Jenny lately

today in the car Jenny is chattering away and also asking one question every 30 seconds. not simple ones to answer either. like
"what is a sunset?"
"why does that happen?"
"but why?"
"well i don't like it"
she stops her chattering for 5 seconds and says:
"why isn't Troy talking?"
i said "He doesn't talk much huh?"
she said "well I talk much"
yes. yes we know.

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today i was brushing out jenny's 2 feet of hair and it was a crazy mess --the worst it has ever been. it took me 20 minutes. i was starting to think i would never get done. meanwhile Jenny was holding one hat in each hand. and Troy comes up and wants a hat. she is not wanting to share, he is wanting to steal. well i couldn't take that anymore so i swiped both of those hats and put them away and endured about 30 seconds of total meltdown from both kids. Still with my hairbrush working thru her tangled hair Jenny is protesting her awful unfair life.
me: "listen up i am busy back here and we have things to do. and having a Hat Fight is not on our To Do list today."
Jenny: (all innocent and sweet) "well is being nice on your to do list?"
ba ha ha ha ha. let me check. no.

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deep thoughts from Jenny riding in car:
"momma, boogers aren't good for me. i shouldn't eat them. i should eat healthy food like you are always telling me to eat"
thats right Jenny. boogers are junk food

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it seems Jenny is considering a different profession.
"Momma, i want to be a fireman. but i will need a pink fire hat. pink is for girls."

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just a typical conversation with Jenny.

j---momma, when daddy mows the grass, will he cut up the bugs?"
k--no they will probably run away when they hear the mower"

j---"how will they run?"
k--"they'll use their legs"

j---"what kind of legs?"
k--"bug legs"

j---"what kind is that?"
k--"the kind that bugs have"

j---"where will the bugs go?"
k--"to their bug homes"

j---"where are their homes?"
k--"all over the yard"

j---"is that a bug?" (pointing at tree)
k--"no Jenny. that is a tree"

having 50 conversations like this in one day, every day, makes me unable to mentally function in society on a regular basis.

the day my house was clean

I'm just gonna totally ignore the fact that its been 3 months since i last posted.
its tempting to fill you in now, but that thought overwhelms my brain more and more as i sit here. me thinking of the 2 hrs it will take to write an update post, which would be way too long b/c i would have to be certain to leave absolutely nothing out.
so. i will do what i came to do instead, and that is post some pics of my clean house.
and actually its interesting that the above paragraph i just typed actually describes my thoughts on cleaning as well as writing. i didn't plan that coincidence.
i guess the 2 activities run parallel for me. or maybe it is just the type of person i am. but anyway when it comes to cleaning i have this mental issue of feeling like i can't "do it the right way" so i won't do any. maybe i feel its too dirty and its impossible to complete the job. maybe b/c i don't have an entire day of solid devotion to just cleaning the kitchen for example. anyway, this 'all or none' issue really eats at me sometimes...........

so back to my clean house. had to do some cleaning b/c of real estate pics. not the official real estate listing pictures, but still when someone brings a camera by your house you want it to be pretty polished. so all rooms were cleaned and by that i mean the focus was CLUTTER. not germs. yes. i worked all day like a slave and only on the clutter portion. didn't whip out any cleaning products all day long i don't think. but i can't dwell on that thought, i'm just gonna bask in the glory of my evidence, which i will now post.

We'll start with my favorite--master bedroom. it has been ignored for what seems eons.
its hard to appreciate how awesome it is without before photo. this is the room where lots of clutter goes to die b/c we can simply close the door and ensure that the kids won't get into it. they are very used to that door being shut so its no biggie.
(definition of dead clutter---the pile you ignore more and more each day until you are sure its never going to be "gone thru" it seems almost as if you physically must continue to ignore dead clutter).


and there's Little Dee on my bed vegging his day away. his lazy habits provide me with zero motivation as you can imagine.
yes there are approximately 50 pairs of shoes under the bed.

and now a shot of the cleaned off dresser (it is actually dusted, wowsa) and cleaned out chair.


i truly don't mind my cluttered life, but having that chair cleaned out makes me and Will both sooo happy.
if there was only one tidy thing about the room i would wish for that chair to be empty.
its like a little place to get away.
if you have any children, then you may have noticed that everything goes much better when you simply retreat to another room with door shut to have phone conversations.
no silently whipping your kids and mouthing horrid threats to them while you try to keep your focus on the person on the phone line. no wailing and gnashing of teeth in your face or happy little monkey children chasing you, clinging to you as you walk or climbing on you and giving you bruises.
so thats one of our phone chairs. but also its nice to have a place to sit to put on your socks and shoes etc while getting dressed. b/c our bed is too tall for that.

so in this next photo, you might say --what are we looking at here?


its the floor! on will's side of the bed. hello floor!!! good to see you. its been a long time. i missed you so much. look i bought a new vacuum just for you!
its not like its will's fault or anything, but his side is less traveled. my side of bed is the trail to the bathroom so we must keep it semi-clear.

so on to the next room, the den. aka the room most lived in.


floor is free of toys, shoes. couches have zero laundry on them. both majorly HUGE deals. table behind the couch was actually dusted.


another view of the den. toys in their proper spots. TV center dusted and there's no junk on top.


close up of the kids' TV nook with large toy stash.

Now to the kitchen---- the most impressive is the table.

truly, truly the table stays buried under stuff. just STUFF. its EVERYWHERE! but not today!


sink wall and kids table. just the kid table being cleaned off, major deal.

Last but not least, the oven.


so thats all the pictures. i would take pictures of the kids' rooms, but they are sleeping right now.
maybe later.

also i would like to add that it is STILL a hazard to your health to come opening cabinet or closet doors up in here. it was not a day of massive throwing away. but a day of "find it a home".

like i said, its hard to appreciate if you haven't seen the typical every day mess.

ok fine. i confess i took some before pics just for fun. but i doubt that anyone wants to see my filthy house.
b/c i suspect that you probably don't care much about my CLEAN house post. ha ha

but this post is also serving me as a reminder of our home here in Soddy Daisy, since we will leave soon. so that i can look back and remember the details.

so i had better wrap it up before i get going and write too much. i'll try to do better at posting but as i have discussed many times, i am one lazy punk.

Baby Mine

This is how i am going to remember my baby boy when he is taller than me, driving a pick-up and smacking into other guys on the football field

Ghetto Coat Catastrophe

this is a post that i presume only women will understand.
my apologies if you cannot relate to this story.

this is an example of the drama and crisis that are sometimes involved when fashion is being considered.

pardon me if i ramble on......

and so the story goes:

i began a search sometime in November for Jenny's winter coat.
just, you know....... remembering each time i was shopping for other necessary items
"oh yeah, my girl needs a coat. lets see what options i have at this store."
trying to make the best choice concerning fashion, function and cost.

side note: my husband can't seem to understand why it takes several trips to several stores to make your decision. and THEN i am always going back to finally make my purchase, only to find they are out of my selection.
i can't tell you how many times this has happened to me.

so back to this particular shopping tragedy.....

after about 10 shopping trips, i had settled on this little red wool pea coat with floral lining from Target: sounds simple enough. was going to conveniently pick it up on my next trip there for diapers, right? wrong.

i went to Target on a Saturday night in early December to make my purchase.

i for sure had to buy a coat. Jenny was going to her Granna's in Mississippi for a visit the next day.

of course although i had eyeballed a 3T about 3 times, and even tried it on Jenny once....... there were no more size 3T's at my Target.

in a moment of insanity i considered driving 30 minutes to Hamilton Place Target, at 9pm, with my 2 babies, just for this coat.
i gained a small portion of sanity and asked a clerk at the dressing rooms to call that store and see if they even had the coat. she was kind and obliged, but had no good news for me. so i didn't make that crazy drive after all.

i was plotting that on the next day, while driving 7.5 hrs to MS we would surely run into a Target eventually. if not i was going to settle for this little coat from Walmart:


SURELY we'd pass a Walmart!

well....... we did not come upon any Targets on our voyage.
we stopped at a Walmart in Trussville and i mentally had made peace with the little purple hearts puff coat i was fixing to purchase.

of course, as my horrid shopping luck goes, there were none in 3T or 4T even.

i was pretty desperate.

i combed thru the coats over and over just not wanting to accept it. the only 3T girls coat they had was ugly.
i knew i had to leave with a coat. i did not want that coat! we had to get hat and mittens too and they were gonna have to match this ugly GHETTO coat!
my pretty baby having to wear a ghetto coat for the entire winter??!!! this is wrong on so many levels.

(i'm sure you understand that, at this time, i do WANT to show you a picture of Ghetto Coat, or at least describe its horrid detail to you, but i must not. i am concerned that perhaps, just perhaps, you bought that exact coat for your daughter or grand-daughter b/c you liked it. so i don't want to hurt anybody's feelings...........)

but back to the moment of purchase: if you have a thread of fashionista in your blood (and also a thread of frugality) at all you can understand me. sigh.

we bought Ghetto Coat and a (cuter) matching set of hat/mittens. purchases totaling at $20.

with glum face i continued on our trip to MS.

i tried to set myself straight many times with a self-talking to....

it reminds me of something on TV you see where the person has a tiny angel sitting on one shoulder and a tiny devil perched on other shoulder.

so me with frugal practical mom angel on one shoulder saying: "listen self, you should be glad you can afford a jacket, a NEW jacket to keep your kid warm. you need to come down off the high horse of fashion and get real. Jenny does not even care what her coat looks like."

and then me with trendy, cute nostalgic devil on the other shoulder saying: "no self! don't dress your kid in that coat all winter! its a crime! you don't have to pay high dollar for cute! you're gonna find a deal later on and make this right. as her mom, its your responsibility to make sure that she is cute to the max. she deserves a cute coat and she's gonna be sporting one cause your fashion reputation depends on it!"

i somehow found a way to get the "voices" to stop.

the next weekend i made it all better with a different $8 purchase from Kmart:


and i feel much better now.

Favorite Holiday Toy--Classic Cardboard Box

On Christmas day Phi Phi and Pop Pop brought us a very big wrapped gift. It was a rocking horse. We threw alot of gift wrap into the box and left it on the front porch in true redneck fashion.

I know Will was thinking that he'd drag that box back into the house on a "rainy day" aka a day that the kids are driving us bizzerk.

Well that's about every day around here, so it wasn't long until the day had come. Jenny kept following us around trying to convince us to build her a house. She asked me to build it out of brick so that the big bad wolf could not blow it down. Will remembered the box on the porch and he brought it thru the den/kitchen and took it down to the basement (aka man cave) to work some quick magic.

While he was downstairs for 10 minutes, Jenny was upstairs assigning roles (again): She and Troy would be pigs and Daddy was to play big bad wolf. She also gleefully pranced around in the kitchen singing a made-up song. she told me "I'm singing a song and its called I Love My Daddy".

I went downstairs to see if he had fallen into the box or what. I found him cutting out windows and doors with box cutter and drawing shutters and a doorbell with magic marker. Finally he revealed his masterpiece to their delight:

Can't get them to keep the door open for a picture

Peek a boo Jenny

Its at this point that I notice on the camera that my daughter is only in undies. Decide to clothe my child for the remainder of pictures.

Big Bad Wolf has come to huff and puff

Troy peeking at Jenny thru window with gusto

Peek a boo Troy

They've been enjoying their house.
Jenny will brag that "her daddy can build a house". I think that she is thinking about this little book we read titled
"I love my daddy because....."
There is a page in the book where a daddy beaver is building a dam for his family and it says
"I love my daddy because he can build a house".

I have many more posts to write, for now it's time to snooze.