone out there could've had a 2nd and 3rd date with this movie!   Ick!

You know what tho', we really get a laugh about this.  No, we never saw JC 2 or 3, but we did get to see The Others... it was much better!  There have been many dates since then (some good, some great, some exceptional, and some, like our first, not very well planned out).  Even with bad movie date as our first, I continued to pursue date the drummer.  We were married about 10 months later.... and we are still dating!


Here's Rowan Atkinson's Rules for a 1st Date:

It's been a looong time coming....

No not ME (get your mind out of the gutter ladies)!  I've been the virtual thriftaholic for quite sometime now.  Mostly I shop for needs (ie. clothes for the little ones... ), but there is this insatiable thread running through me that adores craves the thrill of the hunt... through all things junky, used, cheap vintage!

Well, as most of us moms do we try to take our short comings and turn them into $$$$!  So I've decided to list some of my great finds on Etsy.com.

I don't want to alarm my readers, I will NOT continuously post ads, or links to my shop.  I just want to let you know that it's there, I have found a way to completely make my addiction lucrative.  I not only have taught myself (with some great advice from Lori @ RRASHM) to blog, tweet and "like" status' over the past year and a half.  I have become a woman of great bravery, who has risen above the terrible thoughts that run through her head and accomplished something!  Something that makes me HAPPY!! :)

So, thank you to all my followers in this bloggy-sphere.  Thanks for leaving me comments, thanks to the hubs who says I can do whatever I want because I'm THAT talented-- oh, yeah you can let your mind skid into the gutter for one quick moment-- okay that's 'nuff!

If you seek a great place... go no further!  Welcome to the Frumpy House... where you are asked to come in, browse and find some things that you never knew you needed!!

www.etsy.com/shop/lefrumpette

Random Ramblings...

from a mom who has nothing better to blog about!

First thought....

Why is it that everything that tastes the best also has the most calories and fat?  What up with that?  I love fruits and veggies, but they aren't my go to foods if I'm just hankerin' for something to snack on.

Also....

Why is it that when you are trying to grow your hair out, it seems to grow soooo slow?  Yet the hair on your legs and pits grow in abundance.  I have to shave daily if I don't want to be mistaken for Sasquatch.

Then there's this conundrum....

Why is it when you have time to fix a nice meal, a) no one is hungry or b) no one likes what you fixed?  That just makes me want to toss the chic nuggets in the oven, pop the bread in the toaster or pour milk over the Cheerios for dinner every night!!  (I used to love cooking peeps).

Why is it...

That every morning when there is school or church to go to the kiddoes sleep in (thus making it necessary to wake them and start them out crabby, as opposed to the gradual slide into crabbiness).  But EVERY FREAKIN' SATURDAY they are awake and singing at the top of their lungs @ 7 in the a.m.?  Oh, sure they are singing and not screaming at each other.... forget it, NOTHING can make that a good thing.

How's come....

When you have a full day all to yourself the little evil time genies make the clock go faster.... yet on those days when the blessed children are home time goes so s-l-o-w-l-y!?  Huh, don't have a good answer for that one do you?

Another thought....

Why is it that all the cute fashions and designs are for the really skinny girls and when I even find something fashionably close to them... I still look like a Frump?  Yeah, I know....

This is a puzzler....

Why do advertisers insist on making commercials that would make us want to buy there products?  I mean who in there right mind would want anything that would cause a kid want to fix their own school lunch and then make their mom's lunch too?  (Jif I think, although I couldn't find a vid of it, it still annoys me).  Or K Y Jelly, I mean who wants that kind of "dancing" in the bedroom, as if we have the energy after Mr. Clean comes and winks at us and our twinkling bathrooms/kitchens?  Get real people, if you want someone like me to buy your product, show a mother struggling to get her kids to brush there teeth, wash their hands and stay in bed.  Picture it, a commercial with a frazzled mom sitting in the easy chair @ midnight, with food stains on her shirt, a laundry basket full on the floor beside her, a dog holding the leash for the last walk of the night and her hubby walking in with a shirt and iron for her.  All she cares about is [insert tall glass of fav bev here] and [insert fav escape method here].... much more realistic!

How about this...

Your child is so excited to write and read cursive (hand/script writing) that she "pretends" she is doing it for a year.  But when she get to that curriculum in school, she balks at writing it the "proper" way.... whew!


Better yet...

Your 6 and 4 yr olds like to dress themselves (that's a GOOD thing eh?!).  Yet in dressing themselves they cause strangers on the street to turn and stare at them....  mmmhhmmm keep telling yourself your children are the MOST  beautiful kids in the world if it make you more comfortable with their ensemble choices!


I've often wondered....

Why we can't all wear disposable clothing, excuse me recyclable clothing.... as in disposable/recyclable dishes.  That would take care of my 2 biggest daily grinds right there!!


WHY....

When you are super tired/crabby/grumpy/frumpy/hormonal/short-tempered/and "gritchy" do your kids give you the BEST bedtime hugs and kisses, you can put your MIL to bed a 9 P.M., and your husband gives you a wicked foot rub?!  WHY?  Because they probably know they are the cause for you being that way!!  LOL

Eh, the wandering, rambling thoughts of a blogger with nothing better to blog about.  There can't be enough said for that!!

By The Way... in regards to commercials.... I saw this one New Axe Commercial- wash your balls the other night (after the kiddoes were in bed and I was enjoying the before mentioned tall glass of [ ] ).... it kinda caught me off guard.  I'm not sure if I want to buy the product, or just send the hubs out to get some on his own!  What do you think?  Surprise him for his 40th birthday?  Or is it more along the lines of a Christmas type gift?  Let me know what you think!!

Oh, the joy of hand dancing!

Thought you may find it intoxicating like I did.... enjoy!!

Fall "house keeping"

Well, I need to do some major house keeping this fall.  I just got the window a/c units out and all the windows, screens and sashes need to be scrubbed.  I also have too many cobwebs creeping from one end of my bedroom to the other, I need to purge a few before they become part of the comforter.

I have a large collection of vintage items, that are sitting around waiting to pose for pics, to get listed on etsy.com.  I have a large pile of books that either need to be read or put on a shelf to gather dust there.  I have about 3 craft projects that I'd like to get done.

Most of all I'd like to do some work on the old body.  It's continuing to annoy me, the fact that I can get dressed, fix my hair, do make up and feel really pretty and go out for the day feeling grand.... until I get a gander of my full frame in a window or mirror.

So now that I've got the aforementioned 3 hours of free time in the a.m. I'd like to get back to doing yoga, start a lemon cleanse and look at clothes that  are not on the high end of the sizing chart..... wish me luck on that!!

I'd also like to work on getting my emotions together so that my eldest doesn't send me over the edge more than once in a week, and I don't have to resort to drinking eating my way through the grocery shelves!!  Winter is also coming and with it darker skies, earlier nights, later mornings and deep depression!!!  So I'm hoping to up the vit. D, do some yoga specifically targeting the depression and continuing on with the "happy" pills I'm already on (yes, for those readers who didn't know.... they keep my chin above the dark waters, you would NOT like me without them).

So what are your fall plans?  Cleaning anything out?

When you can find the time....

take it, do something nice for yourself once in a while. I saw the first 10 minutes of a new show on TLC last night, before I decided I didn't need one more tv addiction, and put myself to bed where I belonged! The reason I mention this show is this, even tho' this woman has 6, 22 month old toddlers, she goes to the gym every day (I think that's when I turned this horrendous-albeit addictive show OFF). Okay, so there goes my excuse for not working out-- out the window!!

Well, really, exercise isn't high priority on my list, even tho' I know it should be. I do find that I tend to do things that need to be done for other people/ children, before I do things for myself... don't ask me why, I'm just a glutton that way.

So the whole purpose of having a nurse come in for 3 hrs each morning to take care of GP (Grandma Patty for the new readers "hello there, good to have you here!") is to give Greg and myself some time to get things done &/or free time for us! So yesterday after dropping Li @ preschool I ran a couple errands that needed done, and then went home. So here it is 9:30 am in the morning and I can do whatever I please until 11 am when the nurse leaves.

So I bit the bullet, I took the bull by the horns, I jumped in feet first and did this... I had seen Stephanie Lynn's post a while ago and thought that it looked easy enough. I kept my eyes out for the cable knit sweaters @ Goodwill and some vases too. Then I found them, & I brought them home, and I sat them in my room, and they got lost among all the other projects that I have sitting in my room... oh, yes, there are many.

Until yesterday, and do you know what dear friends?! It took me all of 10 minutes to make each of these lovely beauties!! 20 minutes!! I should've known that it wouldn't take as long as I feared it would... once they were done and the table cleaned up I had to get back to the realities of life and start the laundry (now THAT'S a never ending project).

I enjoyed the beauty of the flickering candles last night on the table (thank goodness it gets dark outside earlier now so I could enjoy!)

Pretties!!

I'm looking forward to picking a few of these....

Remembering...

Everyone remembers where they were at specific/meaningful times throughout their lives. The good times, where you were when your boyfriend proposed, where you were when you found out you were pregnant. The bad times too, when the space shuttle Challenger blew up, when the twin towers were hit.

It's inevitable that our brain retains these things. Thoughts and memories are what make us who we are. They not only affect us at that specific time and place, they affect us for the rest of our lives.

Tomorrow is the 9th anniversary of the Trade Center/Pentagon/plane crashes here in the USA. I've never been to NY and have never experienced the city before or after the crashes. So I'm going to post a link to another bloggy friend of mine who has been there (before and after). She has posted some wonderful pics of a trip to the Ground Zero Museum that you may like to see.

You'll find her awesomeness here.

All I want to say is... REMEMBER. Remember how we came together as a nation, as cities, towns, streets and neighbors to work through the disbelief and the grief. Let's continue to love one another, support one another and never look away from those who do wrong or plan evil on others!

My Theme Song....

the hubby likes to ask irrelevant, spontaneous, just plain out there questions at times. Sometimes I'm in the mood to play his little game, other times not. One question he likes to ask is, if you could have someone living or in the past as your next door neighbor who would you pick? I don't know who I give for answers, probably different people @ different times (not that I don't totally love my neighbors now.... but you know it's just a game). His answers usually include a wrestler or two.

Another question he likes to ask is if you were a wrestler (do you see a theme here) what would your theme song be?

I NEVER know what to answer to this one. While I am a big fan of listening and singing along with music, I am not a rememberer of artists/songs/lyrics.... so it's hard to decide between "Itsy, bitsy spider" or "Twinkle, twinkle Little Star"

So I decided I was going to find a theme song.... Here it is:

Okay, please don't post comments about how archaic this is, and how it is setting women's lib way back, and how if I hired maids that looked like them I wouldn't be queen of the house for long! This is all supposed to be tongue in cheek, sarcastic, and sooo far out there. Kinda like the hubbies questions, stretch your imagination readers.... st-re-t-c-h it!!

My Mind...

has so many things running through it, I'm finding it very hard to go to sleep at night. So I lay there and think and dream and then eventually get up and write everything down so that I can go to sleep.

I have very, VERY creative thoughts going through my noggin. The question I always have is can I make these thoughts realities?! Can I take a thought process, and make it come to fruition?

I have been, what I consider to be, a creative person my whole life. When the siblings were doing well with their schooling, I was not. More times than not I was home "sick". When I stayed home, I would often find myself sitting on the couch writing stories for my youngest sister, or drawing and coloring pictures on the back of old work forms my dad would bring home for scrap paper.

I went into college with the dreams of being a children's book author and illustrator. That lasted a year and a half before I changed to Christian Education. Thinking that I could make a better living teaching children.... ah well, it was a thought.

I've never given up dreaming about the creative things I'd like to do. There is one thing that holds me back.... my laid back, content, common sensed mother! Now I'm not one of those grown ups who blame their parents for all of the horrible things in their lives (well, yes, maybe I am). I don't want to be, but this is what I hear when I start the process of making my dreams reality... "Are you sure you want to do that?", "Are you going to be able to do that?", "How much is this going to cost you, do have the money to be doing this?", "What are you going to do with all this 'stuff' if (when) this doesn't work out?".

So, I have throughout my life tried things and not finished them. I have started projects and not completed them. I have had BIG dreams and not brought them to reality. WHY?

I don't blame my mom, I think that I'm not smart/talented/persevering/qualified/disciplined enough. I start something and then when I can't figure out the little details, I quit. I convince myself that it wasn't meant to be. That I shouldn't have tried to do that... I'm not equipped enough.

Yet I have all these thoughts running through my head, and I HAVE to try them. I HAVE to or my brain will explode!! So, I plug away, I research and do what I can to make the dreams inside my mind come to life.

If [no, when] I succeed with these dreams I will share with you, my blog reading friends the creative things that I have done. These things I will do! I have to, you are counting on me, right! Right?! (Just say "yes" and nod your head).

Friends....in bloggy world,

I have many friends! In my reality, there aren't so many that are still close to me.

My very best friends are far away physically, in different states. The ones that are closer, they don't seem to be as close as we used to be.

How important is friendship to mother's? In my opinion..... VERY!!

The Top 10 Reasons to have good Friends as a Mom

10. They know where you are coming from when you need to vent about the whole roll of t.p. in the toilet, the whole plate of food dumped on the floor and the whole bottle of fingernail polish spilled on the carpet.

9. Your friends can give you great advice, while at the same time making you feel like you were the one to come up with that brilliant idea. (Whereas your mother just gives you advice).

8. They open up their homes when you need an inexpensive (say free) place to get away!! Thanks so much Paul & Kim, for the MANY getaways @ the Bahr B&B!!

7. Your friends will love you no matter the size of your clothes, the volume of your children or the grumpiness of your hubby.

6. They help you get over the hurdle of the big 4-0 birthday, and promise to be there for the 50th, 60th, 70th, 80th and 90th (right, RIGHT!!)

5. They love you, your hubby and even your children when you don't, they are more of a surrogate family than just friends!

4. Even when you don't see, talk, Tweet or FB often, they are still your friends and they can pick up right where you left off with them!!

3. They understand when you are strapped for money and don't buy them (or their adorable kiddos) birthday, Christmas or just because gifts, it isn't because you don't WANT to!!

2. Your bestest friends like what you like, just because they like you and they want to spend time with you, just as you do for them!

AND THE #1 REASON.....

1. They know that if you lived next door to each other you would share in the babysitting duties EQUALLY. Henceforth, each friend would have plenty of time to go out on dates and get their groove on with their hubbies (more than the usual once a month)!

So, even tho' I enjoy reading blogs and commenting to all my new friends... you will never (sorry to say) take the place of the friends that I've loved for years (well 16 years now, but whose counting eh?).

Young Girls....

they really aren't all "sugar and spice and everything nice". I know, I was one!! Not to say my girlies don't have sweet moments, but those are usually in the mornings when they have just crawled out of bed and haven't quite woken up. When they are fully awake, my girls are gritty and mean, and everything between! JK!!

Lauryn and Liyah as I have clearly stated before are a couple of strong willed, opinionated girlies. They want their own way 100% of the time, and mom and dad don't know what's good for them! I find that quite contrary, and abhorrent! So I try and make my voice heard in the little ones lives (ie, NO you may not eat candy bars, cheetos or chocolate pudding for breakfast! (get something 1/2 way nutritious (like the sugar coated cereal you threw in the grocery cart yesterday)).

The fun thing is both girls are getting older and not into so much trouble - what? - I said that? Like it's really true?! Take for example the other day while the girlies were getting a bath. They like to take the Barbies and Bratz and Little Ponies in the tub with them and play for a while, yeah!! That gives mom time to throw in a load of laundry and fold a load, and hang a load... you know the drill. So pretty soon I hear the kiddoes laughing and carrying on (the 2nd highest rated way mom's know their kids are into something-- right behind peaceful quiet play). So I lay down the clothes and walk into the bathroom.... oh the joy!! Liyah is sitting in the tub with a great big grin on her face, and 1000's of pieces of toilet paper stuck in her hair!!

She had to get out of the bath to take a potty break and decided since the t.p. stuck to here there she would just have great fun in the tub with more!! There was toilet paper floating all over in the tub!! Talk about the plugged drain!! That and the fact that she pitches a royal fit about about getting her hair washed and she had to have a major scrubbing to get the paper out!! Don't know if she has learned her lesson, but I'm thinking that she will remember for a while!

So now the girls know that toilet paper and bath water don't mix.... and then the other day they learned that puddles on the floor don't mix with running in the house.

Actually, it was just Liyah. She is into doing her hair. So she had gotten a washcloth wet and soaked her hair.... and the bathroom floor. Then about 10 minutes later she had to got potty (do see the trend here?) and went running into the bathroom @ 40 mph and wiped out.... lesson learned, clean up the puddles you make!

Aaahhh, I'm glad not all accidents/experiments happen in a single day!! We are soo thankful for our two girlies, and sooo thankful that they are older and less likely to wreak havoc all in one day!!