Decisions, Decisions

As luck would have it, we recently came into some money. Totally unexpectedly too. I went to the mailbox the other day and imagine my surprise when I pulled out a check from our mortgage company for "over payment of your account." Awesome! I mean, Lord knows I give them enough money, it's about time I got some of that back.

So now the problem is what to do with the money. (I know. Cry you a river, right?) Do we invest it in the children's college funds? Take a vacation? Go on a shopping spree? Maybe beef up our savings? Who knows?!?

Now I know that it is not polite to talk about money, but I bet you are wondering just how much we "over paid". So, because we are friends and I know I can trust you, I am going to share the amount with you. I don't want you to judge me, or beg me for money, okay? Because this is OUR money. We are the ones who over paid our mortgage by:


Yeah. You read it right. Three measly cents. Seriously? That couldn't just sit in my escrow account for a rainy day? The paper it is printed on cost more. And don't get me started on the postage.

So what did we decide to do with our windfall? Simple. We hung it in the cupboard so we can get a cheap (get it?) laugh every once in awhile. Not worth the gas it would take to drive it to the bank.

Time Sure Flies When You're Havin' Fun!

About this time four years ago, I was checking into the hospital (yet again!) convinced that I would be sent home (yet again). Then I heard the most glorious words that I have ever heard. "Looks like you are going to have some babies tonight." That nurse will always have a special place in my heart! Tonight, I cannot believe that four years have come and gone. It seems like just yesterday that they were snuggled up in the same little glass (plastic?) box. Abby all round and chubby and Ben with his loose wrinkly skin that got even wrinklier (it's a word) when he cried. I know it couldn't have been more that a couple weeks ago that they were learning to roll (Ben's preferred mode of transportation for quite some time), and crawl, and walk, and talk. And now they are four! How did that happen?!?

In case you are unfamiliar with the creature that is a four-year-old, let me fill you in. Four-year-olds have big hands and big feet and they kind of look like puppies waiting to grow into them. They make jokes that are most of the time not all that funny but every once in awhile make you laugh so hard you cry. They can do many things by themsleves. Get dressed, use the bathroom (THANK GOODNESS!), play, eat, and even make their own peanut butter sandwich (which, by the way, is totally entertaining to watch). They don't always need a hug before I leave for the day but I always get one when I return. They ask questions (still!!) about everything. They forget nothing. They go to school and are getting ready to read and write and they love a good "project".


Tomorrow night, after I put my four-year-olds to bed for the first time, I know that I will probably have a melt down of sorts. I always do on their birthday. It's not that I am not happy that they are four, it's just that I know I will never get back what has passed, and I loved that too. I am sure that four will be just as fun as three and that many new adventures await us. But it is hard for this momma to move on and I just barely got used to the fact that they were three.

So tonight, I leave you with some pictures of the past (gasp!) four years!
January 20, 2007 Abigail Joy 6 lbs, 6 oz Benjamin McKinnon 5 lbs, 13 oz

Ben

Abby

Six months old in Hawaii- my all time favorite pic!

At the lake. We put them to bed and heard crazy laughter. We came into find that she had climbed from her crib into his.

Ummmm, Ben did NOT like the snow.

"I in mine new house!!" The summer we built the house was the best!!

My little fishies LOVE swimming!

And we all love the lake.

Happy Birthday Abby & Ben. We love you so much!!

Everything I know I learned from Duff

One of the perks of having both of my kids born on the same day is that I only have to throw one birthday party a year. Because of that I tend to throw pretty big parties. We pick a theme, cook a big dinner and invite everyone we love...turns out that is quite a few people. Robbie and I both have big families who we spend a lot of time with, which means that not only are our kids close with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, they are also close with their great grandparents, great aunts and uncles and second cousins. They also spend a lot of time with us and our friends so many of the people they wanted to invite to their party this year were over 30. What can I say? They love all of their "aunties"!

Anyway, we have a tradition that started with their second birthday of making them a cake that goes with the theme. As the years have gone on, we have gotten bolder and more creative.

This is the cake from their second birthday party. At the time they were obsessed with school buses. It was our first attempt at something that wasn't flat. I think we made 3 or 4 cakes and then built the cake from there. It was pretty straight forward and a little sloppy but we learned a lot.
At the time of their third birthday one of their favorite books was "Starry Safari" so we went with a jungle theme. The kids came over and made binoculars from tp tubes and went on a safari, looking for all of the little plastic animals that we had hidden around the house. The cake was (in my opinion) our best work. It is difficult to see in this picture but the alligator is about 6 feet long. Robbie and I are a good team because he shapes the cake and I decorate it. It's fun for us and we spend a lot of time planning it.

Ooops! Same picture twice. Moving on.

This year, the kids decided that they would have a fire themed birthday party and we really went to town. They wore their firefighter costumes, we decorated the house with flames in the windows and the kids all decorated fire themed cookies (trucks, hats, hydrants, dalmatians). Ben and I even took a trip to the fire station to get fire hats for everyone. The big excitement was our friend came to the door in his firefighter uniform. We even served firehouse chili (which would have been even better if I had remembered the 50 pounds of cheese, sour cream and onions that I had in the fridge...ooops!). Since the day they decided on their theme I knew that I wanted to make a burning building cake. Robbie's idea was a fire truck with a hose that squired whipped cream. Obviously we decided to attempt both. It was touch and go for awhile but in the end we were happy.

We started by baking 18 cakes. Overkill? Maybe.

The next night we began building. Things were going well until we started to put the frosting on and it started leaning. A lot.

We have watched enough "Ace of Cakes" to know that something with any height needs to be supported through the middle. We searched the house and the only thing we could come up with was a paper towel roll. (It's times like this that it might be helpful if I wasn't so afraid of clutter because I am pretty sure that I have thrown away a number of things that would have been better options.)

Then it was still leaning so our only option was to make the building have a nice "entry way" by using the cakes we had set aside for the fire truck to hold up the rest of the building.

Sometimes you just have to know when to quit while you're ahead. As we kept frosting, it seemed to be getting worse and worse. I was getting ready to scrap the whole thing but I decided to leave it until the morning.

The next day, when the cake was hard, we were able to carve the cake into the shape that we wanted and things finally started to look up. By the time Robbie left for work, it turned into something that resembled what I had pictured in my head. Whew!

Oh, and good news! The fire truck worked! Thanks so much to everyone who came. We know it is a little crazy with all (63!) of those people here but it means a lot to all 4 of us that so many of you made a birthday party for four-year-olds a priority on a Saturday evening. Hope you had fun because we sure did!!

What if...

What if I won that big ol' lotto last night? Wouldn't that have been great? Of course I probably should have bought a ticket if I wanted a chance at that. My lack of ticket did not stop me from dreaming about what I would have done with the money. Here's what I'm thinking...

1. Pay off my house!!! Wouldn't that be sweet? 29 years early.

2. Pay off houses of people I love. Just because I didn't buy a ticket this time doesn't mean I won't buy one next time. It might be a good idea to pull out all the stops to make me love you between now and then.

3. I really don't know for sure what I would do about my job. Some days I really like it. Some days, not so much. I guess it would depend on the day. One thing's for sure, I would dump a ton of money into my school. The building is pretty but the kids (& teachers!!) could use so much.

4. I would donate to charity. When I do donate, I always wish I could do more. I feel like with $355,000,000 I could.

5. I would buy things that I have wanted but can't justify spending the money on at this time. New chairs for my living room so my friends have places to sit when they come over. A treadmill to get me off the couch. Professional (not JC Penny's) family photos. A closet full of new clothes. Round Table pizza for dinner a couple nights a week. A cleaning fairy who does all of the stuff I don't love to do...dusting, bathrooms, windows.

6. I would do major improvements on my deck and yard. Why? Because this is my current situation:

Can you even see my tiny little decks? You can't open the doors while you are standing on the porch or you will get knocked off. I want a big deck with lots of room to entertain. And I would need a big grill, and a patio set. A real one, not the mismatched chairs I got on clearance at the end of the summer. And while I'm at I can't wait to get rid of all of the weeds in our mud pit, I mean yard, and replace them with nice green grass. And a sprinkler system. And then I will buy my husband a riding mower. And build a shed to put it in.

7. I would rest easy knowing that my children can go to any college they want to without having to worry about paying for it for the rest of their lives.

8. I would take a vacation. With my family. I would go somewhere sunny and hot. I would sit by the pool for a month or two and if I liked it there I would buy myself a house so I could go back whenever I wanted. And the house I buy would have lots of beds so I could bring my friends with me when I came so I had people to play with.

Did I miss anything? I probably did but it looks like I have time to think about it.

I'm just not feeling it

So, bad news. Turns out I have a job. And I am supposed to go there tomorrow. What?!? How did I forget about that? Okay, I didn't really forget, but I have been avoiding thinking about it for a couple of days now. 16 days is just long enough for me to get used to being at home. Playing with the kids, cooking (stop laughing...I cook now), spending the day (who am I kidding, the week) in my sweats, running errands when it is light out, taking naps, sleeping in...the list goes on and on. My non working life is so relaxing and so easy. I do what I want, when I want.
Now don't get me wrong. I do love my job. Most days. It is just the idea of getting up early tomorrow. And being away from my kids all day. And coming home to a house that is not nearly as clean as I left it. And then cooking dinner. And cleaning up the house. And with work comes all of the after school classes and trainings and late nights. So while I know that I will have fun at work tomorrow, seeing my friends and hearing about all of the fun the kids have over break, tonight I just don't want to think about it. The kids are in bed, I am stuffed from the huge dinner we ate and the house is just the way I like it so tonight, I'm gonna live it up. I will watch some trashy t.v., take a bath and probably drift off to sleep way too late because no matter what, tomorrow is going to hit me like a ton of bricks. So good bye vacation. Thanks for the good times. I look forward to Spring Break and more importantly, summer. Sure, tomorrow morning will be hard. Most likely all 3 of us will cry. But don't worry about me. By Tuesday we will be back in the swing of things. But tonight? I'm just not feeling it.

****I'm way too into my pity party to post pictures tonight. Sorry.