Awww...its having babies!

The mess, that is.  Remember the mess that The Teacher left on my patio table (since 2 days before Mother's Day)?? Well, I've been true to my word and haven't touched it.  This past weekend, The Teacher did some work on the patio removing a fence/gate we put up around our firepit to prevent the wee ones from wiping out down the very hard, very sharp granite steps when they were little.  Since it seems increasingly obvious that we are, likely, done having littles, we decided to take the gate down.  This project required tools.  Tools which, have been put into their cases (see red case below), yet have joined the art supplies:

 and are also accompanied by a shop vac:

 I must stress to you all that The Teacher is not a lazy man.  In fact, he's one of the most driven men I know, and yet, he (we) continue to suffer from a serious of a case of leavemyshitallovertheplace, once again striking somewhere between puttingthingsintheircontainers and puttingcontainersawaywheretheybelong.  I'm beginning to think we need professional help. 

On the upside...I LOVE how open the patio looks without the gate (note to self..remember to take "before" pictures)..it used to run all along the front, essentially closing off the sunken fire pit from the rest of the patio.  Its a lot harder to see where the stairs begin now..hope no one falls down!!!

Happy Hump Day, Everyone!!

~Bean

A Little Experiment

So I'm conducting a little experiment.  I'm confident that the Y chromosome is one of the causal factors because I feel like this is a common phenomenon that occurs in homes across our land with the guilty party being either a brother, son or husband.  Let me preface.  My boys made me the sweetest little planter cell phone charger for Mother's Day last weekend.  The charge was led my uber-sweet hubby, who went to the store for the kit and helped those little hands build and paint their masterpiece.  

However, and this is the strange phenomenon that seems to be ravaging the universe...once a project is complete, my husband appears to be suddenly stricken with paralysis..this is serious.  Its a nearly fatal condition called leavemyshitallovertheplace.  Google it, I'm pretty sure it will look something like this:

This terrible malady occurs nearly daily in my house...wrappers, especially, seem to the be the biggest cause of paralysis as I am constantly finding them all over the (usually) kitchen table.  Paper, plastic...doesn't matter.  He opens a package and then leaveshisshitallovertheplace...even though the trash is one foot away from his body.  

This is the mess that has been covering our patio table since last Friday night (2 full nights before Mother's Day).  I did notice that the lids are all closed and even the paintbrushes are washed, so I'm pretty sure that he is stricken somewhere before the putinthegarbageorrightfulplace phase of clean up.  So anyway, I'm not cleaning this up.  It will sit for as long as it sits.  I even tried a subtle hint of "gosh, where did you find that craft stuff?  I've been looking for that bin forever!" yesterday and was met with "in the laundry room cabinet'.  So I KNOW he KNOWS WHERE IT GOES!!!. 

Does anyone else experience this??  What are we to doooo????

Incidentally, I just went to the kitchen for a drink of water....dishwasher is open, half-way put away....progress???

~Bean

What is that, anyway??

Happy Thursday, Folks!

I love quirky.  Quirky people, quirky clothes, quirky places...the quirk factor makes life so much more fun and interesting!   Last year, while putting a sun room (office) onto our home, I was looking for unusual decorations/functional storage.  The Teacher brought this home:

"What is it?" you ask?  Its an old test tube holder (probably it has a technical name but I don't know it).  He found it in his classroom in a forgotten box.  I was very excited since I thought it would make a great and fun pen holder.   I cleaned it off but kept it brown for a rustic touch to the table where it sat.  Cute?  Yes.  Functional??  Not so much.  Pens kept sliding out and it wasn't easy to move because the pens were so loose.  I was bummed and put it away for a while, but kept coming back to it in my mind. Surely, I could think of something to use it for!  Then, while hanging my necklaces on a tie rack that I hung up on a wall near my closet, inspiration hit!!!  

So I sprayed it:

And did this:

The top holes provide the perfect place for hanging bracelets and the bottom was ideal for stacking rings!  I'm still considering hanging it (so that the rings are on top and bracelets hang below) beneath my necklaces but am not ready to commit yet.  Now I can see what I have..and its kinda fun right??  

What's the quirkiest/most unusual item that you've re-purposed for a new use??  Tell me tell me!  I've got an old muffin tin that I'm looking to re-purpose into something fun...any suggestions????

~Bean

A Big Bowl of Deliciousness

This, my friends, is how I know its almost summer...

A Big Fat Bowl of Tabbouleh with lemons from my tree!  Oh yeah...and this:

A bath and a VACUUM for TimBit...the little girl sheds like CRAZY!

 Happy Monday...and a belated Happy Mother's Day to all the Mamas out there!

~Bean

Winding Down

Why is it that "winding down" takes so much more effort and planning?  School is "winding down"...so we find ourselves swamped with Teacher Appreciation, Testing, and planning all of those end of the year events.  Baseball is "winding down", so we plan end of season parties and closing ceremonies and coaches' gifts etc. etc. 

This week was teacher appreciation week at school...I collected money (whatever each family was comfortable contributing and completely optional) and put this little thing together:

The pot holds cards/pictures that were drawn by the kiddos and the "flowers" hold gift cards.  The Nugget started in a Mid Year Kindergarten program this January and his sweet, loving and wonderful teacher got very very suddenly sick and passed away in March.  It was terrible...but the woman who stepped in to finish the year has done such an amazing job of taking these little tiny people and making them love school and, for that, I am so thankful.  I hope she likes this.  

We had our "mudhen" party last night in our backyard...so so fun!  I have sooo many hot dogs left..anyone know what to do with left over hotdogs (besides freeze them??)  

Here are my nails at just past 3 weeks...I actually peeled one off yesterday so time to take them all off!

This was after I'd cut them...you can see the grow out but from far away, they still look pretty great.  

I'll leave you with a picture of The Diddle after his very first beach soccer tournament...after 2 full days of playing his heart out in the sun, they came in 2nd in their division (and this mama's heart could barely stand the excitement of the game..back and forth..the other team won by ONE point!!)  Here's my tired and happy little dude:

Anyway, Happy Friday to you all and to all you mamas out there, A VERY Happy Mother's Day!!!

xoxo

~Bean

This and That and a Nail Update ;)

Happy Thursday!

Our week has been full of soccer practices and baseball games..plus 2 Birthdays, PTA meetings, and Reading Awards.  I figure I'll rest when I'm dead, right?  Or at lease once my kids no longer want me around for every event (the thought of which makes me so so sad...so I'm not going there!).  Oh!  I forgot, the Diddle had RSV too...which I thought only babies got, so that was weird.  Anyhoo..I'm happy to say that he's feeling better AND...the nails are still holding up:  Here they are at Day15:  getting long (ew) , so I actually cut them not long after this picture was taken and they still look good (from far, anyway).  

I still love them!  I snagged a quick trip to Old Navy with the Nugget on Monday (I love that he will be soooo good in the store when given the prospect of getting one of those huge bouncy balls from the machine...for .25..I'm in!)  Anyway, my point of telling you about my Old Navy trip is that it is THE place to go right now if you are looking for some cute (and very reasonable) sundresses for summer!   I ended up with this one, which is made of a really soft jersey kind of material that can be dressed up or down and was..dun dun duuuhhh..ON SALE for $14.99:

This one was NOT on sale but I fell in love with the pattern and colors:

and this bathing suit cover up:  

Cute right??  I actually WENT for rash guards for the boys (which I got...and they were on SALE!)..but ended up with a few cute little things for myself..its going to be a sundress kind of summer around here (in addition to my usual jean shorts and t-shirts)!

Anyone else found any fun spring sales??  Now if only the weather would cooperate!

See ya later!

~Bean