Let the Hilarity Ensue

So. Last time we talked, I was still in the throws of sickness. I claimed it would be the AWESOMEST WEEK EVER cause I was going to get better. And here I am. All healthy and shiney and AWESOME. True story. Monday and Tuesday are still mostly a haze for me, as I was still suffering. Wednesday I got to skype with Greg and he said, STOP TOUCHING YOUR EYE. And you know what? I DID. Then I decided I was gonna use that day off to gather his care package together. The thing is, I VERY rarely get to send my husband care packages. How horrible of me right? The thing is......HE WORKS IN A STORE. But THIS time, I got to send him uniform stuff, a few food things, shoes...I totally felt like a valid wife. Yay!
Now. I don't really remember what I was doing, but I asked Celeste to let Caleb out of the crib (she knows how to open the door) and the next thing I know, THIS is what I'm looking at.

I seriously love how much these two kiddos love each other. They are best friends, and it is so sweet to see.

Today was pretty darn awesome, even though it started kind of rough. I remember my daughter woke me up sometime in the middle of the night, crawling in my bed. Let me say, that NEVER happens. She smelled kind of funny and she told me she threw up in bed. Nice. I fell asleep. Next morning before the alarm went off, she got up. I later found her sleeping on the bathroom floor by the toilet. Poor baby!! I decided she was not going to go to school, HOPING she didn't get what I've been struggling with for a week.

After a few hours, she seemed to be doing a lot better. We ran some errands, shipped off the care package, and I got both of the babies to take a nap. I went to visit my neighbor Jeanette, who was about to plant some flowers. Now, you may remember that one of my neighbors moved last week. They have this cute little mini palm tree thing in their planter area that Jeanette really liked. There was a family at their house today, and we're assuming they will be moving in soon, so we knew we had to act fast. I suggested taking a large plastic bag  so we didn't leave a trail of dirt and muck, but unfortunately the bag wasn't big enough.

That doesn't look suspicious at ALL does it??

Mini palm tree? What mini palm tree??

The good news is that the flowers turned out so pretty.

The rest of the day was kind of blah. Did laundry, worked out, cleaned the rooms, vacuumed, mopped, blah blah blah.

So I will end with a cute picture of my super awesome son.

He likes to spray water in his mouth from the spray bottle I did Celeste's hair with, and the item in his mouth is a doll sized spray bottle he is pretending to spray in his mouth.
Cheers.

What a Week.

So. Here I am on a Sunday evening. BLOGGING. And look at that, it's only been a WEEK since the last time I posted something new! Nay, it's been LESS than a week! HA. Unfortunately, I'm writting because this has been the WORST WEEK EVEEEER!!!
We can say it started with my crazy ax murdering neighbor. But I'm not sure how fair that is. Ah, btw, I found out that the two stories WERE in fact, connected. Missing lady, assault rifle stealing man, he's the suspect, and my neighbor. Actually, last I heard they arrested another lady for the murder, but he's still currently a suspect. So that's been fun.
You know what else is fun? Saying goodbye to awesome neighbors. Especially ones who have my daughters best friends as a daughter. So that was my Tuesday. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for; the time where I break out in haiku.
Ode to Shooklyn

Shook-a-lyn, Shooklyn
Why must you leave us this week?
Bananas are good.

I hate that you left
You're smiling face will be missed
Pickle juice is gross.

Ah Shooklyn, my girl
Thanks for being a good friend
Eat your peas all gone.

Finis~

On a side note, I must now do a section called Gun Safety 101.

Hint: YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.
That's not from lack of education either, I'm telling you. I took it away, turned it around, put it in his hands right, even pulled the trigger with him to show him....the second I let him go at it, he turned it right back around.

Even Mr Tony was nice enough to show him how to do it. FOUR TIMES.

Did that help?

Not at all.

So the rest of the week? Totally lame. Wednesday night I got a stupid eyelash stuck under my eyelid, and after not being able to get it out, went to bed. I woke up with a bright red eye that was all goopey, so I had to go to the ER (cause my primary care was booked till Monday). Turns out, I got a corneal abrasion (fancy way of saying I scratched my eyeball). So they gave me eye goop and vicoden. Don't ask me why I got the vicoden, I wouldn't be able to tell you. After a day of using the eye goop and having to call in sick for work (cause my eye was seriously swollen), I went back to the ER on Saturday. Turns out I was having an allergic reaction to the goop, which resulted in an eye infection (pretty much pink eye), in BOTH eyes. LAME. So now I'm walking around wearing sunglasses inside so I don't freak people out with my crazy SATAN eyeballs. I got drops instead, and after one use, my eye was already not swollen anymore. I am a day and a half into the new medication and still have flaming red eyeballs that leak constantly. GGRR. I know it won't be instantaneous, but I was really hoping I wouldn't have to go to work tomorrow with Satan eyeballs. Maybe I will just pretend I've been crying and score free chocolate from people. ("I'm sooo sad, can I get some chocolate??") WIN. Or I can pretend Satan is IN my eyeballs. ("What do you mean you don't want DVDs on this shelf?!" *GLARE*) I just wish this was all because of something cooler than a lame eyelash getting stuck in my eye. Why can't I have gotten this stuff from fighting DINOSAURS?! So LAME. It didn't help that last night I started feeling really achy and couldn't sleep because of it. So now I'm sick on top of that. Been having fights with my tummy all day.

But you know what?? THIS week will be better than last week! You know why?? Cause even though I started this week sick and miserable, I can only get BETTER. So THIS week, I'm going to be getting BETTER and have a way awesome week. Did I mention that I refused to let last week torture me too much, and did ALL my work outs? Cause I'm SUPER AWESOME. I also made SALMON. And my kids LOVED it. It was so good, I'm making it a once a week thing, cause we NEVER have fish cause the MAN doesn't like fish. But he will someday. Cause Lissa taught me how to make it super delicious. WOOT!

Ok.......I took my Nyquil in hopes of finding better sleep tonight in preparation for evil SATAN eyes tomorrow at work. Here's hoping tomorrow will be a better day, and this week will be a better week.

PS. I got to talk to Greg on Skype today. There are rumors that he may be home a few months earlier than planned. Didn't I TELL you this was going to be a better week?? Of course, those are just rumors...hope for the best, expect the worst.

Tally Ho and Cheers!!

My Fingers and Toes Get Pruney in the Shower.

So. I ALMOST got caught up. THIS post is going to be about my trip to Arizona. And my ax murderer neighbor.

So there I was. REALLY needing a break. I looked at the calendar and said, 'holy moly Celeste's spring break is REALLY SOON!' so I called a few people, asked my boss if I could take off one Friday, and made some plans to go see some family. Then one day I was surfing on FB, and saw an ad from a high school friend about a great deal on mommy and me portraits...now see, if you ask me, I will tell you the last time we got family portraits done was when Celeste was six months old. From Walmart. If you ask Greg, he will tell you it has been only a year, last Easter. See, the picture is hanging on the wall. Then I will tell you that the family picture on the wall from last Easter was done by setting my camera on the top of our trash can and putting the timer on. Family portraits indeed. See?

So since Greg is deployed, I figured I fit into the category of mommy and me portraits. I made the appointment because I knew that if I didn't do it now, it would be another year before I thought about it again.

Our first family visit was with our Ivanov family. Celeste and Caleb call them Baba, Diado (grandma and grandpa in Bulgarian), and Aunt Nanny. Of course we also got to see Aunt Brittney and Uncle Zach too! Celeste was such a task master, she made Baba and Aunt Nanny go for a run. Then she made them do Shelleyrobics! OK....well, that may have been me making everyone (including Celeste) go running. While we freshened up, Celeste got to play with BABY CHICKENS!

 After that, us girls went shopping ALL DAY!! It was so blissful. Little Monster got to chill out with Diado all day. I had to get a wardrobe for my family. The next day was portrait day! I am soooo blessed to have JulieAnn in my life!! She was an absolute life saver when it came to distracting the kids and making them smile. Jessica did such an amazing job, I am so excited to see the rest of the pictures! Here are the ones that have sneaked onto FB.

I love my babies. And beautiful pictures. True story. The rest of our time with the Ivanov family was spent with the baby chickens.

Then you know what? Something very silly happened. The chicken decided she didn't want to balance on Celeste's arm. She wanted to stand on Celeste's HEAD!! So up she flew, to CC's head!

So after saying goodbye to Baba and Diado, we went to stay with my sister! We went to Peter Piper's Pizza! There were some annoying kids there. A little boy who got like 10 freebie rides cause he would stay on the carousel...

....and then when I put Caleb in the ice cream truck, the other kid moved to the back of the truck for like 5 more free rides.

So parents, please make sure to pay attention to your child. It's sooo annoying having to supervise other peoples dumb kids. I kicked him out of the truck (he tried sneaking in to the passenger side) for the next ride.

Then there's THIS little JOY. This little girl kept pinching and grabbing Paisleys face!! I had to scold her several times for it! Of COURSE, no parent around! Parents.....supervise your kids!! You may think they're the sweetest cutest little things and how could ANYONE not just instantly LOVE them....but that is NOT the case!!

We had some delicious ice cream at Swensons for dessert that night! Totally a blast from the past. I remember EVERY dance recital, we would go celebrate at Swenson's.

It was pretty awesome that my babies got to experience something from my childhood. We had to leave the next day, and the trip was fairly uneventful.

Sunday, however, is an entirely different story. I was out running errands all morning, but couldn't help noticing a police car parked next to our park. By 5pm, it was still there. When a neighbor called PMO, they told us it was an ongoing investigation and no threat to us. A few minutes later, SWAT trucks show up, and housing comes to unlock a house connected to the people in question (the connecting house is empty currently). Next thing we know, the police are taking pictures of this guy's car, gutting it...seats, carpet, taking pictures as they go. The wife, who is a playground duty for the kindergarteners and knows Celeste, is outside crying. We still have no idea what is going on.
However....today in the news is a story about how a wife of a deployed marine is missing and suspected of falling victim to foul play. The story continues that the suspect is a Camp Pendleton Marine who was arrested yesterday (Sunday), and was actually accused of stealing an assault rifle before being a suspect for the case of the missing wife. One of my neighbors says the article she saw said the vehicle of the suspect is a white SUV with a Marine Corps sticker....and my ax murderer neighbor drives a white SUV with a sticker.
While I REALLY DON'T KNOW if the two stories are connected (what are the odds!), it is still kind of fun to say I live across the street from an ax murderer. Mehehe. Just another funny story of my life, I suppose.
Cheers and Tally ho!

Only the Awesomest Post EVER.

So. I'm pretty sure I wanted to write more often. But it seems I haven't even made it past Valentines Day.

So I guess I will start with the big V-Day.
I wanted to have my daughter and her friends decorate cookies, but the dough was so runny! So instead of hearts, they decorated nice circles.

Then we got to open mail from our grandparents! Celeste and Caleb loved it.



I started work a few weeks later, and suddenly it was March.

And the next thing I knew, it was my birthday. And you know what happened? I went to work. And my car got it's new winshield (Calebs Christmas gift to me). Also the piano got tuned! And you know what else? I got to pick out a camera cause mine was lost to the tide pool. I also got a free massage. And you know the funnest part of the day? The SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY  MY NEIGHBORS GAVE ME!! It wasn't a surprise, like, everyone standing in my house yelling, it was more like, 'hey we're doing a bbq on Friday with a firepit, come join us!' and the next thing I know they're singing happy birthday and we're eating CAKE!! How amazing is THAT?!
So a few days later, my new camera made it's way into my life. I don't think I've ever been happier with a camera. My first day I had to take some pics of my daughter and her best friend, who is moving.

That Friday, March 16th, we went with the Farmers to see the CIRCUS!!! WOW!! I've never been to the circus!! First we went to eat at the Spaghetti Factory.

When we got to the CIRCUS, they called kids up to the stage to teach circus tricks. My little baby girl got to learn how to be a circus performer.

Then of course, there was a super fun show!

Of course, the next day was St Patricks Day. Celeste woke us and started going on and on about how if were work REALLY HARD and look around, we can find the little green footprints the leprechaun leaves and if we follow them, we will find his treasure. We thought it was pretty cute, but pretty much ignored it. Then our neighbors took our babies so Greg and I could go on a last date before his deployment. We went to sushi, and it just happened to be next to a Trader Joe's, so we went to browse around. First thing we see? Potted Shamrocks! So we bought some, went home, made a whole bunch of tiny green contruction paper footprints, and made a trail from the front door, all around the house, up the stairs, in the kids room, then to the guest room where we hid the shamrocks at the end of the trail. When we crought Celeste home, it was dark, and we discovered tiny green footprints and three flashlights!

On Monday the 19th, Greg left us for the third time. This seems to be the easiest best deployment our family has been through so far. With our tablets that are always connected, we were able to send pictures to each other, text each other, and video chat while he was traveling. When he got there, I set up a skype account and we get to see each other fairly often. He gets to call twice a day sometimes too, which is really nice. I don't like that sometimes he has to travel and then I don't get to skype him him, or talk to him much. But at least it's only six months, and no one is pregnant. Hooray!

So we've been keeping each other company back here at home. There have been parties and babyshowers...

And then April happened. It started with a bang when my mom sent my babies stuff for Easter!

Funny story...I was making dinner while they were playing, and little Caleb discovered how to unwrap his candy. Silly little boy.

On the night before Easter, we colored our eggs. I'm still surprised no one stained their clothes. Caleb DID try to eat the dye tablets twice when I gave them to him to put in the cups though.

Easter morning we woke up to a wonderful array of toys. The Easter Bunny must have known that mommy would eat all the candy if he left a lot! Monster immediately started playing with his puppy and batmobile.

Celeste was SOOO excited, even if she doesn't LOOK very thrilled. The Easter Bunny must have known she needed a new helmet after loosing hers and not being able to play with her bike or scooter. She also got the game Mouse Trap and a bunny.

That afternoon, I got to play Mouse Trap with my daughter. She built most of the trap.

We were playing the game, and suddenly.....I saw a squirrel skittering across my back yard!!

For Easter dinner, my neighbors did an AWESOME block party. I seriously cannot describe to you how amazing my neighbors are. They are more than neighbors and friends, they are FAMILY.

So all in all, the past few months are going fast, and I like it that way.
Cheers and Tally ho!