Alright I'm tired of looking at the pile of dog hair on here...so that means it's time to put an ACTUAL post here :) Yes, that is dog hair from our puppy Bo....and that's only from ONE side of him! I swear we could make afghans out of all his fur!

I LOVE my new addition to my blog which is the feedjit thingy. It tells me all of you who lurk here and yet NEVER comment. Makes me feel loved :) And Phil Blankenbaker, if you are still reading this, PLEASE leave me some way to contact you!!!


Update on the Kurtzs....

ONE WEEK FROM TODAY WE LEAVE FOR VACATION!!!! But I am not at all excited....he he! We head out at 4AM on Sunday the 5th for North Carolina. We're going to visit my brother and his family (5 kids too almost all the same ages as ours) at Fort Bragg. We get to see mountains and the oceans, both firsts for my kids...we are so excited!



We spent all day yesterday at my mom and dad's doing demolition. My grandma is moving in with my parents by Thanksgiving so we were starting the huge project that is her room/bathroom. My parent's house was built in 1923 and has all lovely plaster walls and NO insulation. So we ripped out all the plaster and lathe. What a mess!!! I must say we had a good time, despite all the hard work and sore muscles. Now we are one step closer to getting Grandma in!



Today Emma was invited to a birthday party at a local inflatable playground. So I, being the dutiful parent, took her. One of my newest pet peeves is buying birthday presents for other children. I don't know these children so buying gifts is tough. On top of that, I don't have $25-$30 to spend on gifts for other kids.We picked out some cool color wonder stuff and called it good. We arrived at the party where the birthday girl BRIEFLY greeted Emma and then they were off. It took me about 5 minutes to realize that the other girls weren't playing with Emma. She tried to follow them around for a while and then realized she was on her own. So I donned my socks and played with her. No biggie, it was actually really fun (and exhausting!!) Then it was time for cake and presents. I proceeded to watch this young girl open her first gift which she looked at in disgust and said, "I already have that." Her parents laughed like it was the funniest thing ever. I was horrified! She opened another gift and had the same response. There was one little boy that was a guest of the party and he had picked out a bat Webkinz for this young lady. She looked at it and said, "Why did you get me this?" Again, laughter from her parents while this little boy looked crushed. All in all, it was a pretty rotten party although Emma seemed oblivious to her obnoxious friend. She had a blast so I guess that's all that counts. But it wasn't exactly the way I wanted to spend my Sunday afternoon :)

Wordless Wednesday

Some of the blogs I read participate in something known as "Wordless Wednesday". Today, as I can barely keep my eyelids open long enough to type this, it seems that I too will participate.






Any guesses??

I laughed...HARD..at my sister when she was literally gushing about these books. I couldn't believe that some silly, kiddy vampire books were that great. So I told myself I would just read the first one and be done with all this silliness. Just so I could say I had read it. OH MY GOSH! I LOVED IT! I blew through it and New Moon in two days. Now I am literally CHEWING my nails off to get the third one that I have to wait for a t the library. I've totally considered going to buy it just cause....but I cannot justify the money as it's still in hardback. I am in love with Edward. Who wouldn't be, seriously? Who cares that he drinks blood or kills things???

The best part?? I got Matt hooked too...hehe. DON'T TELL ANYONE!


I guess I do have other things going on besides living in Forks....

Sydney started pre-K. There was much drama the day before school started, but I will spare you all the ridiculous details. It all worked out. She gets on the bus at 11:05, has lunch at school and comes home on the same bus as her older siblings at 4:05. We had a small scare on the first day when they put her on the wrong bus, but she was recovered without a scratch. So perhaps you have deduced that since she leaves at 11,I have only ONE child at home...ALL AFTERNOON! It's so weird! Thomas has lunch and goes down for a nap. I'm still trying to decide the best way to use these 3-4 GLORIOUS hours of quiet. Suffice to say, when I get Eclipse, that is what I will be doing until it's done. Here's a pic of Sydney from her first day to finish my ramblings...

I guess I didn't realize that I hadn't posted all weekend. We almost went stir crazy! We had 10 inches of rain over the weekend....I have NEVER seen rain like that. We discovered a lovely little leak in our roof in the process, good to know!

Thomas had a two day celebration for his birthday, because he is 2 you know! It was raining so hard on Friday! I walked into the living room, turned off the TV and looked at my children and said, "Let's go play in the rain!" They all looked at me like I was crazy. Then they dashed upstairs to put play clothes on. Thomas fussed as I took him out into the rain, but got over that VERY quickly! He found huge puddles and a stick and he was a happy man. We splashed and played and got soaked. It was a blast!















Then on Saturday we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for a joint birthday party with Aunt Carol. It was too fun. Cake, ice cream, presents, margaraitas (not for Thomas of course!)...a great party. Plus, my brother-in-law was home for the weekend from training for the Navy. So we had a great time.

His very cool "Thomas" cake made by the fabulous Mindy

Blowing out his two candles

He actually did it!

Cake and ice cream rocks!

The birthday sharers share a sweet kiss

Matt thought it was hilarious to rub the black frosting on his teeth and try to kiss me! ICK!

Thanks for the great advice and confidence everyone has sent my way. I finally calmed down and was able to get some better details from Jonah and set the record straight. I think the teacher was fairly understanding and will leave Jonah in his Wolverine gear alone :)





On to happier things....





Today my baby boy is 2...WAAAHHHHHH! I cannot imagine that 2 whole years have passed. He is proudly telling people that he is"choo". I get teary thinking about it....here he was on that beautiful early morning two years ago...

This is one of my most favorite pictures ever. Jonah gazing in complete amazement that he finally had his baby brother.

I cried when he came...not because it hurt or was tough...although those were true. But, when they placed this little man into my arms, I knew he'd never meet his namesake. I kissed his beautiful face while my eyes welled up and whispered, "Here he is, Grandpa, a little Thomas Michael."

And here is our sweet boy now, 2 years old and still such a joy

Right now, I'm furious. Can hardly find the words to type.

So this morning, it was 39 degrees. Somewhat chilly. I told the kids to grab sweatshirts as they headed out to the bus. Jonah was stalling and stalling and looking for his Indianapolis sweatshirt. I asked him why he didn't just grab his Michigan sweatshirt. He hedged the question..so I knew something was up. Upon further questioning he tells me that his social studies teacher informed him that her classroom was a "State zone". So she made him put a GIRL'S sweatshirt over his and wear it the entire class. It sounded like it was supposed to be a joke, but Jonah was obviously bothered by it. So much so, that he went to school without a sweatshirt on.

What would you do?!?!?!?!

I know I've already posted things about Thomas this week, but it IS his birthday week after all so he should get a few posts by himself.


Thomas dances. He dances. Anytime he hears music, in the grocery store, at church.. It is hilarious to see. I don't know who taught him this, but it's funny. ANd I don't know why, but until this weekend, I had not caught it on video. Well I caught it...so here is Thomas doing his booty dance...

Sometimes our children can display joy, outrageous joy, and everytime I manage to catch it on camera it makes me smile....here's this week's display..

I stole this from My five little monkeys. There's just nothing better to blog about at the moment!



I am a mom. I can't imagine my life as anything else.

I miss college life. I miss not worrying about anything and staying up late with the best roommate ever.

I think therefore I am. Wasn't that deep?

I know that God loves me, no matter what.

I want Diet Pepsi Max. Desperately.

I have a mini van. And proud of it. In fact we are trading up for a 12 passenger.

I search for children's shoes....ALL THE TIME!

I wish I had a chef.

I hate when people have to come to a complete stop before turning right...grrrr....

I am scared of bugs...I loathe them.

I fear that God will ask me to do something that I just can't do.

I always call my friend. Seriously, we talk several times a day. About nothing.

I love my husband. God's great gift to me.

I feel that houses should be self cleaning...I mean seriously.

I hear Thomas and Sydney wrestling under the covers and the Food Network.

I smell rain...it's gloriously raining.

I don't always remember presents for teachers or bus drivers. How lame is that?

I wonder what tomorrow will hold?

I care about my kid's future...how do I help them to become children who have a passion for the Lord and can change the world????

I regret when I lose my temper...no one deserves that.

I am not going to be able to stick to our new schedule!

I believe in fairies....no not really...but I love that line from the new Peter Pan.."I do belive in fairies, I do, I do!"

I dance a lot....it embarrasses my family. Especially in the grocery store.

I sing constantly....music is transcendent.

I write notes to my kids every day to put in their lunches.

I win the award for worst use of time! I'm such a slacker!

I lose my temper with Emma when she has to run in the house AGAIN as we are trying to leave!

I never want to be a mom who can't keep up with her kids!

I listen to a lot of musicals...I adore them.

I can usually be found at the computer, sadly :)

I read often...except I lose whole days doing so!

I am happy when I'm surrounded by family.

A secret that no one knows about me is I like Webkinz. I even got the manatee one for my birthday.

School, what a glorious word :)

Although I must say that I have been counting the minutes until the kids went to school....yet this morning I was fairly choked up as I watch my kids get on the bus. Something about another year beginning makes me ponder how much they've grown and changed, even over the summer. Here are the pics from this morning...