Since I have no fun pictures from today (except for one that I can't write a whole post about) I am linking up with this fun Wednesday idea brought to you from Jenny at Jenny's Blessed Nest, who got it from This Side of the Pond :) A hodgepodge of questions.



1. Would you rather talk to everyone at a crowded party for a short time or have a significant conversation with two people?

Actually, I would rather not be at a huge party.  They make me nervous.  But if I had to, I would much definitely rather be talking to two people than to everyone!

2. What objects do you remember from your parent's living room?
Some sort of brown couch, usually with a butt dent from my dad laying on the couch.  Shag carpeting.  And the naugahide (sp?) recliner that my mother spent her bedrest with her pregnancy with my sister in--complete with multicolored electrical tape.  Tres Chic!


3. Do you hog the bed, steal the covers, snore?
All of the above, bless my poor husband's heart.  I am hoping that a good dose of weight watchers (see #8) will take care of the latter!

4. Speaking of Easter dinner...what is your favorite way to cook/eat lamb? Or does just the thought of that make you squeamish? If you're not cooking lamb what will be your entree du jour on Easter Sunday?
No lamb here unless I eat in unwittingly.  We'll probably eat, um.....I have no idea.  Maybe Nanny will feed us?



5. Do you know the whereabouts of your birth certificate and when was the last time you had to produce it to prove you're you?
It's in our safe with everyone elses.  The only reason I know this is because I had to find Hannah's and had everyone else's (and two or three copies of mine) but hers.  Don't remember when I needed it!



6. As a child, how did people describe you?
Too quiet.  Still get that complaint from those that don't know me well!



7. What do you complain about the most?
The state of my perpetually messy house!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Starting Weight Watchers again tomorrow at 4:30...if I don't find an excuse to skip it.  And I'm hoping that by putting this out there for all to read will keep me motivated to go!

8a.  Insert your own random picture here.
(Ok, there is really no 8a.  I just found this picture on my phone and my heart was about to burst with it's cuteness.  Had. to. share.)

Cutest. Thing. Ever.

Bestill my momma heart!

What would they think?

Now that I figured out how to get pictures out of my phone, I just had to share a few of my favorites.  As I was perusing my phone picture collection, I wondered what someone would think if they found my phone and didn't know us.  They might even think that several of us have multiple personalities.

For example....there's Sarah, the evil witch's evil assistant

And pretty schoolgirl Sarah.

Then we have patriotic Maddy....

And chillin' Maddy

And then there's Hannah, the make up afficionado...

and Hannah the sweet friend.

and last of all,  you have the naked, I just threw up all over, grouchy screaming toddler, Charlotte

And sweet smiley Char Char.

The bad news is that I lose my phone about once a week, so the chances of someone finding my phone and looking at the pictures is pretty good.

The good news is, my wonderful husband found a solution to my broken camera card problem, so I am not relegated to taking bad camera phone pictures anymore.  Whew...that one day without the camera was rough!

It had a good run, my camera.  Daryl got it right before we had Charlotte, so it's lasted almost 2 years.  Today, though, the camera card bit the dust.  I took it out, put it in the computer to download the pictures, and when I went to put it back in....nada.  Sigh.

SO....while trying to figure out what to do, I ran across a neat post at Making Memories with the McClellans.  It was simple.  Take the pictures off of your phone and post them in a link.  That's great!  I can still take pictures (though not real good ones!) but I had no idea how to get them out of the camera.  Thanks to Marissa at Making Memories with the McClellans, I figured it out!

Unfortunately, I just realized that I had deleted most of my pictures because I thought I had no way to get them off!  This is the only one I had left!

I know I am bias, but isn't that the cutest thing ever?

PS- I know I am not doing this linky thing right...can you tell I'm a newbie?

Beauty Among the Rubble

If you have been reading since the beginning, you know that there has been construction going on in our house.  For 9 years.  It started when we got married.  When we wed and moved in, everything was white and hunter green.  My sweet bachelor husband had found a color scheme and stuck with it, through the entire house.  Having three kids and three dogs between us, the white kitchen just didn't make sense, so he remodeled the kitchen.  Then, we realized that we needed a bigger family room.  So he turned the carport into a family room and the former family room into a dining room.

Then we got pregnant with Hannah.  So he turned the dining room into a nursery, and decided to remodel the basement into a master suite and laundry room for us.  And since he had remodeled every single room, save one bathroom, I thought we were done.

Then surprise!  We found out we were pregnant with Charlotte.  And thus he began the new addition to the back of the house.  It was much needed.  Josh got a bigger room that could be turned into a guest room, and we added a bathroom on the main floor and a playroom (yay!), as well as a bigger dining room to house our bigger better table.  We also got a nifty new deck out of it.

The great part of it?  My crafty husband did every single bit of this by himself.  I have been awed and amazed by the improvements he has made to the house.  I love that there isn't one bit of hunter green and white left (except in that one bathroom), and that our house is large enough for our whole family.  I love watching him work with his hands and watching him lovingly create things for us.  I love that when we sit down at our brand new table in our brand new dining room, that he made it all, right down to the table and chairs.

The not so great part of it?  The mess.  It's not uncommon for tools to be strewn across the kitchen counter, or paintbrushes to be in the refrigerator.  The kitchen sink often has paint splatters in it, and the smell of polyurethane is as common as dinner cooking.  And he is never so happy as when there is a fine layer of sheet rock dust covering every surface.

While we were on spring break, he took the opportunity to regrout the tile in the dining room/kitchen.  Which first meant that he had to grind away the old grout.  Which meant that we arrived home to a layer of dust over everything.  And lest you think I exaggerate, we had to wash the dishes inside the cabinets before we could use them.  Lovely.  One reason that Cleanapalooza just had to happen.

Well, it appears that when I cleaned the kitchen, I skipped a spot, because when I opened the pantry, I found this.

Unfortunately, it was not the cleaning fairy that had come to see us.

Hannah made me a "present."  Her footprint and a bunch of baby footprints.

Presents like this make the rubble worth it.

(but I did clean it up as soon as she went to bed!)

Sunday Shopping and the Saga of the Lost Ba

It started our pleasantly enough.  Sweet girl spinning in her new (to her) dress.  But then, the unimaginable happened....

We lost the 'ba.'

 In case you are wondering, yes...she is 20 months old.  And yes, I do know that she is way too old to have a 'ba.'  And yes, I definitely know that this was probably the perfect opportunity to get rid of it.  However, the great screams and wailing and gnashing of teeth that ensued for the half hour of lost ba-dom was enough to just about finish me.  We were on our way to church, Daryl is in the middle of passing a kidney stone, the big girls and I had plans that did not include taking along a screaming toddler.  So with a quick trip to Walgreen's and half and hour of switching nipples and cups and scotch taping dish towels around a rather leaky fake 'ba,' (yes, I was that desperate!), we came up with an acceptable substitute.  She doesn't really care for it, but it was enough to stop the screaming...so we'll take it.

Once the great ba crisis was averted, and Daryl had assured us that he could indeed care for the little girls, despite the kidney stone, the big girls and I headed out for spring/summer clothes shopping.  Daryl gave us a budget, and then unbeknownst to us, tracked us on the bank website as we went from store to store--a sneaky little bugger isn't he?

We had a good time doing something that we all love, and it was good to spend some time with just my big girls for a change.  Here they are modeling some of their newest purchases. Hannah did have new clothes, which she refused to put on, but she also got a new Barbie, which she says she is showing you here.

 My sassy, sporty Maddy.

 And my girly girl Sarah, modeling her new makeup.

 And just to prove that she did wear clothes today...a cute picture of Hannah and Dino.

 All good things must come to an end, and such it is with Spring Break.

Not looking forward to getting back into the swing of the things, nose to the grindstone, and all the fun stuff that goes along with it.

Only 9 more school days left til a 3 day weekend!

The Flip Side

Stone Family Cleanapalooza is complete.

 10 hours of cleaning.

 9 loads of laundry done.

 8 empty detergent bottles trashed.

 5 beds changed.

 4 loads of dishes.

 6 contractor bags of trash.

 2 bathrooms scrubbed.

 3 newly grouted floors mopped and mopped and mopped again.

 1 grumpy attitudinal teenager

  1 trip to Walmart for vacuum cleaner belt

+23 minutes in line in said Walmart

1 tired mama.

1st Annual Stone Family Cleanapalooza 2011

 The supplies have been bought.

The list for the girls has been made.

The unwilling participants have been roused from slumber.

Breakfast has been provided.

My fortification has been aquired.

And with one last assurance that we will have a productive day....

And....we're off!  Our goal?  A clean house.

Now this little one?  How does she fit into the plan? 

Time will tell...

Pictures to follow!

(I seriously considered posting before pictures.  For about a minute.  Then I realized that people I see every day read this.  And it's really not pretty right now.  On top of the usual mess from leaving Daryl and Josh alone all week, and working extra hours the week before that, Daryl is in the throes of completing our new addition.  For those of you who don't know my sweet, wonderful, rather handy husband, you must know this--he is never so happy as when there is a fine layer of sheet rock dust covering every surface in our house.  So no.  No before pictures!)

See ya on the flip side!