Wind Chimes. Last Thursday's craft day

Payton was vacationing in Salina when we started this project, so the girls and I had to carry on without him.  They didn't seem to mind. 

Maddie had to get undressed for this one.  It was new craft paint and I didn't know if it would come out of her clothes.  Painting with her is a 1:2 ratio of painting herself and painting her project.  She will most likely be my first child to get a tattoo.  She loves decorating her body.  Whatever.

Payton finally returned and the cans were dry so it was time to assemble the wind chimes.  First we had to all gawk at the spider that found his way in the can.  Luckily there was already a washer in the bottom of the can so I just had to shake it like a martini and the spider was dead.  Dump.  Wipe.  Ready for crafts.

Payton nailed the holes in the top?  bottom?  end of the can.  He did a pretty good job.  I was impressed.  And I love that his tongue juts out whenever he thinks hard.  Must help keep his brain balanced.

Yes, that is my hand holding the nail.  The paint got a little thick in places and it made it difficult for him to get through it, so he asked me to hold the nail.  Yes, I did get hit.  It did hurt.  And there were times when he was getting so frustrated with the nail not going through that he started pounding on it harder and just the thought if the impending finger smashing was almost worse than when it finally did happen.

Ella's protruding bottom lip when she found out they weren't all getting their own wind-chime.  Piffle.

Assembled with washers to bang them around. 

Up and ready for the upcoming storm.  They were supposed to red and blue but Ella found a way to make pink.  They're still cute.

He was proud, but there wasn't any wind to blow them around so he had to climb up and sling them back and forth a couple times.

A good Craft Thursday.  Next we're either doing tie-dye, or rockets, or lobsters.  Haven't narrowed that down yet, but they're all really cute.  Maybe we'll do all three.

A day with the planes...

Saturday we headed out to Benton's Stearman Field for their annual fly-in.  Every year it's getting bigger!  We went first thing in the morning and met Tim's family for some pancakes and coffee.  They surprised me with the most obnoxious birthday glasses and headband, but I was able to embarrass them back by wearing it all when we went into the restaurant.  Then, of course, the kids had to try it all on.  I was actually wanting to keep it on all in hopes that some pilot would volunteer to take me for a birthday ride!  Tucker was all smiles as usual.  I wonder if part of that grin was because his Aunt Kelly looked like an idiot? 



The hearts say "Birthday Princess" on them.



Maddie rocked those glasses.  Pancakes in....it was time to see some airplanes.

All lined up and ready to take off.  This group would later fly formations.  I'm not a huge aviation person like my husband, but you can't help but get the chills when they're all started up and ready to taxi.

When Tim is around planes, especially vintage aircraft, he no longer knows I even exist.  I am just a series of clicks and squeaks on his radar.

Boys and the toys....

And the little lady got into it, too.  "Daddy, show me."

Me and my ridiculous accessories in front of the "Super Ryan"...as if we aren't ALL super....

  



Tim and I in front of MY dream airplane.  Someday I fully intend on hopping the islands of Alaska with my trusty pilot Tim by my side...

He wants a different airplane than this, but it was my dream so we took a picture in front of this one.

A "tuckered Tucker."  I'm sure that's not the first or last time he'll hear that joke.  For sure.  We grabbed some lunch, lemonade, and shade and let the kids stretch and play of the playground.  After that it was time to head home for some naps before heading back out for the evening.

Again, I'm not as in to aviation as Tim, but they do make for some fun photography.

Waiting for the fireworks and very tired.

Shortly before we realized there weren't going to BE any fireworks this year and the kids erupted into a gigantic meltdown.  Then it was exit strategy #1....throw crap in stroller and run as fast as you can to the car.  Do not make eye contact with on-lookers.  Pretend like everything is fine.  Pretend like your children are at "permanent hearing damage" level.  Run woman, run.

Like it or not...30 things about me.

1.  I have no idea whether I'll even be able to think of 30 things to fill up this space.  I have strong opinions of a variety of matters, but 30...that's a lot of space to fill.  This could get really boring.  Numbers 27 and 28 could simply be statements such as, "I mowed my yard yesterday.  I think pizza is neat."  Let's hope it doesn't come to that.  I'm going to go ahead and count this as an official #1, too.  Because I can.

2.  First and foremost on my list of ultimate pet peeves right now is Jersey Shore.  While I hate to put it so close to the top because I hate that my blood boils so much for them (I should "nothing" them.), it is the first thing I thought of.  Jersey Shore is a complete waste of resources, time, energy, money, and brainpower (what little there is there.)  Please I beg of you...do not sit in front of your tv and watch this crap.  They have no purpose but to be utterly obnoxious.  They are obnoxious!!  They have no point, no talent, no reason for you to watch them.  They benefit...NOBODY!  Go live your own life.  Do not sit there and watch them "live" theirs.  Read a book.  That's said...moving on.

3.  My entire life is based on the weather.  The meals I plan, the clothes I wear, the activities I plan is all based on www.weather.com's ten day planner.  And I'm not just talking about, "ooo we shouldn't plan the picnic, they're predicting 10 inches of snow."  I mean we positively cannot have stew when the temp is above 70 degrees.  We cannot have BLT's and chips if the temp is under 60 degrees.  If it's rainy, or if it's cool enough for the windows to be open, I'm in the mood, if not....I'll just read for a while.  I'm seasonal to the point of ridiculousness.

4.  They won't all be that long.  I spout off some short ones just to move this thing along.  I like rice.

5.  I like......birds. 

6.  Crap I'm at six and this is getting difficult already.  My entire life cannot possibly be summed up in my feelings for Jersey Shore and the weather channel.  I'm going to need to dig deeper here. 
Ok.  I love sports but I cannot talk about sports.  If you come up and rattle off a bunch of player names/stats/coaches/sponsors/strategies, I will sit there and smile and put my best, "yea I know what you mean" act on.  However.  I just watch the game brainlessly.  I like the game for the game.  I cannot talk the game.  Forcing me to do so is just going to lead to awkwardness. 

7.  Speaking of awkward.  I'm awkward.  Extremely socially awkward.  I like to write because I can edit my thoughts and make sure I'm okay with the permanent product.  I can't edit my speaking voice or what flies out of my mouth and that really annoys me.  If I have known you for over 5 years, most likely I am comfortable speaking with you...if not....well I try to think of it as a challenge.  Talk to this person for 5 minutes without flubbing or sharing too much information about odd subjects in an attempt to make it seem like you are just soooo super comfortable right now.

8.  I have to eat something sweet after each meal.  The meal does not end until chocolate is ingested.

9.  I hate jazz music. 

10.  I could spend my entire Sunday listening to NPR.  The whole day.  Every single show.

11.  I want to be such a good cook that Payton's future wife will feel like she has impossibly big shoes to fill. 

12.  The best thing that happened to me today was in the parking lot of the grocery store.  I simply dropped my hand to my side and found 5 little fingers waiting to hold my first finger.  I love that about being a mom.  It's such an everyday thing, but just dropping my hand down to find another hand waiting just makes my day.

13.  I was a horrible teenager and yes, I have apologized to my parents for that. 

14.  I don't think grown people should use 8th grade terms to describe other people.  If you are a grown woman, do not call another grown woman a slut or b....  There are infinitely better words in this language.  Pick something else.

15.  And further more.  Don't swear at work, especially the f-bomb. 

16.  This is a tidbit from the IV nurse at work.  If you can't smell it, it's because you smell like it.  That made me insanely paranoid for a good 48 hours.  "oh man...what if I stink, I can't smell me...what if I stink!!....What do I smell like?  OH NOOOOO."

17.  I really do believe that life begins at conception and ends at natural death and we should not interfere in that for any reason.  I believe in life.  Even when it's hard.  I'm disgusted by evil men, too.  But we have to give a person the chance to turn themselves around and become good.  A conversion can happen at any time and that needs to be respected.  (And yes, sometimes I think it SUCKS to believe that, but still.) 

18.  I believe in God but I struggle with religion.  I love being a Catholic, but I believe ALL people should have the right to marry whomever their heart loves.  This is a major struggle for me. 

19.  This is getting a little too serious.  I think farts are funny.  Especially when they happen at church.  Payton thinks they're funny, too, but I have to be a mom and look at him disapprovingly when he giggles at someone else's...toot. 

20.  I have skinny-dipped.  I have gone down the red and yellow slide bare.  The yellow slide freakin' hurt.

21.  I talk to myself out loud. 

22.  I often drink my morning coffee cold.  I like it that way in the summer, but if the temp is under 65 and the windows are open...it has to be hot.  With the weather thing again....

23.  I don't make sense.  I'll use Tim's toothbrush because it's upstairs and I don't want to go downstairs, but when I do go downstairs, I'll get on the treadmill and run 3 miles.  So....why not take a few extra steps before the 3 mile run to use my own damn toothbrush?  I don't know.  Can't explain it.

24.  My favorite number is 4 and like the weather, certain things are ruled by the number.  Cookies:  four at a time.  If I want more...I'll have to accept eating a total of 8.  Kisses:  must have four.  If the counting gets off and Tim kisses me 5 times, he's got to put up 3 more.  Thankfully he's accepted that weirdness.  It's not OCD.  It's not debilitating if whatever "it" is isn't a multiple of 4, but it'd just prefer it if "it" were.  I have 3 children....just saying.

25.  Almost there.  I have the best family EVER.  My mom and dad and sister had a lot to put up with when I was younger.  (I know that because I now have Maddie and have only begun my mountain of paybacks.)  I also have the best in-law family EVER.  There are incredible people in my life. 
26.  I believe my parents' generation had the absolute best childhood.  They were outside.  My mom grew up on an Iowa farm and my dad went hunting in the mountains of Colorado.  I still remember a few Iowa evenings on the farm.  The adults were outside in lawn chairs and my uncles and cousins were playing baseball.  That's what you did in the evening on the farm.  I want that back. 

27.  Life is wonderful, but it goes fast.  Don't waste it.  Nobody ever uttered, "I wish I'd spent more time playing video games" as their dying breath.  Go outside and be humbled by the world.  Isn't that an inspiring comment?  I really believe it and try to live it, but after I'm done here I'm going to watch my DVR episode of "I didn't know I was pregnant."  Tonight our clueless mommy-to-be gives birth on a boat!

28.  The other day when my water heater went out I had to take a cold shower.  I thought to myself, "This isn't so bad.  People face way worse every single day.  I am a strong woman and this is nothing.  Get in, shower up, and get to work.  Offer your pain up, Kelly.  That's what you're supposed to do so offer it up.  Okay....offering it up here we go."  Sorry God.  My offering of strength to you was the ninniest of ninny dances as I spazed my way through that shower.  I offered you a laugh.  How about that?

29.  Wow.  Only two more to go.  Crap.  They're the last two so they're supposed to be the most meaningful and thought-provoking ones yet.  I think pizza is neat.  That's all I have left!  No, I can do better.  I love to write if you couldn't tell.  I love putting words together and seeing how they play from my head to the page.  It's just fun. 

30.  Finally.  My last thought.  I am a very lucky girl.

Last day in my 20's.

So...here it is.  My last day being in my twenties.  I would love to say that turning 30 is no big deal to me, but that really isn't true.  I do not want to be 30. 
Twenty-somethings are cute and bubbly.  We can get away with goofy hair and funky clothes. 
I'm not saying that starting tomorrow I'm going to wear elastic pants and mumu's, but when you hit your 30's, there is a bit more class expected of you. 
When your 30....you are officially an adult.

A grown up.

I've been dreading this number for a while.

Why?

The summer I turned 20 was actually the start of a horrible downward spiral.  I had just said goodbye to Benedictine College, the most wonderful and supportive school....EVER.  I had screwed things up with my best friend over a stupid guy who was going to continue to jerk me around for the next year before hideously breaking my heart.  We lost Ruby that year....  I moved to K-State and had Rebecca as my roommate.  She did weird things in her bed.  She had strange hair.  I was the most lonely that I had ever been in my whole life. 
Those first couple years were awful.  I used to sit on my front porch of my apartment that Delbert "managed" (as in he always managed to use his keys to come in unexpectedly wearing his short shorts, but never managed to fix the gaping hole in the ceiling above my toilet), and wish and pray that God would just give me a hint of what my life was going to be.  Was I always going to be alone?  Couldn't you please just show me what's going to happen to me?  Is it always going to be like this? 

It wasn't. 

I met Tim which started my life in an entirely different direction.  But at least I had direction finally.  The rest of my 20's has been spent putting myself back on track which has been really hard work.... I'm still working on that....

Wow.  So why am I so sad to leave my 20's? 

It wasn't all bad...there were some ridiculously fun times. 

Summers at the pool.
The fax machine and the high dive.  (snicker)
My 21st birthday, from what I remember of it.
K-State football games.
Meeting my husband.
Meeting an amazing brand-new family.
Meeting my children.
Figuring out a career.

I guess I just associate my 20's with being care-free even though most of it hasn't been that way.  A 20-year-old has the world in front of them with a million different directions they could go in.  I have to keep remembering that I had that.  I had the time when I could have done anything.  I could have gone in a million different directions.  I sat on the porch and begged God to show me something that looks like what I have now. 

I have it now.

And I'm going to be 30.

30 is going to be enjoying it.

Enjoying my husband and children.
Enjoying my family.
Enjoying nursing (on the good nights at least)
Enjoying my hobbies.

Okay then.  Screw the 20's.  I'M GOING TO BE 30!

She peed in my favorite store.

Yes, wonderful little Maddie peed in my favorite yarn store on Friday.  I took a trip to Twist to get a mental vacation from studying.  The girls were lovely and cute in their sundresses and went quietly and quickly to the playroom in the store. 
(Yes, it has a playroom...it is the loveliest space)
They were quiet and well behaved.  They were playing respectfully with the toys. 

I thought I was pulling it off!

Until...

"Miss, I think one of your girls had an accident."

Of course she did.

I told her to go potty before we left.  She "didn't have to go."  Yet somehow seven minutes later we have 3.5 gallons of urine that are now ready for shipment to the nearest embarrassing place.  Say...one foot straight down onto the floor.  That's.  Great.  So I tell the girls to put the toys away we need to go.  We need to go.  We need to go...now.  They start screaming.  Both of them screaming at me as I'm in my favorite store, on my mental vacation, on my hands and knees wiping up urine. 

I got it cleaned up and we moved quickly to the counter to pay for my needles.  They were still screaming.  There were knitters in their quiet little corners, sipping coffee, and talking about intellectual things, I'm sure, until they had to stop and stare at my quandary.  Yes, sorry to everyone.  Don't worry..."SHE'S" leaving. 
What was I thinking.  We got out of the store and hurried back home.  All the while I'm feeling sorry for myself that I can't go out and enjoy just one tiny shopping trip without cleaning bodily fluids.  I put them down for naps and continued to feel sorry for myself.  I daydreamed of the day when I'd be done with nursing school.  No more homework.  No more diapers.  No more potty training.  My kids would be older and maybe then I could go on a successful 10 minute shopping trip. 

I was still mad when Maddie woke up from nap and dressed up in her lion costume.  Mad melted away quickly.  She was fuzzy and cute and wanted to cuddle with me and tell me stories. 

She grabs my face to tell me things.  Her little way of saying, "Do you truly understand the gravity of this situation, mother?  Do you understand the implications of the bear falling down and how that's going to affect future world events?  Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?!"

Her expression says that.  Her mouth only says, "Bear bell momma.  He bell." 

We were quickly distracted by the pretty earrings though. Bear falling down would have to be addressed at another meeting. 

Not mad anymore.  Kiss and make up. 

Cancel the permanent vacation to Canada.

Cancel the sale of "precious commodities" to the Gypsies.

We're sticking together for a while longer.

I couldn't all be flowers and ponies now could it...

So I had the most amazing weekend, yadee yadee yadee.
Family and food and surprises and love all around.  I really was so perfect it's as if it was rolled in sugar, tied with a rainbow, and presented on the back of a pastel yellow unicorn.  Weekends like that just don't happen.
Well then Monday came and the diarrhea started with Ella and Maddie.

My day was spent wiping poo off and wiping butt paste on. 

Wipe off...Wipe on.

Repeat.

All day and all night.  Wipe off, Wipe on.

And Tuesday continued the same way.  Unfortunately, Tuesday was supposed to be quite a busy day with Payton needing to do testing for 1st grade at St.Francis and me needing to do homework before I went to work.

My dad saved my life by coming up and taking Payton to his testing, and my sister saved my sanity by bringing a diarrhea survival kit for Ella (bananas, yogurt, Pedialyte) and a diarrhea survival kit for me (rosemary and olive oil crusty bread, seafood salad, Gouda cheese, and oreos). 

The bad part was that I couldn't get any homework done because I couldn't get out of the wiping poo cycle!
I was either cleaning poop, cleaning diapers, cleaning toilets seats, cleaning clothes, or cleaning floors from poop.  The homework did not get done.  My first assignment for the nursing program and I couldn't get it done.  Tim came home so I could go to work and I just bawled.  Work was way too busy to really get anything done, so I bawled as I came home, too. 

My sister made me a bunch of CD's a couple weeks ago so one of them was in on my way home last night.  I don't know the name of the song, but the lyrics kept repeating, "have a little faith in me, I'll have a little faith in you.  Just be strong for me, I'll be strong for you."  It was a pep talk in lyric form.  That's my new song for this semester.  God's way of letting me know it's really not that bad....

So I decided I was going to come home, get on the computer, and finish my homework no matter how late I was going to have to stay up.  I just wanted it done. 

I logged on and checked my 1 unread message.

The teacher extended the deadline for this weeks homework to Friday.

I went to bed.

"Have a little faith in me...."

Okay.  Will do.

Best. Weekend. Ever. Part 2

So there I was sitting in my favorite chair and watching my kids splash in the pool.  Then out of nowhere, my nephew came up to me and started talking to me about all of his detective work that he's working on.  I did wonder why my nephew was here and where his mother was.  But he had interesting things to say so I just went with it.  Then from around the corner came my entire family!!  With bins of food and my sister's beautiful cupcakes!!
It was a surprise birthday for me!  For my 30th birthday! 

I love my family.  I love food.  I love being outside. 
I got all 3 in one night for my 30th birthday!!

  All 6 kids over for swimming!  I just thought Tim was being nice by setting up the pool for me.  Little did I know....

Tim told me he was working on the air compressor in his shop.  Little did I know...

He was preparing 21 pounds of crawdads for a crawdad boil.  He's so sneaky. 

It all started making sense.  My mom did suggest I don't pick up the extra shift at work Sunday night.  Little did I know...

We rocked the slip-and-slide.  I forgot the first rule of slip-and-sliding though...remove all sharp objects such as keys from your pockets before sliding belly style.  I've got a nice little bruise on my leg to remind me of that.  Smooth move Kelly.

Tim started the boil pot.  Another thing I had no idea about.  He said he needed the propane to heat test a part.  Liar.

Payton played with our dinner.  He started crawdad races.  He has to race everything.  One of the crawdads didn't move so Payton put him back in the cooler.  "That one was broken, mom."  Ah yes, probably needs new batteries. 

So true.  Old guys do rule.

Dinner time.  It was a fantastic meal....and served on brown paper bags.

Beautiful kids in sundresses.  My mom made Ella and Maddie new sundresses. 

It was the best birthday!  I love surprise birthday parties, but it's not something you can really ask for.  Good thing I have a wonderful husband and family to read my mind.

Happy Birthday to me!!  30 doesn't feel like it's going to suck quite as much as I thought it would.