OH HOW I LOVE THEE

Recently I was doing some blog surfing when I came upon a post about a website called shabbyapple.com.

Shabbyapple.com? Hmmmm.... Never heard of it. Wondered what it was all about, what they sold, how expensive their clothing was. I was intrigued. So I navigated myself right to that page minutes after reading the post.

And what did I find?

Oh good Lord. I found the most fabulous collection of dresses ever. Really, this shabbyapple.com just took my breath away. I was without words as I clicked on all the different dresses. There were a plethera of styles and colors, and they were unique to boot. It was truly love at first site.

Why, you ask was I so very smitten with a website full of dresses? Because it is nearly impossible for me to find dresses that I like, AND that fit well. Everytime I have to go to a wedding, funeral, holiday party, or any other sort of function that I need to dress up for I dred it because of the simple fact that I need to find a dress to wear. And I am never successful. All the dresses I seem to try on seem to look cute on the rack and horrible on, or are not the right color for my skin tone, or are too long, too short, too boxy, too fitted. But the worst part of it is I spend days on end in shopping malls wasting away my time in dressing rooms in pursuit of the perfect dress that seems to be nonexsistent.

But just a few days ago, my search ended. I finally found the perfect dress. I loved the way it looked both on the model who was wearing it on the website and on myself. And here it is....

Go here to see what it looks like on an actual person. I am sure you will love it as much as I do. Realy.

So here's to my new favorite place to shop for dresses. http://www.shabbyapple.com/. Go there, shop and be merry.

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

I have been busy as all heck lately. So busy and crazed have I been, that I ran out the door this morning, looking like this to drop my Ava off at her summer success program.

Yes, that is me, (picture taken by my Lucas) in my pajamas, glasses on, no make-up... I did not even bother to make an attempt to fix my hair or even throw a hat on so as not to scare any of the other Mom's or kids when dropping her off. Now I have said in posts before, that I really don't see a point in getting all dressed up, hair done, make up on and looking all pretty every day of the week. But I should at least have the decency to make myself look somewhat presentable in public, right? Seems in my crazed state my general appearance has fallen to the wayside among many other things. What to do?

So I have been spending the summer running here there and everywhere, and finding next to no time to do anything, much less sit down and post anything on this blog of mine. The one I promised to write in at least 3 times a week so that I would not find myself going months without writing in it.

My point in writing this little post today? To document the fact that I promise to get back to writing at least 3 times a week soon. Very soon. Meaning, most likely when the kids are in school and things seem to slow down a bit. Oh, and to document the fact that I promise to keep up with my general appearance from now on. You know, take care of the basics : showering, doing the hair, and making sure to wear a pair of pants that you are not able to see my underwear through. (Look closely at the picture above, and you will see that it is true, I went out in public in a pair of see through capri pajama bottoms.)

Yes, I promise to do all of this to show my own self-worth, but most of all so as to not embarrass my daughter when I drop her off at school.

A FEW OF HER FAVORITE THINGS

As of late Liv has had a penchant for this colorful wood Rosary that I have had since I was a little girl. She is constantly being found roaming around the house with it on, happy as can be.


Today I found her wearing this rosary especially cute as she was also sporting her very first tattoo from our crazy weekend out on the river.

Tattoo's and Rosary's - a few of Liv's favorite things....

IT'S BEEN A WHILE

It has been a while since I have posted anything as we were out of town Thursday - Monday. Well, not exactly out of town, but actually right Downtown here in Stillwater, on the River, enjoying the annual Lumber Jack Days. This was an exciting event for all of us, well all of us except for Mr. Shelton.

Why, you ask?

Well, in past years the kids and were always left at home while the Mr. took the river with all of his buddies and had an out of control weekend full of drinking, staying up too late, and partying way too hard. I understood why this was not a kid friendly enviroment, and went with it, letting him go for a "guys weekend" away.

But this year I decided I was getting tired of being left behind with the kids, and something needed to change, and change it did.

We decided to tie up with a different group of boaters this year. Ones that were less likely to be doing beer bongs off the top of their boats, screaming curse words back and forth at each other and mooning and or flashing whoever happened upon their boat. The kind of people who are more kid friendly in nature.

And I do have to say, it went very well. We are all very tired, still recovering from all of the festivities, and trying to get rid of these horrible "sea legs". But it was all well worth it.

Some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Kids jumping into the new giant floaty Daddy bought. Great investment if I do say so myself...

Liv enjoying her first taste of licorice - I figured why not? We were on a mini - vacation, she could have an age inappropriate treat, right?

Lucas playing on the boat before bedtime....

Daddy walking between the boats with cocktail in hand....

View from our the back of our boat, quite the crowd!

The every humorous swan paddle boat that one of the boaters had....

Another view from the back of our boat....

Mommy and Liv enjoying the sun....

Liv loving the fact that she got her very first tattoo. Yep, a tattoo AND licorice, all in one weekend!

A closer look at her tattoo....

Relaxing in Mom's chair - which turned out to be her favorite place to hang all weekend long...

Our lovely friend Jay keeping Lucas busy on the Kayak

The kids being silly, waiting ever so patiently for the fireworks to start....

Enjoying our last day out on the river together....

The End.

LETTING GO

I have mentioned this in previous posts, but I have to say it again. I am having a very difficult time with the idea of Olivia being our last baby. I love babies. I love the way they smell, I love the way they laugh and smile at pretty much any silly face you make. I love that they love you no matter what. I love that they are not yet able to sass, or talk back, or fight with older siblings. Oh, there are so many things I love about babies. Take a look, isn't this baby too cute for words? Yes, she is.

But, alas, I do have to stop having them at some point, or I will land myself a one way ticket to the looney bin. Really, I will.

With Brian's work schedule, and the schedules that my three oldest already have I simply cannot keep up anymore. There are Dr. appointments, play dates, karate classes, dance classes, summer programs. On top of all this running there are piles and piles and piles of laundry to be done, dishes to wash, a house to clean, yard to keep up, and all that other stuff. AND more importantly, there are bills to be paid, and clothes, backpacks, shoes, etc. to be purchased x 4 - which is extremely stressful on the pocket book. Whew. Too much. Right?

I remind myself of all this every few months, when I see Olivia getting bigger, learning new things, and growing up. I remind myself to try and scratch away that itch I have to have another baby, and the itch does go away, but not for long. It just keeps coming back.

What to do?

RAINY DAY FUN

We had some friends over yesterday for an outdoor playdate. Everyone was getting along swimmingly, riding bikes, scooters, and playing tag in the cul-de-sac when all of sudden the sky went black. Within a few minutes we heard some loud thunder, and saw some pretty outstanding lightning as well. Then, came the rain.

Us ladies all looked at eachother and started heading for the door, but of course, the kids had a different plan. They all grabbed their bikes and started riding in the rain. We all looked at each other thinking the same thing, what a mess this was going to be. The kids would be soaking wet, and no one had a change of clothes along as who knew it was going to rain and the kids were going to play in it for an hour? But none of us really cared. Looking out into the cul-de-sac, we saw 8 little kids having the time of their lives, laughing, smiling and playing in the rain. I remember doing that as a child, and it was always such fun.

After the all the fun rain play, we had 8 little kids shivering away in the garage pleading for towels. They all warmed up, snuggling together in the towels I brought out.

Then we stripped 'em all down to their undies and let them into the house to play, while we threw all their clothes into the dryer. It was quite a site seeing 8 kids running amock through the house in their underwear.

The party was officially declared over when everyone's clothes dried and they were able to leave the house clothed. Everyone left, and I was finally able to coax my kids into getting their clothes backk on. Apparently they just loved being able to run around playing in nothing but underwear with all of their friends, must have felt so freeing to them.

SO MUCH FOR THE POOL

So this pool we have is sorta a lot of work. Unfortunately, it is not one of those fancy shmancy in ground pools that automatically cleans, and filters, the water all by itself. As a result, we have to do this all by hand, on a daily basis.

Somewhere along the way there was some miscommunication between the Mr. and I, as I thought he was taking care of this, and he thought I was. It was strange to hear that he thought I was responsible for cleaning, and checking the chemicals, as I have no idea how to do it, and have asked him numerous times to show me and he has not. He also thought I was responisble for getting the filter to run 4 hours a day. Again, interesting, as there is no way that I would be able to lift the 200 lb (alright, it is not that heavy, but close enough) generator from the garage all the way into the back yard to get it plugged in so that the filter is able to run.

So we had been using the pool on a daily basis ever since we had purchased it. I had Mr. Shelton going out there to check it and get the filter going pretty much every day. Then we hit a colder, rainy spell here in Minnesota, so the pool went unused for 4 days. Over those four days I asked the Mr. to get out there and check the PH levels, and to get the generator out there so that we could run the filter. I kept getting, "yep, I will get to it" or sometimes I would just get a quick glance in my direction as he ran out the door to work. So, you get it, the pool was not being taken care of.

On the fourth day the kids ran out to the back yard to play and minutes later came running in the house with looks of horror on their faces. "Mommy, the pool is all green!"

Wonderful.

I went out to see if what they were saying was true, and sure enough it was. The pool was pea green. You could not see the bottom if you even tried it was so grossly green. All that work to get the pool set up and filled, only to have it ruined 3 weeks later. Not Happy. At all.

I have spent the last 2 days emptying the nasty water out of the pool, and will now spend the next 2 days cleaning it and putting it away for the summer. No more pool. Mr. Shelton informed me that it was way too expensive to refill the pool, and that he clearly does not have the time to take care of it.

Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. For that whole 3 weeks.