Look What I Found

The other Monday (ok, let's be real, say 3 1/2 weeks ago on a Monday) I opened my purse and found this Did you see it? Look closer... Yep, right there beside my ID badge. It is what you think it is... Sophi-G's Binky.

Apparently she wanted to keep it safe at church on a Sunday evening, so she just dropped it in my purse for safe-keeping.

Love,
G

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I know I haven't been posting as much lately, but the past few weeks have been over the top as far as exhaustion goes. I will try to be more dilligent in the future, don't get over excited. I love you guys!

Sophi-G, Not Football

This post was originally going to be about football practice and helmets and stinky boys. Brenden even took a short video of the actual event for me to share. But, in downloading the pictures I saw this...
and then I came across this and this
then there was this one too

Then there was this

So I guess I'll talk about football someother time, like maybe never, or tomorrow, or Saturday. Hmmm, I guess it will depend if someone else's incredibly cute face ends up in the same folder as stinky, sweaty, nine-year-old boys and football pads.

Love,
G

Man Ingenuity

On Saturday the house was full of cute little dorks. Several of the under 12 crowd from church were over for a swim party. During this time Sophi, my niece with the princess complex, would wander back and forth from the deck to beg to be put in the water (see Sophi the Swimmer 6/22) and back to the living room to visit mom.

About 4:00 my sister went to change a must-be-changed-now diaper to realize that they were out of diapers...oh, the sad fate of being a third child. When she realized she was out she did the seasoned mom bit and just put her shorts back on sans diaper. Well, it seems that Sophi-G wasn't quite finished yet and without going into the shrieks and laughs and details her shorts were no longer an option.

So my dad, the John Deere wanna be, simply and effectively solved the problem.

Do you see his solution? Look closely now... Yes that is exactly what it looks like, a burp rag and electrical tape.

What more can I say? I guess I come by my dorkiness genetically.

Love,
G

Where do these kids learn these things?

One day last week when I was feeling human - is that opposed to non-human or non-feeling do you think? Anyway, when I was having a good day last week I took these two dorks-in-training

along for the ride.

Austin, cutie wearing GAP, really wanted to buy a book on Meteorology/Weather Forecasting at Barnes & Noble. But, being the book critic I am, I convinced him to wait and to let me help him search on-line and find a better book. Please listen (OK, read for those of you who don't understand poetic license) to a snippet of their conversation on the way home.

To preserve their identities Austin will be known as GAP Kid & Brenden Nike Boy. Darn, I guess I just blew their secret identities. Bad G...Bad G...Bad G...

GapKid When I get this book on how to forecast weather, I won't need to watch the news anymore because I will be able to look at those maps and be able to make my own forecasts for mom & dad.

NikeBoy silence

GAPKid Really, I will. As long as I keep reading and learning, I'll be able to measure air pressure, track wind patterns, and forecast.

NikeBoy silence

GAPKid Really...pause...so what do you want to learn about Brenden.

NikeBoy I don't need to learn anything. I all ready know what I'm gonna do when I grow up.

GAPKid What?

NikeBoy A Hurricane Hunter

GAPKid So you should spend your money on books about hurricanes and stuff.

NikeBoy Nope. I already know everything about Hurricane Hunters.

Ya gotta love being six!

GAPKid Brenden, they learn new stuff about stuff all the time. Ya gotta keep up.

NikeBoy silence

GAPKid But, Brenden, you don't understand. When I was looking at the meteorology books at Barnes & Noble, I saw this stuff about a new barometer that they just invented.

NikeBoy silence

GAPKid Really! And I didn't check the copyright date so all of that information could be really old...like from 2001 and they could have invented a whole bunch more cooler things since then!

I don't know where children hear these things these days. For all my Blog Stalkers - hey, it could happen...in fact, I might just create myself my own secret identity and leave myself a message as a blog stalker just 'cuz, so there - I have been known to discuss copyright date and their importance to book selection with GAPKid.

NikeBoy silence

GAPKid Brenden!

NikeBoy I'm still gonna be a Hurrican Hunter.

Yep, six is a great age!

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And as a side note, Sophi-G let me hold her this afternoon in the presence of her mother

and she smiled. For those of you who may be confused, Sophi is wearing pink & I'm in red.

Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact that momma was taking the picture and daddy was doing the 'smile Sophi' dance behind her while dangling a binky just out of her reach. Nope, nothing to do with that at all. She smiled 'cause she likes me...at least that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

Love,
G

Sophi the Swimmer Cleaned My Closet & Found My Camera

Oh My...I hope you aren't reading this actually thinking that Sophi (who is 17 months) actually cleaned my closet & found my camera. I just left out the important comma because I though it sounded cuter =).

What a Day!! It started with arranging my day to await the Fed-Ex guy...I mean to wait for the Fed-Ex guy to deliver my medicine. (I don't normally fixate on delivery men and plan days to sit around and wait on them. But now that I think about it, it's not such a bad idea.) Anyway, because the pharmacy determines the medicine to be somewhat 'fragile', I either sign a waiver allowing it to be delivered without a signature (which means I accept all financial liability if for some reason I don't receive it) OR I have to arrange a delivery date where there will be someone at my address to sign for it. So I chose the 'I will be home until the delivery comes' method and planned my day so that I could hang around the house and be available to sign for this little bottle.

Does that bottle look like $18,000 to you or what?

Anyway on to Sophi the Swimmer. While waiting for the delivery, Dee brought the kiddo's over to swim. Now this

prevents me from actually getting into the pool. And those of you who know me know, and those of you who don't know me will know now (and really who would want to read this if you didn't know me?), that swimming is one of my most favorite summer activities. So going swimming this year loosely translates to mean 'make sure you stay immersed in the water unless you want your cottage cheese documented for posterity, because G's got a camera & nothing else to do.'

So of course I have to show you another video (or twelve) of Sophi Grace. The first one is more of my gal jumping in & clapping for herself...(she knows that in a family full of boys you better clap for yourself if you want to make sure someone aplauds your triumphs).



Sophi-G has also been working on her swimming by learning to kick her feet. Notice how her arm floaties do the shimmy!


After swimming, we (and by we I mean my sister) fed the boys & Sophi lunch. Then she graciously agreed to help me Clean My Closet.

Just some background info on the closet situation...Since I started treatment, keeping my closet cleaned and rotated with the right seasonal clothing has been pretty low on the priority list. Ok, ok, it hasn't even made a list - priority or not. So, I have winter, spring, summer & fall clothing in about 5 different sizes shoved into my closet. Point in fact, the last time I rotated any clothing was October 2006.

My closet has been packed so tightly with clothing, I didn't have anything to wear, because I couldn't find anything in it. Then, when I finally did get something out, it was - wait for it - wrinkled, and it would have to be ironed. (Now, I don't need a reason for not ironing. I didn't do that before I found out I had cancer. Do you really think I'm gonna waste precious energy on doing something like that now that energy has actually become a precious commodity for me?) So the wrinkled garment would just get shoved back in as I would desperately continue to search for something to wear!!

So six-ish hours & eight trash bags of weeded clothes later (which included one very cute black wool Banana Republic dress with a suede ribbon belt & one cute pin-striped cuffed Gap capri's)

my closet looks like this

Now, I'm not saying this looks great, but compared to what it looked like before (there isn't a before picture because somethings are more embaressing than publishing a picture of my chunky tummy on-line) it is absolutely amazing. At least I can now find what I own.

And during this huge trying-on-to-see-what-fits time (ya really should'a been here for that fashion show Amy), I realized that I can now wear some really cute things that have been too small for a while ~ woo-who!!

After my closet was as done as it was gonna get, I went to put away several bags that had been hiding on the closet floor (how dare they!) and as I slid this winter bag
back into the purse tote. I noticed it seemed heavy. When I looked inside I found

YEAH!!! I Found My Camera. It has been MIA since mid-March. The last time I remember having it was in San Diego right before Easter. On the camera I found this snapshot of Sophi & I.

I remember wearing this dress on Easter Sunday. (It is a cute white & pink sundress with a black two inch ribbon hem & I paired it with a short bolero style jacket in case the church was too cold. To make both items even more attractive I picked them up on sale.) I grabbed this black bag so I could carry it one last time before I put it away until fall. When I got in from church that day I set the purse on my closet floor and it ended up hidden behind clothes.

What a wonderful Day!

Love,
G

Sophi the Swimmer

Tonight after church the boys & Sophi came over to go swimming. Sophi (17 months) is pretty fearless when it comes to the water. She gets the biggest kick out of jumping in and clapping for herself. Of course this is then followed by immediately repeating the process. She has the time of her life & the designated Sophi watcher is exhausted!!

Press Play to watch my Girl in Action!!


Isn't she precious???

Cooper - The Flying Puppy

This weekend my nephews, Austin & Brenden, picked out their first pet. They chose a cute Jack Russel/Rat Terrier mix from the Pet Stop in Owasso. At the pet store, they called him Jack-Jack from the movie The Incredibles, because he moves at the same speed as Dash did in the movie.

Naming the dog was a huge decision. Austin really liked Buster and Wishbone. Brenden liked Brownie or Fudge. Denetta liked Jack-Jack, Happy or Dash. Tony liked Roscoe. And Sophi didn't really like the dog. After a long debate and no decision made, Denetta suggested that the boys choose the name the same way she & Tony did when they named Tara and couldn't agree on a name. (They lived on Tara Lane.) Since they live on 41st East street Tony thought it would be kind of fun to joke around calling the dog "Hey 4-1 East!" Eventually, the boys chose Cooper since they live in Cooper Landing.

Cooper loves to play tag, wrestle, fetch & keep away. The boys are in love & Sophi still pretty much hates him. =)

As many of you know, I tell everyone that Sophi looks just like me.
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However, let's be perfectly honest and say that my nephew Brenden probably has a closer resemblence. Check him out wearing one of my wigs. It's not really amazing that I am often mistaken for his mama.