what to wear

what goes best with teil sweatpants, and a purple tie-died long sleeved shirt with gems?
a orange and white floral dress duh.
mary obviously gets her fashion advise from cj.

city council meeting.

i dragged my not-so-quiet short people, and bri (scotts bff\co-workers girlfriend) to the ferndale city council meeting tonight.
the room was jam packed full of officers, firefighters, and supporters.
all the seats were full and there were about 20-30 people standing.
the layoffs were not on the agenda. it wont be, i guess, until may.
after a few topics, there was an open floor to talk about anything but what was on the agenda.
bunches of people rose to the microphone in protest to any sort of cutbacks that had to do with public safety.
i really hope they are doing everything to save the jobs.
im still exited to move outta here though.

almost 30 years here and...

my husbands work just announced that they are doing cutbacks. 20% this year. were safe. 20%next year. were not safe.

so guess what folks, were outta here. we still have options though, although none of them involve living here in michigan. frankly i do not feel safe here in our city when we will have 40% less officers protecting us.

ill update on this topic again once we know more.

new look.

red hair, glasses and a pierced nose.

still me though. you can tell because i have kid snot on my sleve.

the bean.

the greatest moment of my life was when i delivered my first. not that every baby wasent absolute magic but, leahs delivery was just awesome. incredibly emotional. beyond words.

she hurt her shoulder today outside on the playground. so after school, i drew her a hot bath and sat next to her and we just talked. we talked about everything and nothing. these last few weeks i have been really enjoying her as a young adult. today we talked about her friends, her schoolwork, her ferret, her siblings, and the crazy things girls bodies do when growing up. wow, growing up. my sweet little bean is growing up. i remember like it was yesterday (ok im getting all old lady on ya) i remember when it was just the two of us. life was so hard but so rich. i was so young, and trying so hard. trying to be the best mom i could, to provide everything by myself. were in a whole new life now. its new for me too, not just her. i have no idea where im going with this... i am very thankful to have such great little kids, a wonderful almost 10 year old, and an amazing husband. my life has changed so much. i am happy. i know i complain on here a bunch, but i am very thankful for everything that has ever happened to me. the good the bad and the ugly. i have grown strong and i love my life.

soooooo,

im getting a little sick of going to the gym.
big shocker right?

so yeah,
i dont really like to sweat (unless im getting it on).
my lower back has been killing me (i need a new pair of kicks).
i dont fully understand the treadmill buttons.
you think i would be inspired by all the buff gym goers, im not.
im intimidated by them all. they make me feel fat, lazy and out of shape.
sometimes i wish i could just take an hour shower and spend another hour on my hair.
not workout at all.
and to rub it in even more, mr blanchard has lost at least 8lbs.
he looks and feels great.
great. good for him. bla bla bla. way to rub it in.

brown

a few of my favorite brown things. my summertime flip flops, potatoes, my buffet, our doggie, the chandler in the dining room, and a steamy cup of jo. i really could take 7 gazillion pics if random faves of brown things in my home.

anderson...

came over this morning at 6:30am.

scott took leah to school at 7:45am.

barb picked up the girls at 9:30am.

scott left for work at 1pm.

kitten w picked up anderson at 4:30pm.

jax and i have had a easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy day!

the gym.

today was the first day at the gym. lifetime fitness. scott bought a family package. still not so sure how to feel about that.

for the 10 minute drive i heard "are we there yet" about 15 times. typical. check-in went well. we all had our pictures taken. face shots. mary snuggled her face in her coat. expected. proceded to the child care area. jax fell once. all 3 coats, hats and mittens off and properly stowed away. gave my shorties kisses and walked out the door. cried for 3 minutes. me not the kids. scott obviously had no idea how i felt leaving the kids at a daycare facility for the first time. ever. horrible. went to my locker room to change shoes and lock up my coat and gym bag. couldnt figure out the key portion of the locker. didnt feel it was appropriate to ask the naked chick next to me for help. akward. came out of the locker room where scott rolled his eyes at me and told me how. nice. mind you im still all teary-eyed form dropping off kids. went back in locker room. locked door. followed scott upstairs. jumped on the first treadmill that was open. mind you i have no idea how to operate the thing. pushed a bunch of buttons in haste. walked for 35 minutes. 1.50 miles. all while listening to snoop dogg, dr. dre, green day, and rage against the machine. got in a good mood. gave myself a tour of the gym while scott finished up his 4 mile jog. show off. peeked in on the munchkins. all were good. went back into the locker room for a shower. showered. nobody banged on the curtain yelling "mom! let me in!" changed into clean clothes. met scott back in the daycare where charleigh could have cared less that i came back. did i mention she was super freaked before hand? well she was. got big kisses from jax and meems. felt good to be missed. changed bobers diaper. loaded them up with coats, hats and mittens. jax fell down on the way out. twice. all fell asleep in the car on the way home.

repeat tomorrow. and then everyday until im super hawt. or i quit.

the holidays are offically over.

but man,

did we have a great time.

hosted christmas eve family hoopla,

got and love our new family member franklin,

donated christmas to a family in need,

celebrated 5 wonderful years with my husband,

watched leah make a chocolate cake with fondant *beautiful*

partied it up horton style for new years,

and today,

went to the gym.

more about that later.

what did you do for the holidays?

oh what a night

the evening of our 5th anniversary was great!

my in laws and parents each babysat 2 kids overnight.

we started the night off at little tree. a sushi bar\restaurant in royal oak.

shared a plate of gang gui, spider roll, tuna roll, spicy california hand roll, and another roll that i just cant remember the name of. soooooo yummy.

then we went to to a tattoo\piercing shop in clawson.

we went because mr. blanchard lost a ball in one of his earrings.

i ended up getting my nose pierced.

yeah, im super hardcore now.

tried to go bowling but all lanes were full of leagues.

so we went out for beers at 2 bars. o'tooles and then the post.

went home for a little romance ;)

i didnt wake up the next morning until after 11am. wow.

that may have been the best part of the whole experience.

love you bubski.

love

happy 5th anniversary mr. blanchard.

cant wait for our date tonight

(wink, wink)

i love you oh so very much!!!!!!!

christmas eve '09

chocolate is all eaten from the advent calenders, turkey is smoked, ferret is bought, im ready for the party tonight, and santa later on tonight.

christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat....

smoke a turkey all day long..................check.
deliver gifts to our adopted christmas family............check.
talk to santa on the phone with the 3 little ones.......check.
shower...............not so check.
make an awesome dinner...................check.
clean the crap outta the house................check.
bathe all 4 munchkins.............check.
vacuum the pine needles 500 times.............check.
watch anderson for a few hours...............check.
successfully put all kids to bed (including mary)......check.
get ready to wrap the last of the christmas presents at 10pm at night, i use up the last of the wrapping paper wrapping 2 gifts, still have 8 to go. scotts at work. faaaarrrrrt! i really need more hours in the day. merry christmas to all.

11:30 at night

and i just cant seem to sleep.

i guess im a little anxious about the funeral in the morning.

sooo 2 funny things that happened today that ide like to share with you...

#1. today while singing christmas carols (which i sing all year long, not just the week before christmas) my sweet 2yr old mary exclaims "no mommy, youre silly, im not mary christmas im mayyy lizabefff baaaanchard" man-o-man is she cute. that may be the single reason i dont lose it when she purposely pees in her pullup tonight, for the 3rd reason to get out of her room at bedtime.

#2. at my aunt pats christmas party tonight, jax refused to take off his not 1 but 2 necklaces. at home i really dont care about him playing with or wearing gender bias stuff. but today at the party ill admit i was a little embarrassed. oh well.

good night