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Seriously. Sometimes I have nothing really to say.

Blew another tire on the Pilot today. That's 3 tires (2 on the Pilot, one on the Sonata) in about 3 months. I could junk punch someone for that.

Been uuber tired lately. (No, Leslie, I'm not pregnant) I hate being tired. I'm a less than great everything when I'm tired. Wife, mom, instructor, human. I need to figure out what that's about but I'm resisting the urge to google it lest I desire finding out 400 ways I'm going to die by Halloween.

That's it, I'm a real hoot of a good time.

Tariku

I've been meaning to write this post for awhile. I realized that I haven't really written about his personality much even though he reveals it more and more every day. I want to remember what he was like at this age as I'm sure it will continue to change and blossom as he gets older.

I know there are a few people out there right now, adoptive moms, wondering if the "babysitting" phase of adoption ever ends. Will it ever feel less like babysitting and more like love? The answer is yes! Though I still definitely have times when I'm checking the door to see who let this kid in, most of the times I wonder how in the world he has only been in our family for such a short time.

He is funny. He LOVES making people laugh, including himself. I will often put my rearview mirror down so I can watch him and Dailah playing in the backseat and it cracks me up how often he's just talking to himself or singing or dancing. He'll look up and notice I'm looking and hide his face and giggle.

He is the first person who gets up when I mention I need something. Today, under my breath, I said "Oh I forgot my phone upstairs". Before I even turned around from making dinner I hear, "Here, mommy," and he had it in his little hand. If I ask Trysten to let the dogs in, Tariku races to do it. If Dailah is asking for her pacifier, he's searching under couch cushions to get it. At first I thought it was an attachment thing. He wanted us to like him so that he could stay but I'm now pretty convinced that's just him. He really likes helping out in any way he can, which is quite refreshing. I have to constantly remind myself not to ask too much of him and just let him be a little boy once in awhile.

He still loves to eat but loves to eat S-L-O-W-L-Y. I can't believe it's the same kid who used to shovel an entire plate of doro wot and injera down in just a few minutes. He wants water, all day every day. His aim with bodily fluids is more accurate than anyone else living in this house (with the male chromosomes that is) which is shocking to remember where we started.

I honestly can't believe we got so lucky. We know we want to do it again but we're both very gunshy. How, in the world, could we get even close to this blessed? Not only is he hilarious, warm, caring, smart, athletic and generous but he is beeeeeeeautiful!

I love him, I really do. Even when I'm "just" babysitting. :)

Good Read

I'm reading "Three Cups of Tea" for our book club this month.

It's bad for a girl like me.

Gives me good ideas.

On that note, anyone have $12,000 laying around?

Wait until I tell you of our next project for our "orphan ministry". It will blow your mind.

And a Walk

We did more than work this weekend, we had some fun too!

Dailah slipped out of the house in her skivvies only and came back in with bug bites on almost every square inch of her body. A few of them she scratched so hard she bled.



On our walk down the Davenport bike path.



All my boys.



Doozie's favorite pasttime, pushing the stroller she's supposed to be in.



Dailah running from me when I told her she was going in "stroller time out". Nice.



Just hotflawedmama and her dogs.



Not a bad view.



The new (and slightly warmer) shoes than the crocs Dailah insists on wearing every moment of every day.



Look at these curtains my mom-in-law made! They are beeeautiful.



Don't you think this itty bitty window in Doozie's room is missing something? What do you think, Terre?

Pictures!

I know these are of no interest to you but their purpose is to make myself and my family feel good about ourselves. So oblige me.


The men in the backyard figuring out the tree from the STORM.



Amazing. Plus, dad fixed the fence so the 3 dogs can roam around as much as they please.



Little embarrasing here but this is my laundry room before, I know, SERIOUSLY.



And after, it's like extreme home makeover.



Again, I'm really going crazy here, the pantry before.



And, I could cry here, after.



Trysten "helping" paint the toy room (in all seriousness he wanted to help a lot but was not able to with the whole avoiding the carpet deal)



Stellar.



I don't have a shot of the kitchen before but the wall to the right and straight ahead, going up the stairs was not painted.



This might be the most amazing feat my mom pulled off. This is our store room and it was a DISASTER. After the floods, things were all rinsed in the middle of the room and wet and moldy and she tackled this. And organized it in the short hour and half I was at church today. The woman is quite the sight to behold!



The kids haven't had closet doors since we moved in. And I like it more with them.



My dad, with his large arsenal of tooling conquered Doozie's closet doors.

My Family..

Is awesome...

Today's items we checked off:

2 boys soccer games
1 lunch
1 kitchen painted
1 toy room painted
1 pantry shelved
1 laundry room shelved (and cleaned)
1 light fixture fixed
1 1/2 closet doors hung (one of them doesn't work real well)
Started work on chainsawing the crap (that's an actual form of measurement in our house) out of the tree that's still in our backyard from the STORM.

I mean seriously. My hubby, mom dad (and oh, ok, me) are amazing. When we get going, WE GET GOING. SERIOUSLY.

It's 9pm and I'm T minus 3 minutes from bedtime.

Pictures to come tomorrow.

One thought for the night...my parents deserve volunteers of the year for Camp Abe Lincoln. Seriously.

Not In Jail

I must say a big "thank you" to Amy. She sent me a few emails wondering if a) I had in fact punched the lady at Wal Mart and b) needed someone to post bail. Those would've been much better reasons to be absent from the blog world but in all reality it was merely Zach being gone for a few days, taking the beloved computer hostage. It was a happy reunion when I saw the Apple...I mean Zach walk into the door today. :)

What to say about this week? Well, we went to the dentist on Wednesday. I probably should've shot myself in the foot instead. Appointment was at 1, which is to say right in the middle of naptime and the appointment was for Trysten, Tariku and myself. But, the good news, Tariku is not 10. :) No, they said the birthdate given to him is probably pretty close to his actual age which is a relief. I'll be honest I wouldn't have been at all surprised to hear that he was 10. Why? Because he is incredibly smart and his fine motor skills are so advanced I'm both proud (can we say supreme athlete?) and freaked out. But alas, he's just a rockin' cool 3ish-year-old which is infinitely better than a 10-year-old in a 4-year-old's body.

Yesterday a reporter in our local paper called to ask if I would be on a panel for the ex-Governor's wife. Not sure what exactly about but the reporter said I would just talk about how my family came to be and that's something I know a little about. (The sperm met the egg...I knew our son was in Ethiopia). The reporter said she picked me because she had taken my Bodypump class before and knew I was, "a dynamo, good talker and a mom". I know for certain I'm one of those, one I fancy myself being and the other I have no idea what to think of. Flattering either way, I figure there are worse audiences for the story of Klipsch. Hope Mrs. Vilsack finds hotflawedmama and crew as interesting as you fine folks do. :)

This weekend my wonderful parents came to the house with the sole goal of finishing my "daddy do" list. It's fairly large so I'm not quite sure they knew what they got themselves into. Either way, you might not hear from me seeings I gave myself a hefty list as well.

So, if you're keeping score, I am not in jail. I am still mad at fake-nails-Wal Mart-employee but will not be going back to seek revenge. If I do go to jail I'll have guest blogger make sure you all know so donations can be pouring in to bust me out. Thanks for your kindness. :)

I Almost Punched Someone...

at Wal Mart. I seriously think this is God's way of reiterating why I should never go there.

Long story but the checkout lady was less than nice and, as I felt my face tighten and noticed myself breathing irregularly, I knew I (and by "I" I mean "she") was in trouble. So my sister was kind enough to distract my kids as I tried VERY hard not to junk punch the lady.

I didn't. But it did require a trip to customer service where, unfortunately for her, I found out I workout with the manager. I hope she now knows what it feels to be COMPLETELY disrespected. :) (Ok so not really but something like that).

Must Be Said

Since most of my friends have the displeasure of being Cardinals fans, I must state the obvious:

HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES?

It was a great weekend to be a Cub fan.

And I almost forgot to tell one of my most favorite details of the weekend.

Since our tire blew on the way to Chi-town, we had to find a place up there to get it fixed. We stumbled upon a little shop called Sidney's Tire Shop where the sign out front said, "Tires on sale today!" We thought it was a definite sign.

So in we walk, right into a Seinfeld episode.

The place was literally FULL of tires. There was no desk up front to greet guests, only tires. One had to turn sideways to find the guy "Zaya" that was there. Tires, tires everywhere. The only place that there weren't any tires was in the far back where Zaya was busy blowing up our new tire that he found about 5 rows deep. He asked us to bring the car around and told us he would put it on for us and blow up the rest of the tires. As I looked around the place to take it all in I noticed the one thing that was there to "entertain" the patrons. One of those computer gambling deals with naked women. Classic, I felt entertained immediately. And what was the grand total?

$35.

It was a steal and I would recommend our pal Zaya to anyone.

The Weekend

Was awesome. It was just what the doctor ordered, and as my husband said, makes me believe we can stay married another year. :) Seriously, we had a lot of fun and we did remarkably very little. Turns out we still get along famously even when there's nothing to do. Here are the few pics to capture the weekend.

The two of us at the game. It was self-shot because I didn't feel asking the woman in front of us who, despite us sitting in the second to last seats in the place, still yelled as if Derek Lee would actually hear her. Nor did I feel like asking the woman who kept throwing peanut shells down the back of my pants when I leaned forward. MMmmm the cheap seats.



This was the view from our seats. We were literally the second to last row from the top. My nose was thisclose to bleeding.



We decided after the Cubs were losing by 20 or so to just walk around. We got down as far as the elderly security guards would let us and just did some hot laps so we could get a good look at the game. Much better down here.



My bro-in-law, Jake's, favorite baseball player Ryne Sandberg singing the seventh inning stretch. We were one day away from Vince Vaughn, I personally felt cheated.



Saturday morning we went on a walk around Kait's place where we found a great antique shop. I loved all the old hats and purses but it turns out my head is about 4 times bigger than anyone in the 1920s, which was most unfortunate.



For Saturday's game we decided to just do some bar hopping in Wrigleyville, we witnessed the big "W" at this bar that had an outside patio. It was lovely.



Our most beautiful hostess.



On our way home I was driving and Zach was fiddling with the McD's cup as usual. Not thinking much of it, I was flattered when he presented me with this little creation. A rose to remember the weekend. He is too much.



And the rose from another angle. Talent, sheer talent.



The kids are home from my parents house and the reunion was awesome. I missed them so much. It was Tariku's first time away from us overnight and he did wonderfully. I was so giddy to see them and they did not disappoint. Love them.

Cubs...What?

Seriously.

We had a great day so far, at the Cubs game (I mean, really, what in the world happened to them?) and hanging out with my sister-in-law.

I have pictures but turns out without kids, there isn't a whole heckuva lot to take pictures of. We've been doing a lot of sitting around and talking. I actually go to the bathroom without having to double check that 3 other humans have went within the last 10 minutes.

It's been good...and relaxing.

But I'd be completely lying if I didn't say I TOTALLY missed kissing 3 humans goodnight tonight. Love them.

En Route

We were on the road to Chicago today and then this...




But it was okay seeings this was my view at the time.

Next Project

I'm sure most of you have checked Jody's blog already, I admit I'm a bit slow going. If you haven't, you should because she explains what I'm about to, much better than I do. But here I go anyway because people like my mom are always so proud to see me write so good. :)

So you remember me telling you about the orphan ministry we were staring in our church right? And you remember our first ever project was raising money for Plumpy'nut and that we raised $4,100 right? So here's our second project, one that seems to be catching like wildfire and is already doing so well (because of generous people like you) even though the idea has been out in the public for less than a week.

What our plan is, basically, to do one month specifically for international orphans and the next month we'll bring it local. Last month was Ethiopia, this month...Muscatine, Iowa, baby.

A few people who make up the group are foster care parents and I cannot say enough about them changing so much of my perspective on the whole foster care issue. One in particular, I have so much respect and admiration for there are just simply no words. So when we were brainstorming she came up with a brilliant idea...you ready for it?

WE ARE COLLECTING BACKPACKS, PJ'S, TOOTHBRUSHES and STUFFED ANIMALS.

For those that don't know, when a child gets separated from family (I apologize in advance if I use any non-PC verbage, I'm not real familiar here) the police officer typically grabs a trash bag in the trunk and fills it with a few sparse items of the child's. We were soooo not okay with what that implicitly (and explicitly in some cases) tells the child about their self worth. We believe every child deserves something that is truly their own; but perhaps we wanted to tell them a little something.

We don't know you, but we love you. We care. We think you are worth so, so much more.

You were born for better and you a prized, beautiful person.

And in a culture like ours, what better way to do it (and how else would you do it for as many people as possible?) then to buy them new things. :) (That's somewhat sarcastic, obviously)

But go to Jody's blog (I linked the actual post above) and check out the video and straight goodness she writes about it.

Interested in helping? Either send money and I'll buy stuff for you OR pick up any of the above items (I'm responsible for buying 5t pajamas both male and female) and send/drop off.

I'm getting wordy now but seriously. I'm so passionate about these little people who have no idea that they were created by a God that loves them more than words can say and this world has no idea how to treat something so precious.

It's up to us. Now you know. Can you, in good conscience, not do anything?

Gloriously ruined, right? Thanks in advance.

I'm a Bad Mom

Period. End of sentence.

This tooth fairy forgot.

I had to watch my son's face fall when he saw his tooth in the box and not a dollar that would buy him some gum.

So tonight instead of $1 there is $2.

I'm a bad, bad person. The end.

Another One Bites the Dust

5-years-old and 2 teeth are gonie. Fairly impressive. Here is the sequence of events:

Daddy checking the readiness of the tooth.



Daddy letting Trysten wiggle a bit more before the actual pulling.



And voila! That is one large hole in my baby's mouth.



Another process I worked on today. Tortellini. See, it's Zach's favorite and since I still felt bad about a real lack of celebration for his birthday, I did the process for him. I started it at 3 and finished it at 7. Also made from Alfredo sauce as well. Overall I must say it was worth it but I'll probably be buying the frozen kind for everyday purposes.


Before



And after



And now taking requests...

Happy Birthday, Hubby!

'Tis my hubby's birthday today. The big 2-7.

I love birthdays and was sad I couldn't go all out today. Will make up for it in Chicago.

For those that don't know this man, the world was made a MUCH better place 27 years ago and I will forever thank Terre for birthing him and for Frank for doing his part. :)

Seriously though, the man is my rock. He is my beloved. He is the most amazing, inspirational man. I look at journal entries before and after I met him and I can't believe how much of a great impact he has made on me (obviously I'm awesomer..what?)

His love for anything and everything is boundless and his patience with me and my sometimes annoying ways is quite unfathomable. But he shows his love better and more than any man I know and makes me constantly remember why I married him and why I fall for him more every day.

And beyond that, isn't he just dreamy?



Couldn't help herself when she saw the Oreos and do we blame her?



And some minestrone.



Puddin'.



Too precious.



And Oliver.



Daddy was a big hit on his birthday.



My eldest angel.



Don't let Leslie's good nature fool you, she saw this uneaten canoli and had to take it home...in a napkin...stuffed in her cute purse. Love her for it.

Plumpy'Nut

So remember those posts about how our Orphan Ministry was raising money for Plumpy'Nut? Well yesterday we had our meeting to tally the amount and you won't believe it, but...

$4100

SERIOUSLY.

Clearly people got behind this "little" project. Clearly people care. Those few of us (I think total there were about 6 people actively fundraising) had stories to tell. Of people who had been looking for something like this, just waiting for it to fall in their laps. And there it was.

We found out that it takes about 3-4 weeks of P'nut to turn Ethiopian children's lives around. After a little math from Jody, we calculated that our totals will help to save 91 kids.

91 children. 91 Tariku's.

91

91 mothers who were mentally preparing themselves for a burial get a new lease on life for their precious babies.

That counts.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Mmmhmmm

Productive day today.

Had Kindergarten physical for Trysten. Shots for Tariku.

Came home and cleaned for the better part of the afternoon. Wiped walls, cleaned fans, mopped floors. Stuff that's not part of my weekly routine. I even sprayed some febreeze on the couches (a certain sister's dog of mine enjoys jumping on the couches and has a small problem controlling drool). So it was kind of a big day.

Tomorrow is my favorite hubby's birthday. Typically I enjoy going all out but we're saving the all out-ness for this weekend when we head to Chicago.

My body is so tired my fingernails hurt. I just love cleaning.

And what was I doing? Reading the new People. What can I say?



I've always thought Trysten has his daddy's perfectly bowed, pink lips. This proved true after a little sucker.



Couldn't resist.