Hot Topic Tuesday

 

I’m getting on a soap box today, bear with me!

2 things are bugging me. One is this whole “ ‘Merica” thing.  How damn lazy are we?  All of a sudden we can’t add a single syllable to the beginning and say the name of our country??  So in 100 years our great grandkids will be telling their kids “Back in the old days they called our country ‘America’.  And in the old *old* days it was printed on maps as ‘The United States of America’. Isn’t that funny?”  Come on folks!  This really bothers me. 

Next - hazing.  I despise hazing.  I don’t get it.  It’s not cute. It’s not funny.  It’s not nice.  It’s abuse and bullying.  And when we hear time and time again about these poor innocent people who are killed because of a hazing incident it just makes my blood boil.  There was a story about one such incident on the news last night and they said the individuals involved *might* get charged with murder.  “Good” is what I thought.  They need to be punished for doing that to the poor kid.  It was a form of torture and if it had happened outside of a fraternity there wouldn’t be any question about whether the parties involved would be charged or not.  Book ‘em.

Ok, off my soap box.  Sorry, friends, had to get that off my chest!

What are your Hot Topics today?

Erin

4th of July Weekend

 

First things first, time to announce the winner of the Charlibebe Gift Certificate!  My super sweet friend with the adorable baby Adley, Shelli, won!!!!  Congrats, Shelli! Thanks to all who entered the giveaway!

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How was everyone’s holiday weekend?  We had a great one! Andy took off Thursday to take the boys golfing so we had a nice, long 4 day weekend together. 

Friday, the 4th, wasn’t a busy FUN day.  We hit up yet another parade, our last of the summer.  Andy’s folks came back here after for lunch.  I quickly whipped together some pork burgers and baked beans, and then pulled out the tub of cottage cheese and a bag of chips to go with it.  Dessert was Peach Upside Down Cake – so so yummy!  That evening we went to my Grandma’s for supper with the big family, then we all headed over to my aunt and uncle’s to watch the fireworks at the fairgrounds.  Little Tater Tot loved them once again!  I remember sitting there watching the fireworks with so much of our family all around us and was thinking about how perfect it was, how lucky I was to have my boys, my husband, my parents, my aunts, uncles and cousin’s around me, watching the fireworks and enjoying our freedom together.  It was pure bliss.

Saturday was a funny day.  It was cool for this time of year (low 60’s) and rained all morning long.  We didn’t do much of anything.  It was kind of nice to have a lazy day.  Andy fixed the toilet in the basement, I went through some stuff and filled a sack of old shoes and clothes to take to Goodwill.  Cleaned a tiny bit.  But mostly we were just lazy and watched some Wimbledon on TV.

Sunday we went to my folk’s house for lunch and for me to cut my dad’s hair.  We stopped in town at the nursery and picked up some more plants, came home and planted those.  Also mowed the lawn, trimmed and pulled some weeds.  We dinked around the house a little more, went for a bike ride with the boys, cleaned some and then crashed! 

It was a great weekend and I somehow didn’t take any pictures to commemorate it!  The only pic I took I posted on IG – it was of poor Tate snuggling with me Saturday afternoon because he wasn’t feel very well.  Not sure if it was teeth, tummy or just a busy 4th of July.  Either way he’s feeling all better now.

Have a great Monday, talk soon!

My Random Thoughts

 

It’s less than 6 months from Christmas and holy cow do I need to get started with my shopping!

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While mowing last night in the barely 60 degree weather I had a sudden urge to go Back To School shopping and to wear a plaid skirt (you know, like a uniform).

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Yesterday I realized that school starts for us 7 weeks from yesterday.  Which calculates to 49 days. Which calculates to panic mode.

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Why does a 3rd grader need 28 pencils?

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I made chili for supper last night.  It was awesome.  When we get a cool day in the middle of the summer I jump on the opportunity to do ‘cool weather things’, like wear jeans and make chili. It makes me happy.

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Someday I’d like to buy a giant RV, a.k.a. Camper, and go touring around the U.S. with Andy.  We’ll just pull into a campground for the night, or maybe we’ll like it there enough to stay for a few days.  We’ll get out and about, maybe go to a few antique stores in the particular town, find a neat dive to eat supper in, go for a stroll along a trail or water front.  You know, act like we don’t have a care in the world, don’t have any responsibilities weighing us down.  Some day…

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Don’t forget to sign up for the giveaway to Charlibebe’s Etsy shop.  Running through Sunday!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Have a Happy 4th of July!  Be safe and see you back here Monday!

Charlibebe

 

Have you all seen those sweet, adorable ribbon sandals for baby girls?  They have the big fluffy flower on top?  I die every time I see them!  Well, I wanted something cute like that for Tate, minus the pink and the flower, so I went on to Etsy determined to figure out how that darn site works and to get my little man something for his tootsie toes.

I found Caroline’s shop called ‘Charlibebe’.  She had cute little boy ribbon sandals, exactly what I was looking for!  She custom makes them so in the comment section I told her exactly what I was looking for: brown or tan ribbon with a football.  She emailed me back right away and said she didn’t have those colors of ribbon but how about cream?  Then she took pics of the ribbon choices with the little footballs on top so I could see exactly what I would be getting. It made picking so much easier!  We emailed back and forth a couple more times then I got the email stating my sandals were made and on their way!  I had the 2 days later!  Wow, quick!!! 

Caroline was so dang easy to work with!  And so sweet!  I had ordered size 12-24mo because we all know Tater is a chubby little baby.  I was worried they’d be too big so that was one thing I mentioned to her. She had me measure around his ankle and send her that number.  She replied right away, and I thought this was so sweet, she said “you’ll be happy to know he is in the 6-12mo range!”  Ha ha, how cute! 

Here is Tate modeling his new sandals.

And here are some of her other designs:

I begged Caroline to team up with me to do a giveaway to her shop and she agreed!  She is giving a $10 shopping spree to her shop to one lucky winner!  Just enter the Rafflecopter below to get signed up!  Do you have a baby or a friend who’s pregnant?  Do you know of a charity who’s having an auction that you could donate these to?  Think outside of the box, I know you don’t all have babies right now but you have to know someone who would adore these little sandals for their Bebe!  The giveaway is live through Sunday, winner will be announced on Monday!

Go check out Caroline’s Etsy shop HERE, she’s running a special if you enter SUMMERTIMEFUN, you’ll get 10% off your order!  She has more than just the barefoot sandals, too. She has headbands and tutu’s that are too too cute! 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

10 Things I Learned About Boys

 

Friday night Aiden had 2 boys over to spend the night in celebration of his 8th birthday.  I would be lying if I didn’t say I had a bit of a nervous stomach most of that day thinking of all the craziness I was about to get myself in to.  I knew Andy could handle it, he is, after all, a boy.  But me?  The resident girly girl around here?  Oh boy, was I about to get an education.

1. Boys don’t give a hoot about hygiene.  When I suggested they brush their teeth before bed they all gave me a blank look.  What? No one brought a toothbrush?  Not more than a week ago Aiden went to stay the night with a friend and you know darn well I packed *him* a toothbrush!  Now I’m wondering, did he use it?
2. They don’t mind sleeping in their dirty clothes.  I went down to the basement where they were camping out for the night and noticed they were all in their clothes still. Well, the night was young, figured they’d do it before they called it a night.  The next morning when they came up for breakfast they were still in their dirty clothes from the day before.  Ew!
3. They sing along to songs on the radio like girls do.  Say what?!?  Now that one REALLY surprised me!  I restrained myself from jumping in and singing along. Didn’t want to be *that* mom.
4. If you plan on them eating you out of house and home they barely eat anything.  If you don’t plan on it they will start gnawing on the woodwork.
5. They will climb on ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.  We went to the park to burn off energy and eat pizza (hey, why not make the mess there instead of here?) and they were climbing on the equipment (ok, that makes sense), the picnic tables (why?) and the lion statue that has a water fountain in it’s mouth (get down!).
6. “Let’s take a picture” translates to ‘pose and make a funny face’.  No nice pictures at this party.
7. It doesn’t matter how old the gaming system, they will play it all night long!  The $5 we paid for that old Play Station at a garage sale was money well spent!  They didn’t even ask to play the newer Wii.
8. Boys are pretty low maintenance when it comes to where and how they are sleeping.  Throw them a pillow and some blankets and they are set – in front of the TV, on the bedroom floor, down in the freezing cold basement – wherever!
9. They like sugar and lots of it.  Both boys gave Aiden candy in his gifts.  I made sure to return the favor to the parents by having those boys eat as much of that candy as possible…within reason, of course.  No one went home with a tummy ache!
10. Boys are much quieter the next morning after having stayed up past midnight the night before!  It was a much different drive in the car on the way home than when we had picked them up Friday evening. 

Somehow I survived the chaos.  Aiden and the boys had a great time.  And my house survived, too!  I think Aiden’s first slumber party (are they still called that?) was a success!  So different than mine as a kid.  All we needed was snacks (easy cheese, Chicken in a Biscuit crackers and Mt Dew) and a curling iron and we were happy!  Oh, and toothbrushes, ha!