Tuesday Thoughts...

* I got a pedicure last Friday, and went with the color lavender... still am not sure if I like it, I usually go with reds, pinks, or french. I probably will be going back to said usual colors next time.

* The book on CD - Heart of the Matter, is really good. I wasn't sure if I would have the attention span to "listen to a book", but I have really enjoyed it. The book is narrated by Cynthia Nixon (Miranda from Sex and the City), and she does a great job. I do find myself having a hard time getting out of the car when I arrive at work because I just want to stay and listen though.

* Laura is doing ballet camp this week, and she's having a really good time. I am excited to see her perform this Friday on the last day. Rachel doesn't understand why she isn't in ballet camp (she's not old enough). I have a feeling this will be a common issue for the next 15 years or more.

* I am trying really hard to wait closer to my birthday to switch over my phone, since it's technically my birthday present from the husband. Thank you Ebay for coming through, cause I was really freaking there for a while. Meanwhile I have the phone all set to go in a cute pink cover thingy.

* We had our 2nd neighborhood bible study session this week, and though I do really like it, I still am scared to death because this is my first time in a bible study, and it's pretty obvious that all the woman have extensive religious backgrounds, while even though I did take several religion classes in college, and had that two year stint at Catholic School, I clearly have a lot to learn still. Ok, so maybe in high school I was just trying to get a good enough grade so I could play sports, and in college I was just making sure I'd get that A to secure getting on the Deans List. I feel paranoid , and I am certain there is a arrow over my head flashing "does not attend church regularly". Speaking of which, I was trying hard for a while to go the church my husband grew up in, the one which we were married, and our children were baptised. I feel horribly guilty saying this, but I just am not sure that I liked it. I am sure I could have tried harder, but the church is lacking others within 50 years of my age range, and I just didn't feel that warm fuzzy welcome feeling. I have thought about checking out other churches, and I always chicken out. I am horribly shy in new surroundings, and can be scared off very easily. I don't want to try out a new church, and then have the members just randomly show up on my front porch unexpectedly. I have ruled out certain churches or religions as I don't want to go anywhere that preaches hate, believes that people go to hell if they don't do this or that,have strong political opinions and expect all members to have the same exact ones, etc etc. That is a lot of me to ask for, as I have learned, but I can't be a active member in something if I am not 100% behind what a church stands for. It is frustrating though, here I am a product of being taught in private religious school for the majority of my life grade school through college, and yet I am still trying to figure it all out.

Summer Picks 2010

I miss Oprah's favorite things... I don't think she has done a show on her fav items in a while, or at least I have not seen it. Never the less here are some of my fav summer items.

The Lands End Zip Top bag still is the bomb. The bag we have is trimmed in Orange. I could use a new one, cause the one I have has taken a beating, but I am going to try to hold out until until next summer.



The sunscreen of choice for my family is this:

I get it at Costco. I love that I can spray down the kids really fast with it, I don't have to run it down, so noone turns into a grease monkey, and it smells pretty good.

For a sunless tanner, I love this:


However, this year the nozzle looks different, the can is the same color, but the nozzle looks really big. Still the same great product though. It is harder to find, Target and Walmart in my area don't seem to stock it, but at Walgreens it can be found. I actually have found some of last years cans at TJMAXX pretty cheap. I have tried other brands like Neutrogena, and I still prefer this one, as the color looks more natural.

Guess what I use these for?

No, not at work. I use them for my bra straps lol. I know they have that product out as Seen on TV can do the same thing, but I didn't have one of those, so I improvised, and it works great! Redneck- yes, but hey, it gets the job done.

The summer snack of choice:

These are a classic....Our pool has a snack bar, and they carry all kinds of ice cream and snacks. My kids however always ask for these, and I happily give in, cause these suckers are only twenty five cents, and they are just as happy with these then some over priced drumstick that will just end of making a mess.

My summer shoe:

The Tory Burch wedge flip flop. I finally got these with a giftcard that I earned, and they have been such a fun comfy flip flop. In all fairness they cost as much as a Reef Flip Flop, so it's not priced that crazy. I also lucked out and found another pair at a consignment shop the other day super cheap that don't have a wedge, so I scooped them up too.

Lastly the kids favorite toy this summer are these:


No, not little boys in speedos, diving sticks. Emily loves playing with them in the baby pool, and Laura and Rachel now can spend hours trying to pick them up off the bottom of the pool.

Our Family has been victims of pool hair. Pool hair is the wild grossness that your hair becomes once it has dried after a day in the pool. We went to bed Friday night without showering all million of the those chemicals off, and Saturday morning all of hair pretty much looked like the picture above....

I may or may not have just attempted to pull all of our hair back to disguise it out of lazyness so we could just run and jump in the pool Saturday and play it off. Does anyone else remember being a kids and arguring with your parents about how you didn't need to take a shower cause you have been swimming in the pool all day?

In other non gross news, a man came up to me at the pool and told me he thinks Rachel looks exactly like Cameron Diaz. I have to admit, I think he's right... She has these amazing huge blue eyes just like her daddy, and she's tall and skinny. At her physical a few weeks ago the doctor told me she's in the 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight.

Yesterday morning, I ran a few errands with my oldest, as Dave hung out at home with the kids. Laura and I went to the local library, so she could pick out some books and movies for her and her sisters. She ended up with two Fancy Nancy books, some Italian book, ballerina books, and one of the movies is a flipping Barney Movie... Oh how I remember how my now 16 year old nephew had such ab obsession with Barney... I didn't even know Laura would know what Barney is, but apparently she does! I had a hard time finding anything for myself, so I actually ended up getting a book on CD, since they didn't have any written copies available, and the waiting list for the books were long. I have never gotten a book on CD before, so I was unsure how I would like it, if I could pay attention, etc. It's actually not bad! I am just going to listen to it when I am driving, and since I have a 20 -30 commute each way to work, I figure I should be able to knock out the book in no time! The book I am listening to is Emily Giffin's newest book- Heart of the Matter. I am on chapter 3, and so far it's really good, but all of her books are so no surprise.

Laura and I also went by a produce market, and then Food Lion, and then when we came home we all went to the pool (Laura and I rode our bikes up there). I probably could have walked blindfolded to the pool faster then riding my bike with her, but she loves it when we ride our bikes there.

Laura and Rachel are doing so good with their swimming. Their newest trick they like to do is jump into the pool together holding hands. It's so cute, I am determined to get a photo of it at some point this summer. Daily at the pool I can count on someone new to ask me if they are twins. I really wish I had a dollar for every time someone asked me that.

Emily loves the pool too, she is way too brave though, which scares me. She tries to jump off the side already. I definitely have some water babies. As much as I love the pool, I hate the mess my house becomes because of it in the summer. Our porch always has beach towels hanging to dry off the side, you can count on bathing suits to be strung all over the house. I also slack on cleaning because we spend most of our time outside the house. I really need a raining day to get my house back together...

Oh I ended up buying the earrings with the green stones in the post below. It was so hard not to go crazy and buy a bunch of stuff!

Today begins my weekend, and I am so happy, as I have had a busy week. I am sure today will be spent at the pool cause it's hotter then you know what in Virginia. I got an invite to a Stella and Dot party from a neighbor, and I am debating about what to do buy.... I LOVE THEIR STUFF! Last year I went to a party and got some earrings that are wonderful and such great quality. I have a catalog, above I posted some things that I am liking....

I am leaning towards the blue turquoise earrings, and then the green and gold ones...The blue ones are cheaper, but I am liking the green ones better, and I am only allowing myself to get one item, so the internal battle begins!

Easy yummy mac n cheese

I am obsessed with mac and cheese, and I am always trying different recipes. I have made complicated ones that require a crazy amount of bowls, steps, cheeses, I have tried Pioneer's Woman's, Southern Livings, etc etc. My husband and I both agree though the one I have been making lately is the best, and the easiest...It's a Southern Living version from the cook book- Busy Moms Weeknight Favorites. It was purchased at Sam's Club several years ago. I tweaked it a little bit (mainly just took out the bread crumb part, cause I didn't have any, and didn't feel like making my own)

You will need:
1/4 cup flour
1tsp onion salt
2 cups milk
1 16 oz elbow mac
4 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
1/4 cup butter

Cook pasta, set aside. In a bowl combine flour, onion salt, and then slowly whisk in milk. Then mix in 3/4 of the cheese and all of the pasta. Pour in a baking dish, then top with remaining cheese and melted butter and cook on 350 for 30 min. I probably use more cheese then it calls for, and I grate my own from a huge block from Costco. It's so easy, and very tasty. Of course, my own kids prefer easy mac still to anything.... go figure.

Wall-O-Art

I have been on a kick of looking at artsy mom blogs. I myself love arts and crafts, and have been excited to do things with the kids, but I have had to get over the fear or the "mess". I have made sure I have gotten all washable paints/markers, etc, and I make sure the kids don't have on any clothes that are expensive. We also have mandatory handwashing when our projects are over.

This week we of course, discovered Goo, and made our own. We painted with red pain outside, we did our glue and flour project, and then most recently we ventured into watercolors. The watercolors have been their favorite so far. I made sure to buy water color paper, because the thickness will prevent anyone from crying about their paper getting so wet that it gets a tear or a hole. The supplies for all of this have been super cheap, and they rather do some art then play with their toys....

*I'd also like to take a minute, and give an update on the phone situation... I have a droid ordered and coming to me, so we can all breath a sign of relieft that I wont be moaning and groaning about it anymore... Dave get's to keep his too, thanks to the wonders of ebay.

Gymnastics Spring Session

This past Tuesday my older two kiddos had their gymnastics "show". Apparently all the spring classes have a huge show with all the age groups, and the gymnastics team each year. This year the theme was "Peace, Love, and Flips". Our age group was asked to wear a tie-dye shirt with black shorts. The gym was decorated all colorful, and hippyish. Laura and Rachel were in the same gymnastic class this session, which in theory was very convienent, but the class they ended up being in consisted of the ghetto fabulous kids and parents included... They will be in seperate classes the next session because Laura moves up a level, but I can tell you this, if either one of them are in ghetto classes again, I will be pulling them out and we will carry ourselves to the non-parks and recreation gym. WORD!

Laura was very shy during the show. Can't say I blame her as there were over 100 people watching. Rachel, on the other hand thought she was Miss America, as she loved looking at the crowd and waving with a huge smile on her face through every routine.

Crafty Stuff...

We have been crafting, and doing a lot of artsy stuff in the house since getting some blog inspiration of fun activities to do with the kids. We did some painting outside, did some glue and flour designs (make a picture with glue, then cover with flour and shake off)

Today I made goo for the kids, and it entertained them a great deal. We made pink goo. I have never made goo before, and I got the how to, from a friends blog who I went to college with. Go here for her post:http://apolskaya.blogspot.com/2010/06/goo-craft-kits-and-birthday-gifts.html

I am brain storming some other artsy stuff for us to do since they are loving it to much....

Snarkyness, and Pool Fun.....

The foul mood in this house with me has continued all weekend, as I am bitter that Dave got the phone. Just doesn't make good sense... I am the one who runs the household, I could stand to use a smart phone. Him? He's just entertaining himself with looking up retarded videos of people farting or hitting each other. What is wrong with this picture?? It's not fair and I am mad at myself for even offering it up for a father's day gift. I am being one bitter betty right now. I only have myself to blame, and that drives me CRAZY.

Despite said foul mood, the weekend was productive with me having to take a first aide and CPR class that took all day, (so I can learn to take care of the husband after I seriously injure him for being clueless to the ways of the wife's brain), and spending a lot of time at the pool.

If you have the opportunity to join a pool, I seriously suggest it. About half a mile from our house is a pool that we have been members of since the summer I was pregnant with Laura. Before that, while growing up my parents were members of the pool until I was 16ish and then busy with other things. A lot of pools (at least in my area) have been closing down over the years, because I guess some families can't afford it, or they chose to do waterparks over a pool membership. Luckily, our pool has not had to worry about that, as a cell phone tower got put on the property, and now that takes care of the future of the pool. The members are also actively involved with taking care of the property. I can see where waterparks would win a lot of people over if you have to chose, BUT in our case, we can go to the pool all the freaking time and not worry about traffic, large crazy crowds, weirdos, etc. Another plus, if someone gets sick or we forget something, we don't have far to go to get our stuff or just go home. I also don't have to worry about someone stealing junk. I had the unfortunate experience of having a brand new pair of white oakleys and some flip flops stolen at Water Country when I was 17, and obviously that sucked.

The kids are enjoying getting to know other children at the pool, and have made some good friends. Alot of their little friends are on the swim team, and I secretly hope for mine to be on the swim team one day as well. If nothing else, my kids will at least be good swimmers, and have a bunch of memories of summers at the pool.

I have the best PMS posts...

In a little more then a month I will be turning the big 3-0. I did a blog post a while back as I had it in my head I wanted something big. You can read it here: http://mommagiles.blogspot.com/2009/06/thinking-about-big-3-0-already.html

So not sure if this is a good thing or a spoiled brat thing, but I have gotten everything off that list, with the exception of the Rolex watch, which I just need to face, is just not ever going to happen EVER. I might as well carry my behind up to China Town and just get a fake one.

Dave has been asking me for a while now what I want for my birthday. I don't freaking know. I know it wont be the phone I wanted though.

I'm in a foul mood today because I have been wanting a smart phone for FREAKING EVER, but I just didn't like the price and I was hoping for the Iphone to make the movie to Verizon which isn't happening anytime soon. However, with the discount I get it wasn't really going to be the big bill I imagined. Of course, Dave has been begging for the Driod for forever and ever as well, and so this caused a clashing as we only have one upgrade available, which was actually on MY phone. Of course I had the post of Dave seeing the light and saying I could get it last week, but I am trying to do the nice thing and let him have it for Fathers Day. After listening to him whine for a few days about his phone not acting right, I gave in and let him get the damn Droid as his early Father's Day gift. I am supposed to be all happy for him right? Wrong. It pisses me off instead, which I am attempting to cover with a fake smile. I know thats bratty, but it is what it is. Hope he enjoys his nice fathers day present, cause all I got were a pair of shoes that had to be taken back since I already had a pair, and ummm someone forgot to give me the money so I could get something else for myself. Husband Fail!

New Blog Love...

I found the coolest blog http://pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com/ This is a blog by a former art teacher who has several small children. I have found it helpful, because I love arts and crafts, but I struggle on finding ideas for projects to do with them besides pull out some playdough, or the normal markers, etc. She has given me so many more ideas, and some confidence to just get over worrying about making a mess, and let the kids create!

Ahh... the weekend is in view. Here's what new with us:

Those lovely Tory Burch Flip Flops I wont shut up about should be on my toes by Saturday! My giftcard I earned finally came about a week ago, BUT when I went to place my order my size was not to be found. I stalked the website for a few days, and then finally my size popped up, and I found a code for free shipping.

My oldest demonstrated for us last weekend that she can swim short distances in the pool without any assistance from water wings, or swimming vests. You go girl!

Confession... Dave really wants a Verizon Droid phone, and we only have 1 upgrade available on our phone plan right now. I have been planning to get it for him for Father's Day as a surprise, but since this week I think I have fallen for the Droid myself. So obviously the non-selfish decision would be for me to get Dave the phone, which is what I had planned.... HOWEVER, I was telling Dave how I would like one eventually, and he tried to get me to buy one right then, and so I had to crack and tell him I couldn't as my plan was to get one for him for Father's Day. He then told me I should still get one, and get him something else for Father's Day, as he feels I would be able to get more out of the phone then him. Cue me getting my hopes up thinking we could then go back and I would get it... Didn't happen, and he hasn't brought it up since. I actually pray every day that he will bring it up and give me the go ahead to get it for myself. It's pretty sad.

For all the Twilight lovers....

I made an emergency Target run this am for tweezers. My eyebrows were out of control, and the tweezers in the house are missing, and I either don't have time to get an eyebrow wax at my favorite nail place, or I don't have cash on me for a tip, because those sneaky suckers wont accept tip on a debit card anymore... While I grabbed some tweezers, I spied Stephanie Meyer's new book (author of the Twilight series) on sale, so that had to come with me. This book is called The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner. This is a short book told by a newbie vampires point of view. Bree was a newbie created to be part of an army in the third book- Eclipse. Apparently, Bree is in the newest movie coming out, and Stephanie Meyer suggests all fans read this book to get a feeling for things from her point of view.

You can actually read the book for free from this website: http://breetannerbook.libredigital.com/index.html for a short time period, but I wanted the hardback copy since I have all the other books.

It's 3pm and I already want dinner....

Confession.... we strayed from the menu planning some this week... well actually a lot...I feel guilty, but hey. I did good Monday, which wasn't hard as we had a party at our house, but then on Tuesday I had a coupon for a free chick-fil-a new spicy sandwich (which is the bomb diggity no doubt) so we all ended up there.... Then another night we ate hot dogs at a baseball game. I ended up doing Sloppy Joes last night instead of Thursday... Tonight I am also not going with the original plan which I think was grilling pork chops.... I am going to make pancakes.... I really want to make a pancake recipe from who else- The Pioneer Woman. It's a sour cream pancake recipe that's in her awesome cookbook that I own, but if you want to try it out yourself a bunch of people have posted it on there blogs so check out one of them here if you want to do this too :http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/ree-leighanneedna-maes-sour-cream-pancakes/

I just have a mad craving for breakfast for dinner! I can't wait to eat these all up with some bacon tonight!

I need to sit down tomorow and try to do some menu planning for next week, and hopefully I will do a better job!

5 Question Friday... but on a Saturday

Saw this on another blog and I am going to play along too, since I don't have much to blog about.


1. If you could go back to college would you change your major? Or, if you were to go to college right now...what major would you choose?

Tough call! Well actually my freshman year my major was Physical Education. Yep, I wanted to be a PE teacher. Go figure, I was a huge jock. My grades freshman year were soso as I was still getting adjusted to college life. To get into the education part of major sophomore year you had to apply for the education program etc etc...I was worried about my GPA not being high enough, so I actually sat down one night with the curriculum book of all majors, and I looked for one that didn't require much math, and that is how I found the Social Work major lol. Crazy thing was my GPA turned around, and I would have been fine if I had gone ahead with the PE major. However, I have to say I loved the Social Work classes. They were so freaking interesting, and I did pretty awesome in them, and was able to get into a one year accelerated masters program (which is insanely hard to get into). I love my job, and I think all an in I would do it all over again!

2. What do you love most about your home?
We built our home, so obviously I love a lot of it. One thing I really like is having our master bedroom downstairs.


3. What types of books do you like to read (if you like to read at all)?

I read a lot. I tend to like chick- lit, (but not romance novels). The last book I read was The Help, which had me crying like a baby.


4. What is the grossest thing you've ever eaten?
When I was in the 11th grade, my parents and grandparents all went to eat at this Fancy Seafood place, and took me along. I tend to like a lot of seafood, and my favorite at the moment were steamed clams. So I happily ordered the clams.... apparently this place just serves them raw...I knew they had cost my parents a lot, so I didn't want to be a brat and not eat them, so I sucked it up and attempted to eat them.... IT was awful... After the first one, I just started to try to swallow them whole, and chug tea with each one. So nasty!


5. If you HAD to be a character on a TV show, whom would you be?
hmmm could I just be Sookie Stackhouse from Tru Blood on HBO? She's just the cutest thing, and Vampire Bill is just pretty hot.

Summer Bucket List

A girl after my own heart- Semi- Slacker Mom- did a summer bucket list post, see her link on my side bar. What a fun idea! She put a list together of some of the things she has lined up already for her kids, and things she can do when the kids get bored....

I put together our family's Summer Bucket List:

* Gymnastic classes through August (oldest two kids)

* Angelina Ballet Camp thingy (oldest)

* Vacation Bible School (oldest)

* Swim lessons (older two kids)

* spend way too much time at the neighborhood pool (we pretty much live there)

* Visit the VLM lots with out passes (Virginia Living Museum)

* week vacation in Nags Head

* pick blue berries

* take lots of bike rides

* make cinnamon rolls from scratch ala Pioneer Woman

* attempt teaching oldest to ride bike without training wheels without injury

* visit the animals at Blue Bird Gap Farm

* neighborhood bible study group (for me)

* family trips to Busch Gardens

* not kill the veggie plants I have growing....

* lots of walks to feed the ducks and fish at lake near our house

I love holiday weekends...

Hope everyone had a wonderful long Memorial Day weekend! We took full advantage of the nice hot weather, and enjoyed some time at our neighborhood pool that finally opened up. We grilled out with some family and friends and let the kids play in the baby pool, ate lots of yummy food, saw Sex and the City 2 with a friend, found a necklace that I really really want from Stella and Dot and possibly will ask for my upcoming bday, and listened to my husband go on and on about how we need to get Droid phones. He's becoming obsessed, and I am just not on board yet. He's seriously trying really hard, but he's got a long way to go to make me get over the costs.