Saturday, March 29, 2008

Dust, Dirt, and Mysterious Gray Crud

Just in case you were wondering, July 20 is Ice Cream Day, October 26 is Mother-in-Law Day, and December 12 is Gingerbread House Day. The first week in December is Cookie Cutter Week, the first week in February is Pancake Week, and the first week in May is Be Kind to Animals Week. I am able to share this obscure information with you because I have a way cool planner that informs me of all kinds of strange holidays. It's kind of a bossy planner because it tells me to do things like watch Charlotte's Web on July 11 (E.B. White's birthday) and play croquet on May 25 (Backyard Games Week), but I love it anyway.

Last Monday, I noticed in my handy dandy planner, that it was national cleaning week. Of course, I resolved to have my whole house spring cleaned from top to bottom before the week was out. All those things that only get cleaned once or twice a year (or not in the entire four and a half years that I've lived in this house!) desperately need a good scrubbing. The ceiling fans are dusty, the blinds are atrocious (that's one of the things I'm afraid I've neglected), the windows are dirty, there's a mysterious gray crud on the seal of my refrigerator that I'm fairly certain is mold (eww!), etc. etc. etc. My house isn't really in that bad of shape I guess, but I'm not going to invite any white-gloved cleaning inspectors over. Did you notice the verb tense? Yep, all those things still need done!


It's not that I didn't try to deep clean the house. I did. Sort of. The problem is, for some reason, I think the house has to be clean to clean it. Does that make sense? Probably not. I think it's one of those crazy ideas that I got from my mother. Kind of like how I only use the "good" towels--the big, fluffy ones that match the bathroom stuff--whenever the old, too-small-to-get-any-decent-coverage, bleach-spotted, should-be-rags, dollar store towels I bought in college are all dirty. Kinda weird, huh? Anyway, all my cleaning time this week was spent doing the regular cleaning and nothing extra at all. Except I got two bathroom cabinets cleaned out. Yippee! What progress! I did, however, get my house clean so I could clean, four times. And Colter and I got lots of playtime in, and that's more important anyway. :)


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As you can see, Colter doesn't have my cleaning procrastination problems. He cleans off his book shelf everyday! Isn't sweet how he tries to motivate his mommy? He also takes all the baking pans out of the cabinet, so I can clean the shelves and reorganize. What a big helper! I wish I was as good a housekeeper as my sweetie pie.
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Aww. He's thinking about how much he loves story time. Or is he planning his next disaster?

Friday, March 28, 2008

FFF-The Eyes Have It!

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Today's Favorite Foto Friday theme is perfect for sharing some of Colter's wide-eyed, shocked expression pictures. He can look so surprised! There are a lot of baby pictures of me with the same look on my face. Funny!
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I don't have time to write much this morning--I've got to take full advantage of nap time to get my disaster house clean. If you would like to check out more "The Eyes Have It Pictures" check out Sarah's Blog.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

After Much Anticipation...Easter Pictures!

I know you are anxiously awaiting the moment when I will finally get around to posting Colter's Easter pictures. I don't want anyone to get too impatient and form an angry mob demanding to see cute baby photos, so here they are! The moment has arrived!

Colter's First Easter
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As you can tell, Colter liked Easter! Except for his meltdown in the church nursery that is, but he does that every time I leave him there.
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He loves plastic eggs! He took his cousins' eggs that were filled with coins and candy and shook them to make them jingle. Future famous maraca player perhaps? He loved shaking them so much that there are seven scattered around on our living room floor, so he can shake away. They're filled with Cheerios though, so I don't have to worry about him eating a penny or choking on a jelly bean. My sister ate a penny when she was a toddler. I won't describe what we had to do to make sure it didn't get stuck somewhere. Eww.
Colter and His Easter Basket
Here's Colter with his Easter basket. I LOVE this hat!
Colter Eating Easter Basket
I love his hat, Colter loves chewing on things.
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Easter is fun, Mom,
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but why did you stick me in a flowerpot?

My mom, the Photoshop guru, fixed some of these photos for me to make them all professional looking. Aren't they fabulous? One of the next things to do on my list is become a Photoshop expert like her, but before I do that, I have lots of homework to do!

CONFESSION: I'm doing a Beth Moore Bible study called Jesus the One and Only (which I love, by the way--If you've never done a Beth Moore Bible study before you should try it), and I haven't done my homework! Each week, the study has five lessons that take 25 minutes or so, and I haven't done mine! Bible Study is tomorrow, and I have three more lessons to go! Oops!

Friday, March 21, 2008

Favorite Foto Friday: Easter Memories

Here’s one of the reasons I decided it would be way fun to have a blog! Not too long ago I came across a blog called Kiss the Frog 4 me on my mom’s list of 100s of blogs she’s a fan of. Every Friday, Sarah, the author of the blog, picks a photography theme, and blog authors that want to participate post photographs that fit the theme. How cool is that? Today's theme is Easter Memories.

Most of my Easter memories take place at a wiener roast. That's right, instead of a ham dinner (or whatever other people eat on Easter), my family roasts hot dogs and marshmallows down by the creek! Unless it's too cold of course, and then we have a bonfire at my Grandma's house and eat indoors. I never knew this was kind of a strange tradition until I was grown and married, because it just so happens, my best friend's family has always done this too! I don't know who decided we should eat hot dogs on Easter, or what it has to do with Jesus (maybe the hot dogs represent the souls that will, um, roast if they don't accept Jesus as the Lord), but it's always a blast!

Since I didn't have my own little guy to take pictures of last Easter, this is my nephew blowing bubbles at the Easter wienie roast a few years ago.
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Here's my niece, ready to tailgate!
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Our Easter dinner! Very formal.
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I'm sure I'll have a lot of photos to post of Colter's first Easter soon. We're ready to start making Easter memories with him!
Though I don't have any Easter photos yet, I do have some cute bath time pictures of my little guy. Don't you love the mohawk?
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I'm just sure he's wondering why his mommy is flashing the camera in his face when he's nakey!
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All clean!
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Thursday, March 20, 2008

My Mom Gave Me to Aliens!

Even though I'm quite infatuated with him, I guess not every post can be about Colter. However, Since Colter has been keeping me extremely busy lately (he's cruising around everything and I have to keep him from bumping his head if he's going to make it to toddler hood with any brain cells--he needs a helmet!), I haven't really written anything. I'm going to cheat and post part of a memoir I had to write in college. It depicts my wonderfully trusting personality well.

My Alien Experience



I have always been gullible—no, not gullible—trusting. I typically don’t lie to people, so no matter how many times I’ve been deceived, I naively don’t expect others to lie to me. I don’t know why I usually trust people, especially since my mother has always made a habit of lying to me (she has always called it teasing).


One evening as my mother sliced steak for dinner, she casually informed me that aliens were on their way across the pasture to come and get me to take me to Mars with them. At first I didn’t believe her. You see, even though I knew aliens were real, they had to come from the sky in a flying saucer, so Mommy had to be kidding. She was, after all, always trying to get my siblings and I to believe something silly. Why, just the day before she said she had called Mr. Monster to come and get Chance (my younger brother) because he was being naughty. He believed her, started crying, and promised to be good, but I picked up the other phone and listened. There was no monster on the line, just a lady saying, “If you would like to make a call, please hang up and try again.”

“There aren’t any aliens coming, Mommy.”

“Are you sure about that? I saw on the news that people have been spotting U.F.O.s around here. I’m sure I saw one in the pasture.” My mom convincingly claimed. “You had better go check.”

Well…I didn’t think it would hurt anything to check outside, just in case. Mommy had seen it on the news, so there had to be some aliens close by. The news people seemed to know what there were talking about after all. I walked out of the kitchen and looked through the screen door. I gazed outside, but it was too dark to see anything. It was late fall and the sun had already went down. I stepped out on the porch and peered across our yard and examined the pasture. I didn’t see anything, but I heard a curious rumbling in the distance. As I stared at the pasture to assure myself I was not going to Mars, I saw a pale light peeking out from behind a hill. The light started growing brighter and brighter and seemed to get closer and closer until suddenly, there it was! A U.F.O. with all lights aglow popped over the top of the hill and was headed towards our house. It was huge! There were lights everywhere. Five white beams of light were pointing in my direction and the U.F.O. was outlined in red and orange smaller lights. It was getting closer to my safe place on the porch every second. I dashed into the house in tears and begged Mom to tell me where to hide. She told me to go pack in case the aliens would let me bring any toys for the trip. I cried desperately and clung to her legs pleading for her to stop chopping potatoes and save me from the aliens, but she paid little notice to my hysterics.

“I wonder if they’ll stay for dinner. Do aliens like steak and potatoes?” she questioned. “I hope they let you eat before heading to Mars.”

“I don’t want to go with the Martians, Momma!” I sobbed.

“Do you think they’ll take you shopping for a spacesuit, or should I try to come up with something real quick? You could probably fit this fishbowl on your head.”

“Mommy!” screaming now. “I don’t wanna go!”

“Oh…well, it’s too late. I think they’re already in the yard.”

“AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” I quickly dove under the table.

I heard their forbidding steps on the porch. The door opened. The Martian marched across the floor right past my hiding spot under the table. It walked towards Mommy who stupidly yelled at it to take off its muddy boots. You can’t talk to Martians like that! What if it has a ray gun? I peeked out from under the table and saw the Martian’s feet standing right next to Mommy. What was it doing to her? Was it going to zap her with some sort of death beam because she tried to tell it what to do? I had to know. I slowly lifted up the tablecloth preparing to run away as fast as my legs would carry me when I saw…not an alien, but Daddy! I could always count on Daddy to protect me. I dashed out from under the table and grabbed Daddy to tell him about the horrifying trip I was about to take, but he just laughed. Instead of getting out his shotguns and rifles to defend his little girl, he took me outside and showed me that the U.F.O. was just a tractor. My mother has an interesting sense of humor.

P.S. I do have a bit of Colter news if you made it this far. He had his nine-month check-up yesterday. He's 20 lbs 4 oz. and 29 inches long. He's growing fast!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Who Needs Toys?

Good Morning!
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For someone who spent a lot of the night trying to push his mother out of bed, Colter certainly looks well rested, doesn't he? Colter hasn't spent a whole night in his crib in I don't know how long. He misses his Mommy and Daddy too much I guess. I don't have a problem with him sleeping in the middle part of the time--as long as he's in the middle. For the past two nights, he's scooted closer and closer to me until he finally sits up in the dark and plops himself down right on top of me! He's practically on my head, but more on my upper back I guess (I'm a stomach sleeper) with his arms draped over my head, so he can caress my hair (my hair is his security blanket--sweet, but sometimes inconvenient). Of course, after a twenty-some pound baby makes himself at home on top of me, I'm wide awake. Then my stifled giggles and struggles to get Colter off my head and back in the middle of the bed wake up my husband too. Sigh. Who needs sleep anyway?
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After a gourmet breakfast of mashed bananas and cereal, it was time to play toys! The basket is full of more toys, and if we get tired of those toys there's more in the bedroom. Fun times!
Wow!  A lens cap
Toys? Who needs toys? There's a handy lens cap over here! That's much more fun.
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Oh and look here! A piece of paper! Paper is Colter's favorite thing--Fisher-Price is over rated.
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Colter also played with a lotion bottle, the entertainment center, a piece of fuzz, and then, as you can see, he went for the camera!

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Happy Nine-Month Birthday, Colter!

Can you believe it? Colter is ALREADY nine-months-old. Time flies! Our lives have sure changed since Colter's birth, but I can't imagine life without him now. He's such a blessing! I promise not to post quite so many pictures that might take a while to load in the future, but today is a special day!
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Colter's three-days-old here. Look how little he was! And his hair is a totally different color than it is now! It's amazing how tired we all were that first month, when he slept so much. He couldn't even wake up for this picture! He had a rough weekend though--birth, a bath, circumcision, etc.
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One-month-old. Such big, beautiful eyes!
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Aww...his first pacifier. He doesn't use that one anymore. Sniff. Now he uses big boy binkies.
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I loved that little outfit. I wonder if I can even get it over his head now. He's actually a week or so over three months in this picture, but it's the closest I had.
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Colter's first camping trip! He loved watching the leaves blow in the wind. I'm so excited for spring! We're going to have a lot of fun showing Colter more of the great outdoors.
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Isn't he a snazzy dresser? This was at Thanksgiving.
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How adorable! I know as Colter's mom of course I'm biased, but I can't get over how cute this kid is! He's such a sweetie. He just melts my heart.
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Well, again this is actually a week before 7 months...why didn't I make sure to take a picture on every month birthday? I've done pretty good though--there's more pictures in the house taken since Colter's birth than before, and I take a lot of pictures.
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Eight months and as you can see from his position in the hallway, things are getting interesting! I never knew how fast one could army crawl from one end of the house to the other. He's speedy!
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What a happy boy! This was a few days ago.
I've been struck lately with how much Colter has changed, and after looking back at these pictures the transformations are amazing. It's bittersweet--he's so fun to watch when he learns new things and has his adventures, but what happened to my little newborn??? I think I need some Kleenex. For future reference, I'm pretty sure I'll be a basket case at Colter's graduation and wedding. Just some advance warning.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

A Blog for Jenelle

Apparently I've been living under a rock. Not a dark and scary rock with cold, wet dirt and earthworms, but a nice comfortable rock with carpet and satellite television, but no weblogs. I don't know why, but for some reason I did not, until just recently, realize what a blog was. Maybe I'm just very unobservant, but my ignorance is probably because until this past school year, I taught high school at a school with an Internet blocking system that must have been ran by Nazis because almost EVERY useful and interesting website is blocked. Not just websites that should be blocked, like how to build a bomb sites and ways to annoy your teacher sites, but good websites, like those that promote world peace and teach readers how to churn butter. Try to get high school students to write a research paper using the Internet to find sources when most of the Internet is blocked! It's difficult. Anyway, now that I'm a stay-at-home-mom, I've crawled out from under my rock and realized what a blog is, and now (like most people who can run a computer it seems) I want one too!

I don't know what will come of this, and I don't know how long it will last. Considering I've probably started 15-20 journals in my 28 years that all lasted less than two weeks, I wouldn't be surprised if after five posts, I'm never heard from again. Hopefully though, with some kind of an audience I will be held accountable to write relatively often. I hope so, because when I'm rich and famous there will need to be some kind of a diary to post after my death. This could be it!

Probably, this blog will end up as a way for my son, Colter's, fans to see how much he has grown and what he's been doing. I'm sure I'll rant and rave and be silly too. Who knows? We'll see! I had a blog for a day at least!