Andrew and Sami

confession

so I am doing my monthly confession. first off, i started a new blog (well not really a confession) but it will def. be elizabeth's no holding back opinion on various topics. i set up the blog but haven't actually posted anything yet. also, i warn you now that half of you will be offended and the other half of you won't read it. well not really, but yeah kind of but not really. i mean we all get offended over something. every once in awhile it will be a pet peeve (the offending part) but in general it will be about tv shows or my opinion on some stupid thing i heard about.

now on to the confession. i figure if i put it out there then i can't be that evil. so here it goes: i make myself feel better by making fun of others. yes. thats right. it could be anything from hair style to weight to what they are wearing. i know there are others of you out there that do it and yes it is a self esteem thing. obviously i don't share this thought w/ others besides garrett and mariah sometimes. oh and i have totally been overweight...as in not prego overweight so i can justify that (50+lbs more than i am now). :-)

whew. i did it.

oh and on a side note: i am done w/ editing for grammar. it takes too long.

Kids, Can You Say “Mafioso”? Muy Bueno!

Kids, Can You Say “Mafioso”? Muy Bueno!

click on the link to the best picture that doesn't poke fun at one specific person...just their car!

Family prayers

Maddie said family prayers before bed tonight. She prayed that dad wouldn't be tired and fall asleep in class (he is in class in the evenings) and that no one would wake mom or dad up in the middle of the night for something so that they (mom and dad) wouldn't be grumpy in the morning. There were a few other things, but those were the best.

She's been wanting sleep in our room so we came up with a deal that she could sleep in our room every other night. It has worked so far. She doesn't complain on the nights she is in her room which is much better than before. When Garrett and I go to bed, we move her onto the floor. Every night she sets up her bed by laying out my yoga mat, covering it with a fleece blanket and using our extra pillows to cover the opening to underneath the bed. She is starting to have the afraid of the dark, etc phobias now. Her ped said it was normal to start that at age 6. I am def. not going to tell her that I still imagine someone grabbing my ankle if I walked next to my bed in the dark. Seriously, before G left for China back in May, I bought a table lamp that I turn on before I turn off the bedroom light so its not dark when I cross the room.

Craft Time

My sister has craft time w/ her oldest and I decided to follow her great example. I bought some "as is" cupboards at IKEA and decided the girls would paint their own headboards. I bought craft paint from Michael's and for about 6 dollars total, the girls have their own picture to put above their bed.

I traced stars, hearts and circles on their boards using cookie cutters. Reagan did a good job at first coloring the individual shapes but then went a little crazy and ended up going abstract on us all. I of course had to "modify" it a bit so there was more than just a mixture of five colors (which basically turns into a nasty brown color).

Can you guess which one is Rea's and which is Madisons?!

SwagBucks

While in a chat room waiting for the Old Navy Weekly webpage to restart for the week, I found out about swagbucks. You get bucks for using their search engine. You can use them for gift cards, movie tickets, etc. What I have done (and what was suggested) is to set it up as your home page and although you may know the webpage, search for it in their search engine. I am not sure which searches give you more or if it is how often you search, but I got a few already this morning. I searched gmail, facebook, and wellsfargo. At any rate, if you are interested, sign up under me b/c from what I understand, I get something out of it too!

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/sdmomof2

Yes it has been forever

Yes, I have turned into the person that has a blog but doesn't actually post anything for a month. I have always been annoyed w/ that and yet here I am, almost one month later and no post. Heck the last post wasn't even a post. It was a shout out to the New Moon trailer. I have been busy but can't quite say what I have done. I see Mariah and the kiddos at least once a week and we have had a few doctors appts here or there, but otherwise not much. And the thing is its not like I am sitting and watching TV b/c lately I have just been deleting stuff that is over a week old. Heck, I don't even have time to watch the Today show everyday. I have to say though that Sept was crazy busy w/ things. I just looked at my calendar and realized that I was busy last month. This week though, its been eerily quiet. As in almost nothing planned. I went to Mariah's one day and had some last minute playdates, but other than that, it has been quiet. Garrett has midterms (one left tomorrow morning), but thats been about it.

Coming up in the lives of the Maughans:

Andrew is coming over for his first sleepover. We will be having our regular movie night, but he will probably be in bed b4 we start it.

Maddie continues to kick trash at school. The girl does her homework in one night (we make her stop at times and do it later on). She is reading at a level 8 (its easy peasy for her so I told her teacher she needs harder books). I think they need to be at an 11 before 1st grade ends. The after school program had openings b/c we are at a small elementary school so Maddie attends. It is really day care for those that have parents who work, but they do crafts, field trips, recreation, and snacks. They basically get art and PE everyday after school. Since they needed kids, they said she could join (its free by the way!). I pick her up at 5pm everday. Last year she actually always asked if she could go b/c her friends were there after school. Now, I drop her off around 850am and pick her up at 5pm. Its actually really nice AND she gets to have friend time which otherwise wouldn't happen after school. Back to the homework thing though. This may sound silly and trivial but when I checked her homework back on Monday night, she had already done her book report! I was kind of broken hearted b/c in my mind, she should need me to help her answer the questions, etc. Silly, right? Oh and the girl can totally add and subtract. I asked her who taught her and she said she learned math on her own. :-) Obviously I am sure her teacher had something to do about it and the few times we have had conversations about how many apples are in the basket after X have been taken out.

Reagan is going through a "I don't want to wear my glasses" phase. We need to go in and get her lenses replaced since they now have scratches in her direct eyesight. They will replace them for free 1x per year. Its been six months so I figured now was as good of time as any. She likes having friends to play with. Luckily for me, its usually the moms calling me wanting Rea to go over there. Now that the kids are older, it is easier for us moms to have a friend over for the child (as long as they play well that is) and then they will play together and not bug us! Tonight I watched some friends' kids and the four of them played really well together. I made dinner and they just played. After dinner the younger 3 played polly pockets in Reagan's room while Maddie and I went over her homework.


Garrett is still staying busy w/ Target, interning, and school. He was asked to do some work when he is available for the firm he worked w/ over the summer. I am all about paid work so that's good. He was also referred to another firm and will start doing paid work for them too! He just finished his Evidence midterm and I actually was reading the Federal Evidence Rules and found it pretty cool. Mind you there are a ton of exclusions which makes it all tricky, but I love rules. I like yes and no answers. Rules are a great thing.

Reagan took this picture and I thought this was pretty funny :-)
Plus I don't look HUGE

I am doing Girl Scouts and yes totally unemployed. I am starting to feel guilty that Garrett does so much and I get to sit at home and literally just hang out. Reagan is old enough to do her own thing so sometimes I just read my magazines. I think I need to get motivated to find a job. I thought of applying to a few places around here, but I know we will be out of town during Thanksgiving and would basically have to quit or get fired since I won't be in to work Black Friday. Depending on how things go in the next month or so, I will apply for jobs before we leave for Boise and then have something during December. Of course Garrett has finals so I wouldn't work every night. Dang, I have a lot of excuses.