We "Heart" Art!

Join the Three Bay B Chicks, Domestically Challenged, and I'm Living Proof that God Has a Sense of Humor as they celebrate art and being creative this week. These three blogs are sponsoring an event called "We Heart Art," which gives you the chance to not only showcase your artwork or creative projects, but also your kid's handiwork. Prizes for children and adults will be awarded to a few lucky winners selected at random.

Before Easter, my 4-yr. old wanted to make gifts for her preschool teachers. We wanted to do something different, so we made cotton-ball bunnies out of baby food jars. She glued cotton balls all over, added the eyes, and pink pom-poms for the tails. Bits of broom straw were used for whiskers and stiff felt was used for the ears. Even though the eyes were a little crooked and the bunny tails were close to the ears - they were cherished gifts that her teachers truly appreciated!

Nani's daddy is in the Army National Guard. Nani's daddy flies on helicopters. Nani decided to draw her own interpretation of daddy's helicopter.

I only recently started to really get interested in photography. Having two dogs and two kids gives me plenty of subjects ready and willing for a photo. Two of my favorite photos follow:

This was taken two days after a major snowstorm hit us here in Colorado. The snow started to melt and drain through our downspout. I thought I'd take a chance and see what I could come up with.

This photo was taken of my then 8-month old daughter and our German Shepherd. I like to call it "Friends Forever"

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Wordless Wednesday

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A Good Night's Sleep??

A good night's sleep? What the heck is that?? I am so tired this morning. I don't think anything short of going back to bed for another couple hours will help at this point.

My husband and I have the same conversation every single morning without fail. It's a part of our morning routine, and it usually goes something like this......

My husband: "How did you sleep?"

Me: "Ok"

My husband: "Just ok?"

Me: "Mmmm Hmmmm"

My husband: "You didn't have a good night's sleep?"

Me: "Not really"

And with a kiss on the cheek out the door he goes.....

This morning was no exception.

Last night, I tried to go to bed early -- I honestly tried. The girls were sleeping (or so I thought -- my first mistake). So I thought I'd call it an early night and relax in bed with some tv and a book before drifting off to dreamland. I handed my husband the remote, kissed him goodnight, and headed upstairs.

I knew I was in trouble as I headed up the stairs and heard my oldest daughter in her room singing the Little Mermaid soundtrack at the top of her lungs. I opened to the door to find all her stuffed animals lined up on her bed and Nani prancing around the room with a blanket around her shoulder. "Mommy - I'm a princess!". (Sigh.....) "Yes dear, I know you're a princess, but you know - even princesses have to get some sleep - especially when they have school in the morning." I tried to reason with her - telling her that now that it's nighttime, it's time to sleep and not sing. She agrees and goes back into bed. I tuck her in, give her another hug & kiss, and breathe a sigh of relief as I close her door and head into my room.

Twenty minutes later, I'm snuggled deep in my pillows, waiting for Mr. Sandman to come, when I hear it again, very softly at first, then increasingly building to the crescendo...

"Up where they walk, up where they run, up where they stay all day in the sun......"

(Sigh....) I throw the covers back and stalk across the hallway, throw open the door and ask Nani if she sees any sun right now. After convincing her again that mermaids sleep when the sun goes down, I try once again to go back to sleep. And I somewhat succeeded for about an hour....until my husband came upstairs to go to bed. I guess the sight of my body half-hidden under the covers wasn't his first clue to the fact that I was sleeping. Laying there I didn't realize that taking off your shoes and socks was such a noisy activity or that he felt the need to stand up after taking off one shoe and then sit down heavily on the mattress to take off the other shoe. I don't think the Japanese dive-bombed Pearl Harbor with that much force. He finally got himself settled, but I had yet to really fall back asleep as the rest of my night went something like this.......

11pm - Hubby begins another sneak dive-bomb attack trying to get comfortable.

11:15pm - Hubby is out cold, snoring loud enough to wake the neighbors 4 doors down.

11:20pm - Another dive-bomb attack as he rolls over after I poke him violently in the ribs to stop the snoring.

12:00am - I hear another round of snoring and as I ready my elbow for another rib shot - I realize that it's our 14-year old geriatric German Shepherd. I toss a wad of socks at her head....snoring stops.

12:45am - I hear soft whimpers coming from Nudge's room which quickly turn into baby babbling. I go in to check on her and realize that she's "sleep-babbling". I give her a pacifier and go back to bed.

2am - I roll over to find a dog nose in my face. Our 1.5 year old German Shepherd decides NOW that she has to pee. I lay there playing dead, hoping that hubby will get up to let her out. No such luck as the sounds of his snoring are drowning out her whining.

3am - It's time for the 3am showing of the Little Mermaid. I'm beyond trying to reason with her. I stalk across the hall yet again and tell Nani that if she does not go back to sleep this very instant she will never watch the Little Mermaid movie again.

5am - Hubby gets up and starts to get ready for work.

5:30am - Hubby's alarm goes off because SOMEONE forgot to turn it off before he got into the shower.

5:35am - I finally roll out of bed and stumble downstairs....totally giving up on sleep and just praying for a hot cup of coffee.

5:40am - I'm ready to cry because SOMEONE unplugged my coffee pot last night to plug in his phone charger, so my coffee did not autobrew. I now have to wait another 20 minutes for my coffee.

6am - Hubby comes bouncing down the stairs, showered and refreshed....ready for his day.

6:15am - I finally have that hot cup of coffee and am counting down the hours until the girls go down for naps!

So the next time my husband asks if I slept good, I think I'll just tell him - we have two dogs and two kids.....what does HE think?

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Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

So....this past week......

I did not Febreze my two dogs because I wasn't in the mood to give them both baths. I would never wonder if I could get away with doing that with the girls.

I did not reheat a cup of coffee that was 6 hours old because I didn't want to make a new pot.

I did not run the dishwasher a second time because I was too lazy to unload it and put the dishes away. I did not secretly hope that my husband would do that for me.

I did not pull my stove away from the wall with good intentions of mopping the floor and then push it back again, silently telling myself it can wait another day. I did not tell myself that cleaning behind the stove was going to take more than a couple Clorox wipes. I did not feel guilty about the dirty floor, pull the stove out and then scrub the floor on my hands and knees.

I did not leave the girls upstairs after their naps for another five minutes so I could finish cleaning my kitchen....and then discover that five minutes quickly turned into an hour.

I am not a closet slob. I always take my laundry out of the dryer right away, fold it and rush upstairs to put it all away. I never leave my clean laundry on the floor, saying that I'll put it away in the morning, and then come next laundry day become confused over whether that pile is clean or dirty.

I was not disappointed that I had to miss a park day picnic with some friends because I had to sit at home and wait for the utility people to locate cables & pipes in my backyard before we relandscape. I was not irritated because they showed up four hours late and were only there for about 5 minutes.

I really am not looking forward to this little form of therapy every Monday!

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