To each his own

Time: 6:45 am Location: The Boys' Room
John: "I love playing with my pirate and knight legos"

Nathan: "You can have your legos. I love my guitar & microphone."

To each his own...imagine how boring it would be if they both liked legos and how loud it would be if they both loved the guitar.

my. entire. morning.

In case you are interested (which I can entirely understand if you are not) I spent my entire morning trying to print of coupons off the internet. I tried two printers, uninstalled & installed software several times, and finally got it to print only to then realize that I was out of ink so you can barely read them. Did I mention it took me the. entire. morning. It is mopping Thursday and it didn't get done today. How bad was my morning? I would have rather been mopping.

Randomness

I’m watching American Idol right now and pretty much think that I’d so much like to hear Danny Gokey sing all of Rascal Flatts songs. He’s so much better than they are.

I have totally fallen for my, oops, our, new puppy. She’s an awesome dog. Although I must say that she’s a lot less work than I thought she would be. Almost everyone I’ve talked to says something about all the work of a new puppy. Ahhh, so much less work than another kid!

I’ve gotten back on the elliptical machine and tonight I had the privilege (although I’m not sure that is the right word) of getting to work out at our fitness center while the kids had their swimming lessons. The center was packed and I think I should go then more often. My competiveness kicked in and I pushed myself much further than I do normally. We’ll see if I can move tomorrow.

We went shopping at JCPennys yesterday. Nathan just kept wandering around bewildered saying “I can’t find any pennies!”

I wore my flip-flops out in the snow the other day. It is spring afterall.

I have about 3 more closets to clean out and then my spring cleaning will be finished.

I took two truck loads of sticks and huge branches to the dump last week (maybe the week before) and now you as you look at my yard you can’t even tell. Either the wind or the trees need to go. (Actually neither will probably go. I like the trees in the summer. And, well, we all know who controls the wind.)

We’re raising butterflies and I’m not sure who is more excited…me or the kids? I’ve never seen it done before so I am finding it fascinating. The caterpillars just started hanging upside down. Soon we should see their cocoons.

I have a couple of new favorite shows now that we have a DVR…24 and Chuck. I’ve also become rather addicted to Hogan’s Heroes. Nathan likes that one too.

Well, Adam just finished on American Idol for the night. And he is just plain weird! I so cannot figure out if I like him or not.

Let's just hope they never get seperated from me

In an effort to practice our emergency procedures should my children ever get separated from me for some tragic reason, I was going over questions and answers with my boys.

Mommy: What is mommy's name?
John & Nathan (in unison): Mommy
Mommy: Um, well, what does Daddy call Mommy?
John: Karen
Mommy (realizing this wouldn't be the question asked them): So what is mommy's name?
John: Mommy Karen Horn
Mommy: Okay, let's try again. What is my name?
John: Karen Horn
Mommy: Yeah John! Nathan, what is mommy's name?
Nathan (looking at me as if I had completely lost my mind because I didn't know my name) very emphatically: Mommy!
Mommy: Okay, let's try one more time, what is my name?
John & Nathan (in unison): Mommy Karen Horn
Mommy--sigh: Well, at least we've got it in there somewhere.

You should have seen Nathan's face when I asked him where he lived. Let's just say that conversation started with the answer of "with mommy" of course.....

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Ashley's birthday was last Sunday and she turned 7! We had such fun celebrating especially with the new puppy in the house. Her cake of choice was German chocolate and she choose to take chocolate cupcakes with white icing and M&Ms to celebrate with her friends at school.

Ashley loves science and her current passion is crystals and gems. She got this from her Aunt Alissa. She also got some super cute clothes from Uncle Steve & Aunt Mandy. (I didn't upload them b/c it took me 3 days just to get these loaded).

This is Ashley with her American Girl doll Josephina. Her new blanket is sitting next to her on her chair. It has princess poodles on it and completely fits Ashley's personality. It's hard to believe she's 7!

The latest addition to the Horn herd...

introducing....Sophie! Sophie was born on Christmas day and is a miniature dachshund. And I think she is perhaps the greatest dog ever and I definitely think the rest of the family would agree with me. She has just the right mix of hyper and cuddly. My perception of her is also helped by the fact that she hasn't chewed my slippers yet and likes me. She did take my blanket (anyone who lives in our house knows which blanket is mom's blanket) this morning but she was very gentle and just took a nap on it. I didn't even mind.

She's technically a gift for Ashley for her birthday, but she's also the "family dog". We've been trying to strike the right balance between those two things. (The kitchen timer has been involved in striking this balance.)

This picture is to prove her gentleness. If you know my Sara at all, you know that dogs are perhaps her least favorite thing in the world. She and Sophie have become good friends and her lap is one of Sophie's favorite.


Sophie's first bath. She took the water well. We'll see how she does after she gets used to the house and realizes that she can try to climb out of the tub.

My computer has been giving me fits lately. Once it is in a better mood I'll get a better picture posted--one that is closer up.

His two loves

Nathan decided to combine his two favorite activities yesterday--singing and tinker toys. He discovered that you could make a microphone out of his tinker toys and was in stage heaven the rest of the day. Although I do think I need to teach him some more songs--30 renditions of jungle bells and I don't think my dog is cute (his first composition) got kind of old on my ears. Gotta love the cheesy grin--it happens with all three year olds when you pull out a camera (at least all my three year olds did it!)

Happy St. Pat's Day (one day late)

Since I forgot to dress my girls in green for St Patrick's Day I decided to blend up some green nuclear waste for them to drink. Well, that's what Joe called it. It was actually a green milk shake. What's crazy is that my kids actually drank it. Give them pan fried tilapia with a peach BBQ sauce and they're convinced I'm trying to poison them.

Joe and I also actually went out for St. Patty's Day. We had some dear friends from church treat us to some corned beef and cabbage at a local restaurant. Don't knock it 'til you try it--it was actually really good. We decided to pass on the green beer.

It just wasn't right!

Joe & I had a date last night and despite my whole lent participation thing, we decided to do one of our favorite date things--play gin at the local Starbucks. So I had a spiced carmel apple drink. It just wasn't right! The only thing that should ever be drunk out of a cup that says "Starbucks" on it is coffee. I should have just abstained from drinking anything--the drink tasted horrible, but I don't think it was Starbucks fault. My tastebuds were having a conflict with the scent that my nose was picking up--the wonderful smell of brewing coffee. The apple drink didn't really stand a chance to begin with.

Free at last...

of the cast that is. Ashley's cast came off and the whole hand ordeal is officially over. You can see where the infection was in the palm of her hand in the picture. Her skin pretty much looks like that between her fingers as well. I must admit I feel like I need to retake my high school biology class. The final x-ray made no sense to me. I could still see where the bone was broken. The PA made an attempt to show me where all the new bone growth was and I nodded, smiled, agreed and hopefully pulled off my "I know exactly what you are talking about" look even though I was completely ignorant. We are just glad that it is over with considering it feels like it was a six month ordeal instead of a 4 week ordeal. Oh, and I told her that she better not break anything else for her entire life since we have no idea what she is allergic to--she had hives all over her forearm when the cast came off. How crazy is that!