I have yet to meet a version of Pride and Prejudice I don't like...

What is with boys and Jane Austin? She was a genius! She mocked her society with style and dabbed a bit of star-crossed romance to keep things interesting. Bryan on the other hand, has to leave the house before I can watch Pride and Prejudice...or any other 18th/19th Century film. Well, maybe not war films. Anyways, I just had loads of fun watching 'Lost in Austen'. It totally makes fun of Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' and the Collin Firth TV movie series. Hilarious! I love how the main character, Amanda Price, makes Darcy takes his coat off and dunk himself in the lake at Pemberly, just so she can compare him to Collin Firth. I was laughing my bum off. (Or LMBO--I prefer this abbreviation over the other one.) Well, I'm tired and need to get some sleep. I know what I'll be dreaming about...

P.S. Just in case you are a girl, don't worry! There is plenty of romance in this version, too. It is PG-13 because the British have a wicked sense of humor.

Just call me Ms. Home Improvement...

I've been playing with Spackle, spray primer, glue and power tools this weekend. Today I successfully installed a new sliding door guide for the closet in the little boys room. Not the medal hardware, but the plastic divider on the bottom that keeps the doors from swinging around. I also have patched several nail holes and dents from doorknobs or furniture dings. I've used up two cans of primer on various crayon and marker drawings, courtesy of my little artists, and I still need one more can to finish up the boys room. I successfully used a chisel for the first time and cleared space in a door frame for the hardware. For a little while, Jayden and I were trapped in Ethan and Tanner's room because I tested out my chisel work with the lock in, but not the doorknob. Jayden saved us both when he used the pliers to push the lock back from the inside. We put the doorknob on after our escape. All we need to do know is paint the door to match the rest of the house. We probably should have done that before we installed it into the door frame, but you already know about hindsight. Anyhoo, I've also hung curtains in the two window that we didn't have blinds installed and vacuumed the cobwebs from the ceiling around the tall window. I don't feel like I've even scratched the surface of all the work I need to do to get this place presentable, but it's a start. Go me! (per Jayden's request, "Go Bubba!")

House for sale

It's sad to have to do this, but we are putting our house on the market. I can only hope that it will sell. We can't stay out here anymore. It's just too much of a strain. It would be fine if we both had jobs nearby, but we don't. I hate that I spend nearly two hours of my day driving to and from work. If I was a stay-at-home mom, things would be different. I'm not, so they're not. We want to move to Gilbert or Chandler, but we'll see where we can find space for decent rent. Just the thought of having to pack up all this junk makes me weary, let alone contemplating how much work I'll have to put in to make the house presentable. Blargh! I purchased a cheap hedger and leaf blower today. I'm looking forward to testing them out. I hope it makes the yard work go quicker. The last time I tidied up the yard, it took me all day. Well, I'd better get some sleep. Wish me luck my friends, wish me luck. ;-)

Olympic watching...

I have been subjecting the boys to the Olympics. Jayden loves it, but Tanner and Ethan have to take breaks. It's understandable of course. Anyways, we enjoyed snowboarding on the halfpipe, women's alpine skiing, men's 1000m speed skate and men's skating relay race (qualifier). We agreed that girls are goofy when it comes to crying when you are happy. It's true, but it's just something we girls do.*BTW--Way to go Lindsay! I totally would have been crying, too. Just ask my husband.* We also agreed that playing the "Ironman song" after watching Shaun White do a Double McTwist was totally appropriate. Lastly, I've decided that I won't be allowing the boys to watch the Men's ice skate tomorrow. After seeing the costumes those girls...em, em...I mean guys wore, I'm afraid. Call me phobic, but what happened to the days of simpler costumes with less ribbons and lace? Anyhoo, with watching the Olympics, I have run across a couple of commercials I love.



This one made me cry.



And this one made me giggle...a lot. ;-) I like that my man doesn't smell like a lady. I also like the man in this commercial. Bow, chicka, wow, wow!!!

That's hot.

Dino-mite!

So, I make peanut butter and jam sandwiches for Tanner and Jayden every school night. I cut off the crust for them and freeze them so they are ready to eat by the time the boys have lunch the next day. I used to buy the Smucker's sandwiches (from in the freezer isle) but you can only get a large box of peanut butter & grape jelly sandwiches from Costco. My boys prefer blackberry or boysenberry jam. Smucker's are also a bit on the pricey side. To save money, I started freezing my own, and I've been making them ever since. Tonight, I had to make a bread and peanut butter run. While I was at Fry's, I found this ingenious little sandwich cutter. Not only does it take off the crust, but it cuts the sandwich in half and transforms each half into a cute little dinosaurs. I'm sure a cookie cutter would have the same effect, but this was just too neat to pass up. I love that my boys have been so patient with taking the same lunch everyday. Only the chips/cookies vary. I'm hoping that this will add a little pizazz to their meal. They aren't fans of ham or tuna sandwiches, so PB&J's are the sandwich of choice until school lets out. Hee, hee, hee... I made Ethan a sandwich to eat tomorrow, too. He is very excited about the dinosaurs.

My Favorite Super Bowl Commercial...

I've mentioned this in my Facebook profile, but I totally think this commercial is hilarious. Three dudes and one bag of Doritos. Yeah, cuz that's going to work out nicely. It totally reminds me of my boys with any bag of snack food. It's so ironic that the three guys in the commercial give a fair representation of what my boys could look like when they get older. Not so much in facial features as in stature and possible hair coloring. Jayden would be the solid and muscular dark haired guy with the wife-beater and extremely short-shorts. Tanner would be represented well by the tall bearded fellow with the funky sweat band in his hair. And, even though you can't really tell what third dude looks like (under all those Doritos) it wouldn't be hard to imagine Ethan going to the extreme to defend his favorite snack food. I should have the boys do a reenactment of sorts and film it for posterity. Hilarious!

Monkeys and Goats and Hamsters, OH MY!

So, it's been a tumultuous new year. January is already a blurred memory. Here are a few highlights of the past couple of weeks.

Tanner has embraced his Monkey-like ways in an extreme sort of way. He now can climb up the wooden beams that support the roof above the porch. He looks just like a Monkey climbing a tree. He grabs the side of the beam with his hands, tucks his feet into his chest and literally walks his legs up to the top. When he reaches the top, he pulls himself up onto the roof. He plays a game of "Fetch" with himself by throwing a ball up on the roof and climbing up to get it. I'm not sure whether to be proud or not, but it was certainly a frightening thing to watch (Hey, I'm his mother!) and also hilarious. It was extremely hard to keep my straight and upset face while I watched Tanner's "new trick" (as he calls it). I eventually smiled, but I expressed my deep concern for his safety. I told him that I was glad I got to see his trick, but that I don't want him to do it again. What does he go and do the next day? He climbs the beam again! This happened on Monday. Last week, he saw Jayden jog on the treadmill and decided he had to do it, too. He ended up falling and skinning his chin and arm. Yesterday, he decided to take scissors to the front of his hair. He has a U-shaped chunk missing from his hairline. I haven't buzzed the rest of his head to match yet, but it'll probably happen this weekend. I'm going to have to cut it extremely short. Tanner is also getting pretty good at the monkey bars. He makes it all the way about once or twice before he gets tired and then he tries over and over again, but can only make it half way. Coincidentally, it is always after he's made it from start to finish those first two times that I finally think to pull out the camera phone. When the camera rolls, Tanner is always falls off after the second or third ring. Well, if he takes up rock climbing when his is older (which seems to me to be a natural progression), then he better remember to not let anyone video tape him. Another Tanner trait that he plays up more often is his Monkey noises. He has gone from making short Monkey squeaks to making the squeaks and then talking English in a squeaking voice. I'm starting to think that he thinks he actually IS a monkey and not just my kid that I've lovingly nicknamed, MONKEY. Tanner has also fallen in love (so he says). He thinks he loves this girl named Brianna (which reminds me of the animated movie Surf's Up. Brianna is the name of one of Tank's trophies. If you've seen the segment about his trophies then you are laughing mentally like I am. This brings me to a tangent. LOL is used frequently, but is not always used literally. I could type LOL, but not be actually be Laughing Out Loud. I think there should be a different abbreviation used. It could be LIS--Laughing in Silence, or MLOL--Mentally Laughing Out Loud. Anyhoo...back to Tanner's love) and I quote "She's cute. She's little." I'm wondering if Brianna is one of the five girlfriends Tanner claims to have. He told me that one of them tried to kiss him. I believe it, too. This boy is slick with the ladies. When Bryan and I went to Tanner's Thanksgiving play, at least three girls came up to me and asked me if I was "Tanner's Mom". I'm scares me to think of what life will be like when Tanner is a teenager!

This second semester of school has been beastly. Tanner keeps bringing home what appears to be 1st grader homework. We spend at least four hours a week trying to get the work done. I feel like I'm home schooling him because I have to help him learn how to do most of it. It's so annoying. I just haven't found the time to meet with the teacher to figure out what is going on.

Well, in other news, not related to Tanner, I think I'm going to give Ethan a new name. I need to change it to Billy G. Wade. What does the G stand for, you ask? GOAT, of course. He loves to ram me in the toosh or tummy with his head and he goes around all day making goat noises. I kid you not (MLOL at my pun right there), this kid (tee, hee, hee) totally makes accurate goat sounds. He puts my goat mimicking to shame. He is also constantly eating or chewing on something. Whether or not it's food is debatable. When he's grown up, if he decides to grow a goatee, I will totally crack up. I'll have to buy him a tee-shirt that says "Goat boy" or "I am a Satyr" or something.

Moving on to Jayden. He came home from school this week and told me about how he's earning five stars for a special reward. Of all the rewards to pick, he chose the one that allows the student to take the class hamsters home for a week. Really?!? That's a reward?!? It sounds more like a dare to me. I'm not sure how I'll be able to keep those furry rats alive and "not lost" for more than 24 hours. Sudden visions of hamsters dangling from ceiling fans, taking bubble baths in a toilet or being tortured by two pint-sized mad scientists come to mind. Jayden commented that he would let them run around in their balls in his room. All I can think is that the minute Ethan or Tanner sees Jayden taking the rodents out of the cage, is the minute that the hamsters are running free everywhere in the house, dropping poop pellets along the way. I've already got the memory of that papery/ammonia-like smell of dirty hamster litter assaulting my nose. I asked Jayden how he's going to go to sleep at night when the little guys are playing in their cage. He shrugged. I asked them if he's heard them in class. He said "No." I immediately exclaimed "That's because they don't sleep at night!" Next week should be rather interesting, to say the least. I swear, I'm not going to pay for new hamsters, should they go missing or die. Instead, I'll be doing everything I can to prevent anything bad from happening to the two little balls of fluff. Have I mentioned that I don't like rodents? They are so gross. Eew! Eew! Eew!

Okay, I'm out of juice now, so I'm just going post this already. If you haven't passed out already, I'm sure you are ready to now after reading this incredibly long post. Later!