Bite it

We hear that several times a day lately.  Nate will stick something in our faces and deadpan, "BITE IT".   It is the funniest thing.  He will also offer his foot on occassion and invite us to "kiss it".  Believe me, it's pretty funny. 

We went over to the neighbors this afternoon and I took my camera and actually caught the aftermath of "bite it".

I also thought this little series of pictures was so funny.  I don't know what made him laugh, but I'm glad I caught it!

And one more for the road....

Chickens!

So, in my head, I am a chicken girl.  Really, sometimes I think I really want some chickens out back.  I have no idea why, I surely would not eat a chicken that I had known alive, and I'm not really a big egg eater (although Nate is a different story-the kid loves eggs).  And I know, having chickens sounds great, but really-chickens?????-come on!

Luckily, my great good friend Emily has chickens that I can pretend are mine.  She and her brood (of kids as well as chickens) live on a big ol' bunch of land and have horses as well as the birds.  Emily and I went to high school together in Italy and somehow, with no South Carolina connections at all at that time-ended up living 15 minutes apart in little old Lexington.  Strange, huh?  During the school year, we don't get to see each other nearly enough-teaching and her kids' activities keep her on the run.  And we are still pretty housebound here in the afternoons for Nate to take a nap.

We went over and bothered Emily the other day and took the chickens some strawberry tops, which they really seem to love.  They looked pretty funny walking around with them in their mouths, beaks???  see-not really a chicken girl after all.

My little egg lover got to get the days' eggs out of the henhouse.  I love how they are all different colors-I don't love that they are sort of covered in chicken poop.  Again, not a chicken girl in actuality.

Oops, good thing the ground was really padded with straw!  And somehow, even though the egg dropped, the animal cracker was safe (yuck!)

And this was really cute, Brady and Bennett-Emily's guys- were sitting with Ben, holding random books and pretending to read them.  They were making up the funniest stories and Ben was mesmerized (Nate was too busy chasing the bulldog around the house-(sorry Sidney)

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I didn't get a picture of Madison, she was in and out on the way to work, I'll get you next time Maddie!

The Monsters

The baby monsters come home tomorrow, after spending last week with their grandparents in Charleston.  As previously stated, I got nothing real done.  Boo.  Should have made a list, that always helps. 

Gil put together a dvd of video clips-huh???-from Nate's first year.  It made me boo hoo-twice.  Something about watching the babies while they were babies just gets me.  (In the interest of full disclosure, I will know admit that watching Friday Night Lights this weekend also caused the exact same response-wah wah wah).

So, because I miss the little wild men, here are a few of my favorite pictures of them as wee ones.

I'll start with Ben-my amazingly brilliant, getting close to 4 year old.  (biased much?)

And for the little monster Nate, my cuddly, energetic, stinker of a getting close to 2 year old.....

Wow, those are some handsome little men.  Watching Nate's video made me nostalgic for the baby days, but then I remembered the baby nights-and I'm ok again. 

Anybody have a new baby I can smell and promptly return?

What was I thinking?

This should just be an ongoing series.  There are several times a week (maybe a day) that I ask myself, "What was I thinking?" 

Today's instance occurred around 2:15.  I had a tennis match at 2:00 and about 15 minutes into it I asked myself the famous question.  The thermometer on the car on the way over said 94 degrees.  Well, that's hot.  The first few sets were fine.  I felt sort of evenly matched to my opponent.  But then, THE HEAT.  It sort of hit me and my arms and legs gained 38 pounds each.  My shoes began to melt into the ground-and it all went downhill.

All of a sudden, there was a lot of activity from the court behind us, but oddly nobody was playing.  A poor woman was suffering horribly from the heat.  I guess she began by thowing up (which I had sort of considered at one point, even so far as planning where to do it to be as polite as possible).  The group consensus was that she was experiencing heat exhaustion.  Not sure what exactly it was called, but she was taken away in an ambulance.

So, today's "What was Amanda thinking" was brought to you by extreme heat and tennis stupidity.

Sally, glad to have shared this miserable experience with you-looking forward to many more sweat filled Sundays this summer.

One tiny project

I have really squandered these non-kid days with watching tv and catching up on quilting/sewing blogs.  I was really looking for ideas, and came across pictures of camera strap covers, so I made a quick one....

I used some scraps for the Happy Birthday Banner I made for my friend Jennifer's little girl Addie.  And I just remembered that I never posted pictures of the finished banner.  It really turned out well, although really, really long.  It was so long, I couldn't figure out how to take a picture, so up it went onto the lattice under our deck. 

I did get inspired to make a quilt for Nate's bed when he ditches the crib.  The boys are going to share Ben's very large bedroom and I want it to coordinate with Ben's Pottery Barn quilt.  I thought about just buying Nate the same one, but I kind of want to make him one.  Here is one I am in love with from Cluck Cluck Sew.  Ben's quilt is light blue, green, and white madras patchwork.  So I want to make Nate a circle quilt using the same colors.

(image from Cluck Cluck Sew)

What do you think?  Should I go full on matchy, matchy and buy the one from Pottery Barn, or make Nate his very own mama-made quilt?  (The PB one would be cheaper to make-if that sways your decision).

Fourteen dollars

So, this is no surprise to those of you who know me, but I am a huge dork.  I have also developed a startling addiction to saving money.  Startling I tell you.  And it increases the dorkiness factor by about 1000.  My favorite place to shop and save tons is Publix.  I love that store anyway, it all started when we lived in Lakeland, Florida-the home of Publix.   Going to Publix in Lakeland is like going to Disney-it feels like the happiest place on Earth.  Everyone is so nice-staff and customers alike-it's kind of a parallel universe.  It all makes sense since they have no idea if any given customer is related to George Jenkins (the founder) or lives next door to some execs (which we did) or is married to someone that is a big deal-or crap, might even be the big deal themselves.  You get the picture.

Since I discovered my new favorite money saving website, Southern Savers, it is unbelievable how much money I am saving on groceries.  I focus on Publix, but also get to some others if there are really good deals that week.

Today I went to Publix and spent $14 and got this......

If I hadn't had any coupons, or planned my trip based on the sales, $14 would have gotten me exactly this (they are $6.99 each normally).

And I have to say, saving money is fun AND easy.  There are so many great online resources that do all the work for you.  So, if you have a few spare moments, check out Southern Savers and make a plan.

Quiet

The boys are in Charleston for a few days while we try to get the house situation taken care of.  We all went down this weekend, and they stayed with Gil's parents.  Gil and I drove up to Simpsonville on Monday to get the house cleaned out and ready to show, after our tenants moved out.  Or so we thought.  Apparently the girl didn't know they were moving out until her (ex)boyfriend showed up with a u-haul on Saturday.  And somehow, she still didn't start moving her stuff.  So, we got in the next day and luckily it has been taken care of pretty well-except for a bedroom upstairs that has been painted electric pink, with one whole wall painted in very bold black and white ZEBRA stripes.  A whole wall!  So, we have a little painting to do!  We are heading back up there Sunday after she moves out for real, or so we hope.

Crappy cell phone picture, but you get the idea....

Yikes

--This morning, I had the Today show on in the other room and was kind of listening, while checking email in the playroom.  All of the sudden, the soothing sound of Meredith and Matt speaking was replaced by the non-soothing sound of Team Umizoomi!  The dvr hates me apparently.  Even with the kids gone, I am still listening to their annoying tv shows.  At least it made me turn off the computer to pretend I was going to do something productive (ok-so I changed the tv over to The Bachelorette-don't judge too harshly.)