slug bugs when i'm 10!

On the way home from church today tj (who was sitting in the very back) kept trying to tell us something like this:

       MOM! when i get to turn 10... wnoiajnlgkanslkgn (something we couldn't hear) so we ask him to speak up...

       MOM! when i'm 10 ! lajkd;lafkjklsdm.f.a.s./w///..... he tapers off again, so again we ask him to speak louder...

        MOM! when im 10  SLUG BUG YELLOW!

after the laughter from up front dies down, we ask tj, what about when your 10?

      oh, i don't know he says.... brad and i laugh again and then brad reminds me of this joke:

How many kids with ADD does it take to screw in a light bulb?
I don't know, how ma---- Wanna ride my bike?!?

Is this REALLY necessary?!?!

Day Light Savings Time...

really?

i did half my growing up years in Arizona, where they don't believe in DST :)

yes, no change.

But change is good no?

no.
it's not.

change means cranky kids,
cranky mom,
and (perhaps) a cranky dad.

 TODAY's change meant that my ridiculously early riser woke up even earlier!
TODAY"S change meant that we had longer to get ready for church (bonus)
               BUT it also meant that we were at church later (negates the bonus...)
TODAY'S change meant that our fast went even longer.
TODAY's change made 2:30 feel like 8:30! (is this even possible?) It seemed like the day would NEVER end, and with cranky kids, this is definately NOT the day to have a NEVER-ENDING DAY, maybe like wednesday, friday or saturday. those are good days to NEVER end (unless again, of course cranky kids are involved)
TODAY's change makes the sun go down (or the earth rotate away from the sun) even earlier, like 5ish!
TODAY's change means that I only have 4 months to get used to this, just in time to SPRING FORWARD!!! great. just great.

happy "saving's" to all, and to all a good night!

Just a little bragging on my man!

Ok, so wierd picture i know...(new orleans vampire store...didn't buy the hat) but it's the most recent one where he doesn't look half asleep.

I just wanted to do a little  update and brag a bit on how hard he's been working (and how un-hard i've been working i guess :)

He is about ready to turn in the 4th chapter of his dissertation to his advisor. He's got his intro (rough draft of course since that really gets good after the rest of the paper is written) chapters 1 &2 turned in and started on chapt 4. so what does this mean!?!?! his advisor used these words :

I can confidently write in my letter of reccomendation that you (brad) are making rapid progress and turning in high quality work and are more than half way complete with your dissertation!

(she also said something to the effect of what a FANTASTIC teacher he is with near native fluency in the language, which is more important in the south/east than research and publication:)

GREAT news for brad! I think he was on a little cloud 9 for the night :)

I know it's been crazy here at home, he's home long enough in the mornings to read scriptures, say family prayer and drop sb off at school (since i've been sleeping later and getting up when her bus pulls up... oops.)

But that's about it. hes done the dishes a few times for me and folded a few loads of laundry (and even put some away!) But as for my end of the bargain...... weeeeellllll, can i just blame it on first trimester yuckies?

(i am super super super ashamed to admit this, but i can't stomach bending over and very sensitive to smells right now soooooo the bathrooms haven't been cleaned in uhm....4 weeks) please don't tell anyone!

I'm half tempted to call merry maids or something just for my bathrooms! (and maybe the kitchen floor?)

But only 1/2 tempted.... cause i know what the check book has to say.

so a quick update on the baby thing too... 9 weeks tomorrow. yesterday was the first day with no spotting, bleeding, or cramping, so i guess that's more good news?

alright, thanks for letting me brag on my sweetie (mush mush mush i know :) and have a GREAT day!

with nothing clever to say

Bleck!

I just wish i could see into the future... just a few years and see

"do we make it?!"

"did we do the right thing?!"

Sometimes i just wish i could have
that little reassurance...

you know, that boost of energy that says,

 

"JUST KEEP SWIMMING, JUST KEEP SWIMMING SWIMMING SWIMMING!"



Mom?!? Who's that man in your bed?

Okay, So, I had to think of something catchy to  get people to come read, right? and well, this title actually has application to our current situation.

Now, before you go getting CRAZY Ideas, here's what's going on here.

As most of you know, or i hope know, brad is in his (hopefully) last year of grad school and is writing his dessertation while teaching 2 undergrad courses and working a part time job at the university. BUT, the latest development on his dissertation keeps taking all sorts of twists and turns. first, his dissertation advisor informed him that she would be going on sabattical the semester he was planning to defend (spring 2011).  After the initial shock of that and how to go about finishing, we were back on track and still planning for may 2011 to finish.

BUUUUUUTTTTT hold your horses! (i imagine this next part in a high squeaky witch-like voice) Not so Fast!

and before i proceed i do have to say that his advisor is super sweet, super knowledgable and just happens to be of the same specialty that brad is studying, 19th century french literature.  so it makes sense for her to be his advisor....... HOwwwwever...

So last week he got an email that said that the conditions of her sabattical were being changed and she would not be able to provide any teaching OR service hours from January till mid August.  WELL, guess when all the jobs start and say that phd MUST be in hand by?!>?!?!? AUGUST 1st!

and then as an after thought she added, you couldn't by chance finish by this december, couldya? :)

psht! grrrrrrrrr.

so after thinking about our options (cause, like we have soooo many;)

brad officially put his defense date as mid august, but, BUT and a big BUTTTTTTT!

we have decided to get him done by december. which means that he's already gone on mondays and wednesdays till 830/9 but now he will be putting every waking moment into finishing his dissertation research AND writing. his finishing his 4th out of the 6 chapters, which are all first drafts till reviewed byt the committee, and he needs to get the finished product to his entire committee by november 10th, which is 6 1/2 weeks away!

so, this past week he's been gone all day everyday, and for the remainder of this semester, I will be husbandless, carless, and i will try to help my children remember what their father is like (jk, it's not THAT dramatic, but i had to get something that related to the title to draw it all together, right? 'cause i'm not that great at catchy titles and fun posts!)

anyways, to any who might be reading this, we are totally fine, i'm not looking for a pity party, buuuuuut, if you have any extra thoughts to send our way or any remembrance of our family in your prayers, I would really appreciate it.

oh and HAPPY FALL!!!!!!

Knock Knock!

Several years ago I remember learning a joke from Brad. It goes something like this:

Brad: hey noel! i have a great knock knock joke!

Noel: oh really? let's hear it!

Brad: ok, you start!

Noel: ok, Knock Knock.

Brad: who's there?

Noel: uh... uh... HA! so funny!

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. After a crazy, stressful,faith-trying, beautiful Sunday of church and a fun afternoon of family bickering,fighting, yelling, togetherness, brad and i had collapsed onto the couch with a sunday movie. The kids were all playing together in their rooms and traveling out to the living room every once and a while to check on mom and dad.

Then SB comes out and tells us that they've prepared a show for us! In a very grown up manner instructed us to one at a time come sit and discuss our options with her. would we like to go to the boy's room for a show, or to her room for drawing? i chose the show and brad chose the drawing... which ended early so everyone could join us for the show. Now, this isn't unusual. SB will usually come up with things on sundays, even when we have people over, and have everyone come to her room for "centers", or a "discussion" or lesson time ect. She is very much a big sister and first born (brad just calls it bossy, but i have NO idea where she gets it from ;)

So there we are, myself and brad sitting just inside the door way, tj and k sitting right in front of us. SB setting up the show as so:

After a few moments of setting up she looks up and asks, are you guys ready?

We say YES with sheer enthusiasm. she then walks to us and says"Enjoy your show!"

and then begins to exit the room, leaving us wondering for just a moment as to what has just happened. Brad and I look at eachother and just lose it! HA! we are laughing so hard that we are BOTH crying and gasping for breath. after a few minutes SB comes back and is confused as to why we are both in hysterics and demands to know what is so funny... which just makes us laugh even more and harder. After we calmed down and discussed what happened we both said that instantly we thought of "THE" knock knock joke from so many years ago..... ahhhhh. such a funny child. brad says she gets her humor from him...

i say, true.

day 2 of first grade

So don't get used to this, posting 2 days in a row, thing :)

this is how tj feels when sb leaves in the morning for school

He's just lost without her... jk, he and k have tons of fun too!

but they really are all very close. :)

For today's hairstyle, we kinda went with a spunky do'....

brad dropped her off today and as he walked her in a mom stopped him and asked if he did her hair. she really liked it?  idk if that's a compliment or not,

 but like i said, we went for spunky :)

i only wish i had (dare is say it??!?!?!?!) more bows!!!!

oh and she loved her first day of school.  she has her same fantastic teacher that she had in kindergarten, and they're in the same room, so there's not much change. 

 One big change actually is that she will have spelling tests now every friday... any ideas on how to study for those everyday?

first grade!

WELL, that summer went by way too fast! only 9 weeks! i feel gyped...

this was sb's first day of first grade.

She wanted her hair in curls but failed to inform me of her wish until it was bedtime, so i tried the curling iron in the morning... poor girl, she didn't get my hair. by the time i was finished with the right side, the left side had already fallen out. but she sho' is cute anyways :)

cloth diapers for sale!

well some of you "loyal" readers of my pathetic blog may remember this post

http://holley-family.blogspot.com/2008/05/cloth-diapers.html  about my decision to use cloth diapers and what my 2 cents on it is/was.

I really enjoyed the diapers and using them on tj and kempton. as some of you may know due to my complaining, this last year we did store diapers because of our septic nightmare from damaged lines and irresponsible/unreachable installers.  brad was very wary of how much laundry we did and trust me we used hardly any water at all...(phew)

Things are fixed finally, and now, (THANK HEAVEN!) kempton is ready for potty training.

so, we are no longer in need of these (plus i need the space and the money right now more rather than later :(

so i am selling my diapers. the ones i have are bum genius all in ones (AIO). which means it's exactly like a regular diaper, and they were brad's favorite. you don't do any stuffing.

i have 10 large (6 green, 2 orange, 1 white, & 1 blue)

pictured below.

the blue and white ones on the right are one sizes (6 total, 3 blue, 3 white)

these ones you stuff the insert in them but after they are stuffed they are just like an AIO. plus they have snaps on the front so all you have to do is snap it onthe right size to grow with your baby.

a veiw of the AIO open.

a view of the AIO closed.

the ones below are the medium sizes ( 10 total, 5 blue, 3 green, 2 white)

and these ones are XL,  tj wore two of these twice and was done. most still have the tags on.

they are bumkins AIO

there are 9 here too.

these have more of a plastic underpants feel on the outside but the comfy flannel feel on the inside.

so, that's that i guess. even if you don't use or want to use cloth diapers, if you know someone who does or who would like to try it out, please pass this post on to them.

we're wiinding down on going into the last year for brad's schooling, so money is getting super tight... if it were a size i'd give it a 2 :) just kidding, my lame attempt at a joke. (horrible sense of humor i know.)

hmmmm

ok, so blogger certainly has changed in the last ahem....4 months? but who's counting :)

we've got a lot of summer adventures to report on, and apparently some colors to change, but i'm going to work on that. hopefully soon?

ah well, please don't give up on me.

more things that make me happy!

Random/regular phone calls from my mother that happen to include a dear and friendly voice from my past. (you better call me back!) Thank goodness for dear dear friends that still love me!

Things that make me happy!

need i say more?