Make me over please

A friend told me that one of our family magazines around here was having a Mommy Makeover contest and so, I thought I’d enter it just for fun. The contest ended in January and I have not heard from them, so I’m figuring I didn’t win…oh well…I thought I might as well post my entry below…along with my pictures I sent in. Now keep in mind that the first picture was just for fun, but the second one was seriously the most recent picture of me…in my Christmas pjs…ughhh! Anyway, enjoy!

My name is Abbie and I would so love to have a makeover. I just turned 30 in November. I have four children 5 and under. I have one girl and three rambunctious boys. Zoe is 5, Ace is 3, Liam is 2 and Josiah is 6 months. Aside from caring for my sweet babies, I am also the coordinator for the Mothers of Preschoolers group. I also started homeschooling my daughter this year and run a stationary/card business from my home. In my spare time (hehehe), I try to keep our out of town family up to date via our blog. I also try to scrapbook every precious memory I can capture on film. And when they are really quiet (okay so when they’re asleep, and yes, four asleep at once does happen), I try to stay awake to spend time with my husband or read. Not easy to do at midnight!

In June I brought a 9 pound 6 ounce baby into this world (without an epidural…eleven hours in labor…I’ve earned the right to brag). Unfortunately, he didn’t carry the 40 plus pounds I had put on during the pregnancy(editor’s note…I was being kind saying it was just 40 pounds…but I did add the plus so I wasn’t lying). As a result, my “baby belly” is slowly dwindling with my scrambled trips to the gym. You know, when the kids are well and we rush to the gym between ballet, school, church, and MOPS. Or when my sweet husband comes home and sees that a shower has alluded me and my contacts aren’t in…the kids have created drawings on the walls and my sweet toddler has flooded the kitchen again in an attempt to figure out how the faucet works…that’s when he says, “I’ve got the kids, go to the gym or do something!” Ahhh those are the sweet times! Okay, back to reality (my hubby really does offer lots).

I’m at that “in-between” time with my clothes…my maternity clothes are too big, my regular clothes are too small and I’m too cheap to buy lots of clothes in a size I hope to be out of in a few months. I have the wash and wear hair do that is getting too long but between doctors appointments and other activities, when am I supposed to take two hours out of my schedule to sit at the salon?? Oh, and did I mention that I lost a lot of my hair from pregnancy and now the new hair coming back is gray!! So, I guess it would be four hours at the salon to find a color to match my beautiful all dark brown hair!!! Sure gray is a sign of wisdom, but I think it’s more a sign of losing your mind when you’re as young as I am!

So, to recap, managing a home of six people (two of whom are still in diapers and four under 6), homeschooling, working in a ministry, chauffeuring, being the family historian, and trying to earn a little money on the side, with a few extra trips to the gym…my plate is full and I have very little time to keep up my appearances. I love to look nice for my husband and my family and work with the time I have and the very little budgeted money I have and we end up with the below pictures. Okay, so the first one is really just a silly side but the second is the best I can do on a good day or maybe it’s the other way around.

Facebooktwittermail

I’m Tagged

Okay, Chad from Chad & Chrissy’s blog tagged me. Here are five things no one knows about me and five places I wonat to visit in teh US and five places I want to visit outside the US.

1. My favorite ice cream dessert in the whole world is a Fanta Strawberry float (ice cream and Fanta strawberry soda). My next favorite is the Baskin Robbins Chocolate Blast…oh my, yum yum!

2. I am absolutely obsessed with watching the Duggars (the Arkansas family that has 17 children) specials and Jon & Kate Plus 8 (the ones with the twins and sextuplets). I’ll also re-watch the shows and always learn more things. Like this new recipe: Monkey Munch

3. When Mark and I were first married and he was still in school, we lived in the “ghetto” and our neighbors were transvestites (no kidding). His car was keyed by said transvestites and our apartment was burlarized by someone else.

4. The household activity I hate more than anything is dusting…that’s because my sister made me dust when she always got to vaccum…sorry Erin, the truth is out.

5. Here’s my rant for the month: I’m pretty much very tired of being asked if I’m pregnant, having my baby fat belly rubbed, or being asked if we’re through having kids. Since when is our reproductive life everyone else’s business??? For all interested here and to save from the questions, if we get pregnant now, we will but we are definitely not trying. I would like to get in shape, adopt, and have a little bit more time enjoying the kids God has blessed us with before or if God blesses us with another pregnancy. Oh, and for those that just have to ask the most annoying question of all time, “Yes, we know what causes it…why do you think we have had four children in five years :)”

5 Places in the US I want to visit:
1. Seattle
2. Hawaii
3. New York (just to see a Broadway Musical and not Sweeney Todd)
4. Walt Disney World (with the kids for at least a full week)
5. Alaska

5 Places outside the US I want to visit:
1. Ireland
2. Israel and tour where Jesus walked (stole this from Chad)
3. China
4. Wherever we adopt from
5. Canada and see where Anne of Green Gables was filmed

I tag…hmmm…Shannon, Lisa, Vonda, Carrie, and Jackie!! Have fun!

It’s hard coming up with stuff when I pretty much lay it all out there.

Facebooktwittermail

The Case of the Meanies

Okay, this is a poop story, so if you need to skip it go ahead!

Ace was using the potty this morning and I was waiting on him to finish so I could brush his teeth. I was working on chores and he called me from the bathroom.

“Mama, come here. I got to tell you somthin'” (While he’s on the potty)

“Yes, Ace.”

“That was some mean poopy.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes ma’am. It was gonna beat me up.”

‘Nuff said.

Facebooktwittermail

Ace, the Cherub Warrior

Ace got fitted for his costume yesterday at ballet. I think I mentioned before that we don’t have to buy costumes but we do have to pay a performance fee which goes toward renting the facilities for the performance they are in.

Anyway, pre-ballet 1 students are Cherubs but Ace is a boy so he’s a Cherub Warrior. He was so funny. While the girls were all getting their costumes, he announces, “I don’t wear a dress, ‘cuz I’m a boy!” He looked “so, so handsome” as Zoe said.

I’m a little nervous now, because apparently, there will be one or possibly two boys on stage with Ace as cherub warriors. And Ace has announced that he is going to fight with his sword on stage (we’ve gotten past wanting to be the lead, now this). I tried to explain to him today that he would have a sword but he didn’t need to fight anyone because there were no mean guys on stage. Now, are you getting my drift??? Ace will have a sword on stage as will the other boys (who will be close to Ace’s age)…I’m sensing a nice little sparing match going on! Agghh! We’ll be asked never to come back…this should be interesting. I’ll be sure to get pictures should a battle erupt!

Facebooktwittermail

Let’s Go for a Ride

Our neighbor!




Let’s just say, yesterday was not the happiest day in the world for me. Luckily, our neighbor came by with his two girls and offered to take Zoe out riding on her bike. While that was great for Zoe, I was left with two very sad little boys. Mark soon came home, however, and took them out with the girls. They all had fun. Mark and I are getting such a kick out of Liam pushing his trike…he refuses to ride it!

Facebooktwittermail

Lovely Leaves



Okay, we have two big…strike that…huge oaks in our front yard. We delay raking the leaves every fall until each and every leaf has fallen from the tree. That has finally happened, so Mark took advantage of the good weather this past weekend and started raking. He had lots of help.

Facebooktwittermail

Way to Go Grace

This is what my mom said when I frequently took a dive or bumped into something. And this is all I could think when I went sailing through the church hall on Sunday. Actually, it was a little foyer.

I was chasing after Liam to take him back to class (he comes in to worship with us during the singing part). My shoes hit the slick concrete and I did a beautiful baseball player slide into the door going into the sanctuary hall. On my way down, my cheek collided with Liam’s head and I took him down too.

No broken bones…just very sore. My shoulder is sore from where I caught myself. My thigh is very bruised from where I landed. Somehow my other leg is a little sore too…not sure what that is from.

I was also praising God that no one saw me…it would have been very embarrassing!

I’m just not young anymore.

Facebooktwittermail

Big Girl

Last night, Zoe told me her tooth was hurting her when she brushed. We knew it was getting loose because the dental dude noticed it at her last dentist visit. So, I tried to wiggle the one she said hurt. But, it didn’t budge. The one next to it, however, did! Aggghhh! I’ll take boogies and bloody knees over teeth or feet. Yuck. Besides that, my little girl is growing up.

My mom and Mark both remarked that she was too young to loose a tooth. I reminded my mom that my pre-k pics were of me with a big toothless smile. Oh yeah, she’s at that age isn’t she.

Facebooktwittermail

Because…

Mark took Ace out for some father/son time on Friday. Ace has attitude problems. He’s very negative and he can get in fits really easy. So, they had some heart to heart time. Mark continued to talk to him about why he should obey mommy & daddy and that he have to discipline him when he doesn’t. He talked to him about using his noodle to think things through. So, on the way home Mark asked him why we told him to obey us.

“Because you wuv me.”

Mark’s heart melted!

Facebooktwittermail