Yard Sale Madness

So Erika, Mildred and I had a yard sale today, which was full of laughs...of course... how else do you get through a yard sale where people are trying to bargain the absolute bottom dollar from you for all your nice junk? So after getting up at 6am, I finally swan over to Erikas with the kids for 7am, of course all the early birds are out poking through everything, even though it wasn't supposed to start until 8am... anyhow, Erika and Mildred were practically giving their stuff away.... I had to vocalize a price of one of Erikas toys when someone asked as I could see her just about to say "10 cents" and we didn't have change for anything less than a quarter, so I shouted "thats a quarter" to the lady who still went ahead and bought it... I love making my friends money ;-), what are friends for?

When I think of the hundreds of dollars we all must have spent to buy all this stuff new (and Mildred had some really nice name brand clothes), it is kind of horrifying, but hey that's the wonderful world of yardsales... one mans junk is another mans treasure.... I took my $58 that I made, went to Martins and bought Brie cheese and all the food 'treasures' that I don't normally get in a regular shop.... so while I am pigging out, I would like to thank all our yardsale customers for making it possible!

Citizenship Update...

So I finally had a letter through from the INS saying that my interview date is on the 19th Sept. I am thrilled because it actually means that if I pass the civics test and seem like I can somewhat comprehend the English language, I can get sworn in that day, renounce my green card, become a citizen of the United States and actually be able to vote in November for one of the muppets running for election this year... I need to get studying...

I got a taggin'

So I have recently been tagged by Jayme.

How To Play This Game of Tag?: Post these rules on your blog. List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog .

Ok so here goes:

3 joys:
- My children (& hubby)
- Golf
- My friends

3 Fears:
- 'Dry drowning' or any type of drowning for that matter...
- My dads health
- Taking financial risks

3 goals:
- To be able to hold a great grandchild in my arms
- To see my children be successful
- Right now? to get a bigger house

3 Current Obsessions/collections
- To be a better golfer
- my computer, Facebook, blogging, ebaying, you name it...
- shopping

3 Facts
- I absolutely love to laugh, it is a great healing power...
- my hair is colored... yeah... sorry guys, I know you all thought it was natural... no more blond jokes for me then...
- I am a pretty good Wii tennis player, haven't been beaten yet!

I now tag Erika, Missy, Emily, Ashley and Jarrett, because they are my only other 5 bloggin' friends...

Abby is growing up waaay too fast...

My little baby girl is just not so much of a baby anymore. This week she experienced her first sleepover with her friend Kwisten. She had been begging us for months to have a sleepover with Kwisten and finally Amy (Kwistens mom) and I arranged a night of a fun cookout and a 'sleepover' for Abby. Anyway, we didn't leave their house until 11pm last Sunday, apparently Abby went to sleep 1/2 an hour later, woke up the next day with a smile on her face for being next to her friend and then ate things for breakfast I know she would never eat in our house...but of course if Kwisten is eating it then I know she will too... Me? I woke up at least 3 times in the night with the worry that she was "dry drowning" (as we had been in Kwistens pool all night till 10.45pm)... so everytime Abby asks if she can have a sleepover now, I have to think it means "sleep deprivation" for me... it's fine though, just to see the excitement on her face is enough gratification for me....

She also started swimming by herself a couple of weeks ago. So now she is jumping off the diving board in the deep end and swimming to the sides... you would think she has just ran a marathon each time she does it as she is panting so hard, but she so wants to keep up with her brother and friends... I have to pinch myself that she is still only 4 years old.... it is only when she comes for her snuggle or wants a "milky bot bot" at night that I am reminded that she really is "my baby" and always will be, no matter how grown up she acts....

Just For Missy...

... and thanks Erika for taking such beautiful pictures!

A Monumental Day...

..so I should have written this blog on Tuesday as THAT was the monumental day of firsts for us...not today...but I had procrastinator writers syndrome...so here it is...

On Tuesday Sam came running in from the waterslide shouting "mommy, mommy, I have lost my tooth". It turns out that indeed Sam's very first tooth had come out and boy was he proud...it was kind of a sad moment for me though as I remember that exact tooth was the first tooth he ever got when he was a baby...another realization that my kids are growing up fast... so he put it under the bed in a ziplock bag and waited for the tooth fairy to come. "I think I will get $10 for this tooth mommy," Sam said.. I had to gently let him know that times are hard for the tooth fairy and that she only gives $1 per tooth! So Dave and I scrummage 4 quarters together as we had no cash on us at the time (typical - why couldn't he have lost the tooth on payday), and Dave crept upstairs late at night to do the "switch"... the next morning, Sam came down and was jumping for glee saying that the tooth fairy had left him $0.75 cents! I told him to go upstairs and look again as the tooth fairy always leaves $1, but alas, no last quarter was ever found... we still don't know what happened to it...maybe the tooth fairy really did come and took the money instead of the tooth! Sam was happy though...

To top off our monumental day of firsts, Abby started to read 2 letter words all by herself... a very proud moment for me as a mom to see my 4 yr old reading with no help at all...on to the 3 letter words now...good job Abby!

4th July 08

So the 4th July is a funny celebration for me... If I had a dollar for every person that asks "so do you celebrate the 4th July?", I would be rich... I want to say 'listen, the yanks beat the Brits in the war...but it was a looong time ago ya know'... but most of the time I just hold my tongue and say a polite "of course I do" type of comment... seriously though, like I would be harboring a grudge that America gained independence from Britain... the U.S. wouldn't be the magnificant country that it is today if it was under Biritsh rule.

Anyway, we had a lot of laughs and giggles at Jarretts parents house with the Lassens and Golds, playing a Pirates of the Carribean dice game and playing tricks on Erika... All 10 (plus 2 babies) of the kids played really well together, apart from Sam getting 'shanked' (by accident) by Colby. I have never heard him scream quite so much, I thought he was dying and when I ran over to the clubhouse to see what was wrong and expected to see blood gushing from somewhere, it turns out that Sam was screaming with embarrassment as he had just had his swim shorts pulled down! Kids....

So after eating way too much, we roped Erika to take some family pics of us (which she did quite obligingly as she loves to take pics... especially of us as we are so photogenic, lol ;-), see below. After leaving the Golds, we headed home for smores (a Graham cracker, chocolate and roasted marshmellow sandwich for all you Brits out there) on our firepit and watched our neighbors fireworks which was cool... so we had a very mellow day really, just as I think 4th July should be...