Not Me Monday - 22nd Edition

This weeks edition of Not Me Monday is being served up with a cherry on top. But first the housekeeping portion of the post:

This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

But before you head off to read other NotMe posts, BrotherBear and SisterBear want to share their ice cream sundaes with you.


Isn't that sweet of them? It wasn't at all strange to be eating ice cream sundaes as a family this week. Not one bit! I haven't been eating ice cream almost nightly since my birthday 3 weeks ago. I don't wait until the kids are asleep so I can enjoy my favorite food in peace. Not Me!

Speaking of sweet...

There were Valentine's cards/treats to be distributed this week and I for one, was all prepared. I took pictures of the kids with enough time to create cards so they would be ready to hand out to Julia's teachers and for Sam's class party.

When I was caught without treats for the kids at Julia's school, I decided I would not be that mom two days later at Sam's school. I'm 32 years old. I don't crumble under peer pressure. Not me!

See these cute "Owl Love You Forever" bags? All the kids in Sam's class got those. I did not run out half way through his list of names. Nope. I pay close attention to that sort of thing when I'm out guilt shopping so I don't have to put random stickers on ZipLock bags for half the class. It's the chocolate inside that counts right?

We did not take advantage of the extra treats in the house and use them as a little bribe to encourage Julia to go to sleep the first night she went to bed without her pacifiers. Not us! I posted about it being time to ditch the paci, but afterwards realized my heart wasn't in it. By bedtime, though, I was back on board and decided to give it a try since she didn't nap and should have been really tired. I dug around the playroom for stuffed animals she hadn't slept with in a while and made a big deal about her taking care of them. I did not lie to my daughter about her 'missing' paci's. Nope. I told her the truth that I had tucked them in the book basket where she wouldn't find them. I never would tell her they were lost and then distract her by having her look under her bed for them. Put some of the blame on her for not being able to find them? Never! I've been through this before with Sam and totally knew what I was doing. Fly by the seat of my pants? Not a chance!

For the record: She's taking a little longer to fall asleep, but only cried a little bit the first night. She tucks her Pooh, Pound Puppy, and Hippo under the covers and reads 5-6 books before going to sleep. Of course my video monitor chose this week to konk out so I can't SEE what she's doing in her bed, I can only hear her on the sound monitor.

I'll leave you with one more dose of sweetness...My daughter picking her nose posing like an angel in her Valentine's Dress - a dress that is not a 5 T sundress that fits her almost perfectly.

Now be a sweatheart and let me know you stopped by so I can return the favor....

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm off helping MckMama with a wedding today, but I promised to post the final pictures from the mini Valentine's shoot I did with the kids the other day.

Julia took a couple of her cards to school to give to her teachers this past Tuesday and much to my embarrassment, many of her classmates had brought cards/treats to share with all the kids. Oops!



I wasn't going to let Sam show up at school with just his cards for his party on Thursday. I picked up candy and bags at Target and over the next few days we assembled them. I stayed at school to help the kids distribute their cards and to spend some extra time with Sam during play time (Things are tough with PapaBear out of work, but we aren't going to waste a moment of the extra time we get with the kids because of it). As it turns out, Sam was the only one who gave chocolates. We've never had so many suckers and SweetTarts in the house at one time! One little girl gave HUGE, twisty suckers with a stuffed animal wrapped around the stick - to 18 kids!



In the end, I was content with what we did, Sam learned about giving to others and not keeping the candy for himself. He got lots of practice writing his name too. To take the attention off of myself for succumbing to peer pressure, take a look at these cute dinosaur Valentine's that Hilary and Isaac made for his classmates.


Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

1 John 4:7-10
Dear Friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God - for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

We saved a spot just for you!

Happy Valentine's Day!


This is what the kid's Valentines look like this year (with a cute Walgreens border), but now that we are all sick, I don't recommend stopping by to claim your spot. Sam called for me at 5 this morning and because I was too tired to care I just let him come into our bed. Brian was gone already and I just wanted to get back to sleep asap and avoid waking Julia. Within 30 seconds of being in our bed he started making that telltale vomiting sound. In one swift move I grabbed the bowl next to the bed and got it into position just in the nick of time. That's when I noticed that it wasn't 5am, but barely midnight. If I had seen the clock correctly I would have been changing Sam's sheets instead of rinsing out a bowl. I wouldn't have let him come in our room that early, but obviously I'm glad I did. Julia slept straight through the night again (even though she'd soaked through her jammies and sleepsack) so I was able to get some decent sleep - as decent as it can be with two feet in the small of my back. Somehow Sam turned sideways on our bed. My biggest concerns today include: how Brian will get any sleep when he returns from a night of plowing, how to keep us hydrated now that our symptoms include diarrhea, how to keep my milk supply up when I can't eat much, and how to survive in a house that is getting messier by the second. I guess I'll just look on the bright side - I won't gain extra weight today since I can't eat chocolate.