Please Advise

I need some advice. I know many of you are/have been in this situation, so who better to ask for help. But, I want the truth - however dark or dirty.

I have decided, now that Dave has graduated, that it's my turn to finish my degree. I have applied, and am your newest

I'm pretty excited since I have wanted to finish for awhile now, but as the first day of school approaches, I'm feeling a little apprehensive.

This is where you good friends come in.

I can't decide how many credits to take.

I have approximately 60 left to finish.

I originally only wanted to take 6 BUT I was just awarded a pell grant for the semester. Which means free tuition for up to 12 credits. I think I will only get 3 semesters of grants so if I were to take 12 each semester I would be almost completely done without having to pay an arm and a leg (after all, I don't think we have any arms or legs left - Dave's schooling took them all).

So, from any who have been in school with kids and a busy husband...how is it? Any advice? Could I take 12 credits and remain sane?

Speak to me.

Barbies and Boys

I am not the biggest fan of Barbie's. Brooklyn is concerned that her Barbie isn't modest. Jack though - he thinks Barbie's are awesome.

I watched the whole horrific scene. My favorite part though was the commentary.

Jack (in his high-pitched girlie voice) says, "Ahhhhhh!!!"

And then, as the alligator, "RAR - Sorry I am biting your head!"

I thought it was awfully polite of him to apologize.

Confession

I have decided to give myself a monthly (or whenever deemed necessary) confession post. I am thinking it will make me feel better about whatever issues are ailing me at the time.

This thought occurred to me while I was standing in my front lawn surveying the flower bed. Which brings me to

April 22nd Confession.

It appears that I have not inherited the ever coveted "Green Thumb." I was sure this skill was in the bag since I come from a long line of would-be botanists. Actually, now that I think about it, I am going to have to talk to these relatives of mine for not letting me swim in the deep end of the gene pool. But I'll save those for future confessions. For now, I am just about ready to say that I basically kill any plant that inhabits a certain radius of my occupancy. Don't believe me?

That charming dead spot used to be these fabulous purple cuties just like the white ones to the left. But, for unexplainable reasons, it just croaked. I checked the sprinklers, and the sun seems to be fine because the others in the flower bed are doing fine...for now...so my only explanation and/or excuse is that there was a serious snail slumber party going on under there so they must have devoured the entire root system of my plant.

Now these little beauties seem to be just baking in the sun. The last few days have produced temperatures just shy of 100 degrees and these poor things have not fared well. (I would like you to notice the end of the hose in the picture - PROOF that I do actually water them)

I should also mention that my first attempt at a garden produced nothing but a shriveled little carrot.

I have requested that Dave explore his inner horticulturist to hopefully save us from the shame of me killing the plants.

Now, just in case you have almost convinced yourself that I am a complete failure, do try to remember that I have managed to grow 3 children. Thankfully, they are a lot sturdier than plants. I guess I will just have to stick to baby growing and leave the gardening to Dave.

P.S. Please don't tell my mother, or grandmother, or great-grandmother, or great-great-great grandmother that I am incapable of growing anything but babies, and that I am actually admitting it publicly. Oh the shame...

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter with Dave's parents. Brooklyn had the week off of school so the kids and I spent the whole week with Grammy & Gramps. Dave joined us for the weekend. Here are a few pictures from the Easter festivities.

Do you think we had enough eggs? Next year I think we will just throw empty ones out there. They had so much fun collecting the eggs that they didn't care about what was inside. They kept dumping their baskets into my larger basket and I kept throwing them back out there. Of course, I DID care what was inside. Grandparents put way better things inside those eggs than I ever do.

We had a wonderful time with being together with family for Easter. We appreciate Grammy and Gramps letting us bombard their house. We bring lots of noise, toys and chaos. But thank goodness for grandparents who warmly welcome us and everything that comes with it.

April Fool's

I am not sure what got into me. Normally I am not that into April Fool's Day - but this year I was feeling quite festive. I had no idea the Internet was so full of amusing things to do to your offspring.

My day started off by trying to fool my parents into thinking I was pregnant. Ya, they pretty much just said I was the worst liar ever. Rats.

So I decided I would go with an oldie, but goody. The old rubber band around the sink sprayer trick.

"Uh, Dave - would you mind making some juice for dinner?"

"Sure. How do you make it again?"

Oh, just that little packet of kool-aid, 1 cup of sugar, and some water. hee hee hee"

With his eyebrow raised - "Ok, how high do I fill it?

Me laughing, "Oh, you know - to the top."

"...What?" He proceeds to do the booger/fly check.

"Just fill it up Dave."

Sweet victory. I had never tried it before, but I will say it was quite entertaining. Had I planned better I would have totally aimed it towards his face, but I was more concerned about not blasting myself with my own trick. Either way, his wet arm still gave me a moment of joy. I am just amazed that I actually got away with it because, as my parents already said, I am the world's worst liar - which includes not being able to keep a straight face.

I also made a nutritious and delicious dinner.

That is a meatloaf cupcake with mashed potato frosting. I was telling my dad that I was going to do this and the thought was making him gag - so if you need to gag, go ahead.

Then we had "peas" which were pieces of laffy taffy rolled up. Does that count as a serving of vegetables?

And then of course we had blue kool-aid with fish swimming in it - which was a winner.

This is a picture of Brooklyn taking her first bite of the cupcake. She is such a sweet, sensitive girl that she didn't want to tell me that she didn't like the cupcakes I made. She doesn't care for meat at all - so this had to be painful for her. Eventually after she saw me laughing and taking pictures of her she said, "Ummm....Mom, this doesn't really taste very good. But I really like the peas!"

Well, that was all fun (for me at least) but the best prank for the day had to be this:

I planted raisins in the kids toothpaste. I sent Dave in there to help them get their toothbrushes ready. He knew something was up (again, my giggling outside the bathroom door), but went forward anyway. My day would be complete if I only had a photo of Jack's face when he saw this thing plop out onto his toothbrush...

Ahhh...I had a lot of laughs today. But I decided that my kids are still a little too young to really appreciate the day. I think they are only wondering if I will trick/torture them tomorrow. They might get lucky.

Maybe next year they will try telling me I have spiders in my hair or put dye in my shampoo.

P.S. If Steve or Inga read this, "Happy Anniversary!"