A Little Bit of Heaven

The Sundberg's (minus Bill) got to visit us this past week and it was heaven. We had so much playing and catching up. I have more to post but Roman is crying so better run. Enjoy the pics!

K, I'm finally back! It was really Heaven having the Sundbergs here. They are our best friends and we were neighbors for 4 great years...sadly, they've moved to Utah. We are desperately scheming to be neighbors again. Allie and Heidi have been best friends since they were just a few months old. We were always taking them to COSI, the Zoo, and parks together. We swapped babysitting and just loved hanging out together. We even have a picture of the girls in their carseats (facing backwards) with red screaming faces! It cracks me up still. Then along came Thomas and Kate, Shannon and I wore our Baby Bjorn's w/ those two cuties all over Columbus. Now that we've added Jane and Roman to the mix we are quite a sight. As we were taking the kids to Build-a-Bear, an older couple was walking around the mall for exercise. The man stopped and said, "Now there are two brave ladies!" We laughed.

So for those of you who haven't been lucky enough to get to know Shannon, you are seriously missing out. She is the most genuinely thoughtful person I've ever met. She inspires me to be a better person. I told Darin that I liked myself better when Shannon lived here because she set such a great example for me. I've since realized that I'm not that great of a friend...I just sit at home taking care of my own family when I should be better at helping my friends! So sorry guys--I'll try to do better! (Sorry this post is now sounding like a pity-fest!!! Not meant to be!) Since the Sundberg's have left my kids still tell me how much they miss them every day.

We can't wait to see the Sundbergs again!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I made this video for Darin two years ago and just remembered that I had it. I hope you have a Verrrry Happy Valentine's Day!

Reality

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all the nice comments everyone left last week after I shamelessly admitted to my love of comments. Truly what I love is that having a blog allows me to keep in contact with dear friends whom I might not have been able to otherwise. It's so fun to see everyone's families growing and doing exciting things. I have to laugh because blog world vs. reality are very different. In blog world all families are so happy and shiny, even when reminicising about cleaning up throw-up earlier in the week we seem to find the laughter in it...reality is that yes, throw-up has to be cleaned up and the smell is very real. So while I love the idea of looking like the perfect family, I thought I would throw a dose of reality out there this week. So here it goes... I'm not always so nice to Polly Pocket. This week I put her and all of her friends in time-out. It seemed that she was getting my girls into trouble. They were supposed to clean up the basement but alas she kept talking my girls into playing "a little longer"....so she was grounded for the week along with all of the other toys. Yep, I'm a mean mom! After what seemed to be hours of begging them to clean up I finally realized that Polly had to go. So Allie and Kate cried their goodbyes as I scooped up all the toys and put them away for the week. The entire time I was thinking to myself, "Should I really be doing this? I'm only punishing myself. I'm going to have to entertain them at all hours for an entire week. How's that going to happen? I'm going to loose my sanity!" So I backtracked a tiny bit and let them choose one small toy (and they chose the most random things but oh well)....they have definitely learned their lesson as have I. I'm so looking forward to Monday, woohoo Polly will be back!

So, something fun happend to me this week too. I got tagged for the first time. My cute sis-in-law Katherine posted this on her blog and then tagged me at the end. So here's how it works. I have to answer the following questions and then tag three more people...whose names will only be revealed at the end of my post.

What is your spouses name? Darin
How long have you been together? Since the fall of 1997!!! This summer we'll celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary!
Who eats more? That depends...most of the time it's him.
Who said 'I Love You' first? awww, fond memory. I have to say that was me..but he quickly said it back. LOL K, now Darin is questioning this and thinks it's him. The most important thing is who says it most now...and we're tied!
Who is taller? Darin
Who is smarter? Yikes...definitely Darin who is in the 26th grade. (i think) BUT I am more creative.
Who does the laundry? me
Who does the dishes? mostly me but he doesn't mind helping out when he doesn't have exams to study for.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? grrrr....Darin does. I don't like to sleep closest to the door but he tricked me into giving him that side of the bed.
Who pays the bills? Darin does, and he does a fabulous job.
Who mows the lawn? I don't know his name but it's usually a Mexican who rarely makes eye contact with us. (lawn service since we live in a condo.)
Who cooks dinner? I do but I don't do a great job at it.
Who drives when you are together? Darin...so glad he does too.
Who is more stubborn? Good question. I don't think either of us is terribly stubborn. I think I'm probably more of a pushover than he is...but he's not that stubborn either.
Who kissed who first? Darin kissed me first.
Who asked who out first? Darin asked me. It's a great story b/c it was so meant to be. I won't go into all the details but he had the phone number to my old condo and called when I happened to be there visiting...I was so confused as to how he knew I was there but he never knew I moved. I hope that made sense. I had NO idea he was even interested in me until that exact minute!
Who proposed? Darin did...also a great story that you should ask me about sometime.
Who has more siblings? I do - there are 11 in my family and 8 in his, crazy I know. I have 8 sisters and two brothers, he has 7 sisters...nope, neither of us have step-siblings.
Who wears the pants? I will copy Katherine's comment on this on: This is a risky one to answer. . .I think we both have our moments.
So I'm going to tag Jill, Caroline if she is feeling up to it (just had a baby), and Jessica N. and anyone else who has never been tagged!