troubled SHLUMPADINKA

So yes, I am a Oprah fan. Every day the DVR goes off at 4 to record the show for the day. New or repeat shows. Today, as I sit here, I'm totally confused. Oprah's topic is about Shlumpadinkas.

Oprahs defination: Being in your sweats yesterday and the day before , big baggy comfy sweatshirts, T-shirts, tennis shoes etc. Wearing the outdated mom clothes looking like a Shlump.

DING DING DING DING DING!!!!!!!! HELLO!!!! That is so totally me. Great, can't wait to watch.

So I watched, and now I am ultimately confused. I've been soooooo out of the fashion world these past 4 years. I swear I still try to fit in that maternity shirt that I once loved. But now, the fashion expert was talking to me and I'm in deep water.

Here are a few fashion things I've just learned:
1. Make sure your shoes do NOT match you outfit
2. Never match a purse to an outfit
3. Complete flats (ballet slippers) are in
4. Always use a scarf to compliment any outfit
5. Purchasing a tiny balck dress to wear with tight jeans????
6. Wearing a short sleeved sweater over a tight fitting white shirt
7. Wearing the colar stright up
8. Hosiery is a necessity with any outfit for the sucking effect
9. White clothing is in all year long
10. Everyone should have a trench coat that has a belt to tie in the middle.

There were many more, but I'm slowly forgetting as I am still stunned about what I've learned. So, basically, when the budget allows, I'll have to start completely over with everything? Oh yes, and, no more matchy match fo fo!

The only thing I got right on was: Black and White is always in and always classy, but this doesn't include my black sweats with my white Wisconsin T-Shirt :(

And yes, normally once a week when I watch Oprah, there is a little tear that forms. Today's tear was a statement by a makeover model: "It's still okay to always take care of your family, but never forget about yourself".

Man, I have a TON of work to do! I think I'm going to stop watching Oprah.

What a great party!!!

We had such a great time at Luke's 3rd Birthday party over this past weekend. Brandi, you really know how to throw a party girl!!!! Thanks for sharing this special day with us Teplins. We had a blast, and so did my children. Check out Sam and his new love for riding a Pony. Remember the post: CLICK HERE

All is well on the Pony this month!

One Year Later

Wow, it ihas been one year since my job moved us from Milwaukee to Jacksonville. Marking this one year accomplishment I accepted a new job leaving my current department and joining a new department geared around the customer's experience with WaMu. I am taking on this new challenge in 4 weeks!! While this is all going on Erin is busy learning more about the photography business which is her passion. Erin and I look back a year ago and think about all the new experiences we have had and how much the boys have grown. Check back often for the second year here in Jacksonville.

Pacifier?

Back to my fireman dress up Sam. Bye Bye Thomas, HELLO Firetrucks. It always amazes me how children love something for a while, and then move onto the next thing. For the past year it has been all about Thomas the Train. We've gone through 2 train tables, over extending out use on each and every table. Sam would play with trains for ever and ever and I had to peel him away from there to leave the house.

Recently, he has put those trains to rest. Our newest train table has bit the bullet and is now resting peacefully out by the trash bins. So, I decided it was time to put all the trains away and bring out at another time and have them be fresh and new! The newest craze around here is trucks, cars, dress up and firefighters. We have a firestation a mile down the road. Everytime we pass I tell Sam we can stop there and drop off all his nene's (pacifiers). The catch is, I will make it on Sam's time. Not mommy time. I keep telling him when he is ready to be a big strong boy, just like a firefighter we'll take all his nene's there and drop them off with the firemen. And we talk over and over about how firefighters don't use nene's. Yes, we get very over dramatic sometimes, but I have the confidence in him. What I've learned about Sam is when he's ready, he'll do it.







So, just a few days ago, as he was dressing himself up in his firefighter getup, I brought up going to the firestation. He got all excited and said, "YES, let's go!" I said okay, go get your nene's and we'll go give them to the firemen. And the conversation went like this:

Sam: "Mommy, I don't have a nene anymore."
Me: "Oh, you don't?"
Sam: "No, I'm all grown up just like the firemen at the firestation"
Me: "Oh, you are? I am so proud of you!!!"
Sam: "Thank you mommy. Now can we go?"
Me: "Well, since you're all grown up, just like the firefighters, let's go get all your nene's and put them in a bag to give to the firemen...."
Sam: "But I don't have a nene anymore!"
Me: "Allright, I'll go get them for you...." Start walking to his room...Sam came running ahead of me.
Sam: "Mommy, these arn't called nene's anymore. They are pacifiers."

Moral of the story, he IS a big boy, just like the firefighters. And, he don't have a nene anymore, instead he renamed it to pacifier just so he could go!!!!

Smart fella. But darn it!
(no worries, I did not take him...but I will when he's ready!)

No, a foreign lanugage

What does the word NO mean?


By defination: A negative used to express dissent, denial or refusal, as in a response to a question or request

By Sam: I'll just keep asking and asking and asking over and over and over and over. If I don't think she hears me, I'll keep asking her over and over and over and over. If I really don't like the answer she is giving me, I'll just ask louder, and maybe throw a few screams in there to really get her attention. If all else fails, I'll just do it anyways to really throw her off.

By Matthew: I'll just run in the corner now until she tells me to come out. If I don't run in the corner, she may tell me no again and instead of face the conquences of dissapointment, I'll just put myself in here to soften the blow. And don't worry, I'll cry....very very hard. But I also will keep one eye open a tad just to see if someone is paying attention to my tantrum. If I hear Sam, I'll stop whimpering a bit, just to see if he got his way through his actions.

Neither one of my children take the word NO tamely. Seriously it is a battle everytime the word falls out of my mouth. Sam is at the age of reason, Matthew at the age of HIDE!

If we find Sam in Matthews room ONE MORE time at 5 a.m. wanting to play with sleeping Matthew, Sam will have a lock on the inside of his room as well. Better yet, I'm going to duct tape Sam to his bed and he'll have to beg to come out. GGGRRRRRRR.......

A new 3 wheeler!

Check out Matthew's new set of wheels! Ah, he's such a little guy. He is so damned and determined to ride his big bike just like Sam. His tiny little feet just can't touch the pedals yet. He loves his bike! Sam on the other hand need to re-learn how to ride his bike. He treats his bike like a bad habbit. Seriously, I'm sometimes embarrassed to take him on bike rides. In his head, bike riding means riding for 10 feet, falling, getting back up, falling. CRASHING into nothing, falling. Riding for another 10 feet, swirving along the side of the grass, falling, CRASHING into nothing, laughing, getting back up, riding for 10 feet, falling etc. Seriously, I'm so thankful he loves his helmet...otherwise I may be concerned.

The only snow we saw this year...

AND IT WAS ON TV!!!!!!!!!!! I know all my northern family members think I'm nuts, however, I MISS the snow. I miss the anticipation the snow brings and all the frazled-ness (yes, I made that word up myself). We did get a glimpse at what the snow looked like from afar. Those who love us know we are not sports fans, however, this year while in Florida, we were valid Packer Fans!

I think my blood is thin. VERY THIN. Last night when I ventured out, I was freezing, and the temperature was only 55 degrees? WHAT. I was so dissapointed with myself. I ultimately ran into the store, shivvering. Come on Erin, 55 is WARM!!! I don't like this. Brad laughed, but agreed with me. 55 in Florida is a different 55 back home.....so we keep telling ourselves...

A real blonde joke worth sharing...

Many months ago, we sold our family room furniture and entertainment system on Craigs list. For a few weeks we sat on the floor, watching our old 5 inch kitchen TV. They boys thought it was great because the TV was little and they were about to adjust the channels to their liking. Within a few weeks time, Brad and I took advantage of a great payment advertisment and purchased new family room furniture, including a new HDTV. Along with the furniture purchase, came our 'extended' childproof warranty for a minimal fee, which we knew we had to purchase because we parent the children of monkeys.

Within a few more weeks the new furniture was delivered, fresh out of the delivery truck. The men who unloaded into our home were kind and nice. They kindly explained to me how the new entertainment center is wired, how to change the light bulbs in the unit and how to clean my new sofa and chairs. Great! Now we were all set, ready to have our family room back....

Within a few hours, Matthew thought it was time to bite the wood on the entertainment center door, leaving his teeth marks engraved in the middle of the unit. Sam thought it was fun to make the new entertainment center a ladder and try to climb up it and a great crashing ground for trucks. However, we knew there was something just not so right....it was the light bulbs.

Within 3 weeks, I had replaced the little lightbulb 4 times, when the light was hardly ever on. So, remembering we purchased the 'extended' childproof warranty, I decided since it had only been a month, it was time to put our well purchased warranty to use....I called to file a claim and to have someone come out and fix my child messed up new piece of furniture.

Within 2 more weeks, the little man in a blue truck pulled up to my house. He was hired by our warranty program, specifically to fix the circuit that was shorting out and help me refurbish the teeth marks resting so peacefully on the unit. The little man in the blue truck rang the bell, the door was answered and the conversation went something like this....

Man: "Hello, I'm Steve, I'm here to fix your light"
Me: "Great, come on it"
Boys: "Yeah, mommy, the man is here!!!!"
Me: "Follow me, the Entertainment center is in the family room"
Man: "My my, you have a lot of toys....wow"
Me: "Follow me, it's in here....right here"
Man: "Oh, I see... okay. Let me get my tools out of the car, and I'll get the light working for you"

.......

The man came back in, asked me if he could borrow the ladder. He climbed up on the ladder on top of the entertainment center, took out the light socket and did other things with it. I had to remove myself from the scene as Matthew had a big stinky poopy that needed to be changed before I lost my breakfast and Sam was standing under the ladder that the man was on, just so fascinated.



A few more minutes go by, the boys under more control.....I step back into the Family room.
.............

Me: "Everything all right in here?"
Man: "Yup, the light now works and I'm just getting ready to place the socket back into the unit."
Me: "Great! That was fast"

...few more minutes go by......

Man: "Looks like I"m all done, can you sign on the dotted line?"
Me: "Sure"

....walking out to the front door.....

Me: "Thanks for all your help and coming out to fix the bulb. I knew something wasn't right when I had replaced the bulb 4 times in one month when the unit is hardly ever on."
Man: "Oh, you've already replaced the bulb?"
Me: "Yes, I've replaced the bulb 4 times since we got it and it's only been a month since we've had it. When I called the customer service lady told me they would send you out to replace the entire socket because it sounded like there was some sort of short in the wiring. So thanks for coming out!"
Man: "One moment, I'll be right back"
.......moments go by.......more moments go by....man comes back...
Man: "I'm sorry, I thought you called me out to replace your bulb".
Me: "Are you serious? Do you think I would call my warranty for a broken light bulb?"
Man: "Yes"
Me: "come one....there are many things I can't do, but I know all to well how to change a light bulb. Is this some sort of joke?"
.........................
Needless to say, the entire socket DID get replaced and I think I did a good job at making the man in the little blue truck feel pretty silly. But come on!!!!!!!!

My darling boys!

Here they are. How sweet they all are. Sam and Matthew just jump for joy when they come in our room in the morning to find Daddy still in bed on a Saturday! All of a sudden, mommy becomes a distant memory. Daddy is on the spot light and now that Matthew has a bed of his own, once he wakes up we hear pounding on the door to let him out!

Dress up and togetherness

It's Firefighter Sam to the rescue!

Who would have thought my little boy would be so into dress up. It is so funny to watch. For the past few days, he will wake up, undress himself and put on his fireman suit from halloween. He then pretends to put out fires as he runs around the house with a pretend hose. After about 20 minutes or so of running around the house, he undresses again to the bare bone, puts back on his clothing attire and jumps into his bed saying, "firefighters need their rest mommy, I'm sleeping". Low and behold, Matthew doesn't quite understand the concept as he is jumping virgously on the bed screaming, "YAM, YAM, YAM, GO".

It is rather commical to watch the two of them together. Matthew follows Yam around the house, jumping and screaming. Sam runs just that much faster to make sure his little brother doesn't catch up to him. I think at I can say with confidence, we are reaching another milestone. A milestone full of togetherness. I can finally say that the boys are becoming friends. Sam's patience level is subsiding while Matthews little quirky baby moves are becoming a thing of the past. No longer does Matthew sit on the ground and drool.....he is now a few steps behind Sam as he climbs up the ladder at the park only to slide down the very big slide.

I'm also noticing less mommy intervention, while more and more laughs and giggles echo in the playroom, as long as I am not on the phone or my computer, it's a great thing! I am so happy and so is my voice :-).