Why?

Why is it so hard to find the "want" to clean this house on the weekends. We start the week with a clean house, and let me tell you, by Friday this place is a pit. This weekend I just don't have it in me.

I'll let you know tomorrow if my house has maintained its pit status.

I stole this from Kate. Mine isn't nearly as entertaining, but here goes:

The Game of Tag about your MAN:

Who is your man? John

How long have you been together? 17 years I think, dated 6, married 11. Yep, 17..

How long did you date? 6 years.

How old is your man? 30 something....

Who eats more? WE both eat WAY more than our share.

Who said "I love you" first? No doubt he did. I'm not that naive..

Who is taller? He is. But I'm WAYYY cuter!! :)

Who sings better? neither

Who is smarter? He is..book smarts anyways.

Whose temper is worse? Mine, I got this one nailed!

Who does the laundry? Me, unfortunately. Trust me, if I ever have a son, I WILL teach him to do laundry. His wife will thank me.

Who takes out the garbage? He does. But I tell him to. So I do my part in this task.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does.

Who pays the bills? I pay the bills with our money.

Who is better with the computer? HIM!

Who mows the lawn? Our lawn service.

Who cooks dinner? We both do, but John is more consistent.

Who drives when you are together? Usually him, but since I received my company car, I do a lot more of the driving.

Who pays when you go out? I usually get out the debit card for our JOINT account. So I guess we both do.

Who is most stubborn? He is pretty darn stubborn, but I give him a run for his money!

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? We are never wrong. We live in a house full of rights. (LOVE this Kate!)

Whose parents do you see the most? Probably mine since they come more often.

Who asked who out? He asked me out, of course.

Who proposed? He did.


Who wears the pants in the family? I do. Of course I do. But he would say "Whatever"..but that is because he is stubborn.

Easter

Easter was a perfect day for the Wahl household! We went to church, obviously, and then came home and RELAXED!! We stayed home this year, no traveling to Windthorst or Wichita Falls for us. Nope, we watched movies, ate hot dogs, and just hung out as a perfect little family. Here is Ava's Easter pic, dress courtesy of, yep, AVON!! Necklace, AVON!!

Easter Egg Hunt

I decided to get the C-Stone Cove street together for an egg hunt this year. There are so many great kids on the cove and I wanted to do something fun with them all without having to participate in the huge City egg hunt..yes, call me unsocial OR call me THAT mom who refuses to bring more City candy/crap into my house...if it was good candy I'd be all over a CIty egg hunt...



Ohh..I forgot..Ava did participate in the City egg hunt. My neighbors Kevin and Sherry took her with their kids.

Happy Anniversary!!

Yep, 11 years!! I know, right?!?! Who would have thought John would continue to put up with my nonsense, my spending, my attitude, my lack of laundry abilities.... ok, I know how to do laundry, I just choose NOT to do laundry. We spent our day at the soccer fields watching Ava run up and down the field yelling WHOO HOOO for no reason!!! Then we went to dinner at Texas Land and Cattle. The best part of the day was my DIAMOND EARRINGS!! Oh yeah baby! I'll post a pic so you can be jealous!!

Good job Girl!

Tonight I was playing basketball on the wii and was trying to beat my high score. Ava was watching me. Every time I scored points, she jumped up and yelled, "Good Job, Girl!!!" She says the best things!

Alaska Cruise-Better Late than Never!!! Part 1

My family took an Alaskan Cruise for our big vacation this year. My parents, my sister Becky and her husband Doug, John, Ava and I were all in attendance. We left May 12th, and we were all SO EXCITED to get the trip going. It took about an hour for all of us to check in for our flight only to find out that the plane we were taking to Vancouver via Phoenix was have engine issues. We were informed of this while I was trying to check my family in, and after my parents and my sister had already checked their luggage...SO, we had to find a new flight because now our Phoenix flight was delayed which meant we would miss our connecting flight to Vancouver. We all finally got on an Alaskan Air flight to Seattle with connecting flight to Vancouver. We were assured that all the luggage from Airline 1 would be taken off plane number 1 and placed on our new Alaskan Air flight. Why do I tell you all of this?

(Ava's first flight ever to Seattle, Age 4. My first flight was to Seattle, Age 20)

Because my sister's suitcase with her wardrobe for the ENTIRE CRUISE did not get placed on the right flight. We find this out at 12:30am in Vancouver, when every airport in the Western Hemisphere is closed. We were told we would have to wait until later in the morning to try and locate her suitcase. My sister was in TEARS.
(Doug and Ava in Seattle. SHE LOVES THAT DOUG DOUG!!)

With nothing else to do til morning, we headed off to the hotel to catch some sleep. Later, around 8am, my sister contacted the airlines to see if the luggage showed up...only to be told they could not locate her luggage on the worldwide luggage finder. They took her number and told her they would contact her if anything came up. Well, the cruise left the docks at 5pm...things aren't looking so good.

We catch our bus to the cruise terminal at 11am, and then Becky calls the airlines again because she is, of course, frantic to have her luggage. Same story. So basically, the only clothes my sister has to wear are jeans, a t shirt, shoes, and whatever she has beneath those clothes. UH oh... The airlines tell her she has $25 a day (with a limit of I think $250) to spend until the luggage is found. What the heck can $25 a day buy you when you need clothes for 10 days? UGHH

SO, LUCKILY, the cruise terminal is located within a few blocks from what has to be Canada's most expensive shopping mall. Becky, Doug and I head off to get her clothes. We spot an American Eagle, so off she goes to spend about $300 for a few shirts, a hoodie--because HELLO, we are going to ALASKA--a pair of jeans..and I head off to find her some underwear. I spot a Sears and think, cheaper than VS right, so I go spend about $80 on those necessities. All the while I am thinking, why can't WalMart be next to the cruise terminal??

We finish shopping for clothes and head to the CVS type store to get her toiletries. While standing on the toothpaste aisle her phone rings--THEY FOUND HER LUGGAGE and was heading to the cruise terminal!! You should have seen her dance! If only they could have found it a few hours before we spent $400 dollars; we didn't have time to return any of it. We race to the cruise ship, because now it is 4:15 and decide the first thing we are doing when we check in is get a DRINK!!
BTW, Vancouver is BEAUTIFUL!!

Ava and Lilli

Today we met up with one of Ava's Primrose friends for some yogurt and laughs. Lilli left Primrose about a month ago. Her mom emailed me to ask Ava for a playdate because Lilli has been saying she lost her best friend Ava. I thought that was sweet.

If you have a Yogurt Story near you, GO!! It is awesome!

Ava's Father's Day Questionnaire

I really love it when my daddy kisses me.

My dad likes to play with me.

My dad always tells me to quit licking him. (She goes in for the kiss and licks instead. It makes him sooo mad.)

The best thing he does is play instruments.

It makes him happy when he eats pizza.

My dad loves to relax on the boat.

The best thing he cooks is dinner.

When my dad shops he likes to buy pudding.

My dad’s favorite household chore is the vacuum.

My dad’s favorite TV show is news.

If he could go on a trip, he would go to a big giant boat.

I love my dad because he gives me kisses.

My favorite thing to do with daddy is play bowling.

Ava's Favorite Things

I asked Ava to show me her favorite things in the house. Amazingly enough, her favorite things were all over the house, which suprised me. Here is what she came up with.

First she said she loves all her clothes. She can't live without those. And also her shoes, mainly her pick shoes and flip flops. This is only about a quarter of the shoes she has, but the idea was to get the pink shoes in the picture.

Next came all of her stuffed animals. If you ever think your kid has the most stuffed animals, come to my house. I think WE have the most stuffed animals, and for some reason, people keep buying them for her.

And of course we can't forget hippo! Silly Momma!

Next was where she keeps all her money!

And her very own junk drawer. This drawer is off limits to mom and dad. She is allowed to keep anything she wants in this drawer with the exception of food and live pets. She let me glimpse inside, and I can tell you her drawer contains all of her cds, some hotwheels cars, stupid party gift bag crap that I WANT TO THROW AWAY, and misc items that go to her kitchen.

We left her room and went to her bathroom. What could she possibly not live without in the bathroom you ask? These Avon bath paints are the best little invention ever. They are roll on soaps, and she LOVES them. And they are cheap!!

Soft soap? OK...
And her make up kit...the one thing I about killed my mom for. BUT, since my mom also introduced us to the Avon roll on paint, I let her slide. :)

Off to the office where she points out the digital arts studio. It's pretty cool and lets her have computer time.



In the living room she shows me her book of DVDs. Now obviously some of the dvds belong to us; we don't let her watch Supersize Me!!

In the kitchen she points out her massive jar of Smarties. She gets one treat every day after school. She also wanted me to photograph the gummy bears and marshmellows that are her snacks on the weekends, but that would have made me publish the clutterness that is my pantry right now.

And finally, she brought me to the front door, where I had my outside flip flops. She loves putting these on and hiding when she knows I'm about to go outside and get the mail. One day I spent 15 minutes looking for these shoes and couldn't find them anywhere. Why I looked 15 minutes I don't know, but later I realized Ava had them on while she was playing in the backyard. She told me she didn't have special outside only shoes. I think that was just her ploy to get some new flip flops.


Now she wants me to do a list of my favorite things. Hmm...we'll see about that.

Ava and Kenslie

I am SOOO FAR behind blogging. I will slowly get up to date. These next few pics were taken in April when Mom and Dad took Ava with them to see my brother and his family. Ava and Kenslie are 8 months apart and they LOVE each other! I wish we saw more of them; they only live 4 hours away. But can I tell you how hard it is to get schedules together? ARGGG....

Anyways, here are a few pics of the two beautiful girls doing what they do best--being princesses!!




Bethany is OCD and I can only imagine how much this mess drove her crazy! Hopefully Ava helped clean up. She tends to be good at that!





These next two pictures crack me up. Ava HATES to be crowded in bed. She likes space. But notice how Bethany made Ava her own special bed next to Kenslie's bed but Ava chose to sleep next to Kenslie. I think sometime during the night both girls ended up spread out on the floor. That bed was WAY to crowded!

I DO

Sixteen years ago today we went on our first date. Ten years ago today we got married. Either he is crazy, or he puts up with me, or he loves me. I think a lot of love, a LOT of putting up with me, and a hint of craziness.

Mom...Mom...Can I tell you a secret?

Mom, I want to wash the dishes ok?

PLEASE??

Me: Sure...

Ava: YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My interview with Ava

1. What is something mom always says to you?
To get away from the TV.

2. What makes mom happy?
when I smile

3. What makes mom sad?
like this...(she makes a sad face)

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
when you go Ha HA HA..( in a deep voice)

5. What was your mom like as a child?
probably...cute

6. How old is your mom?
54 (she said five four)

7. How tall is your mom?
big

8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV?
Wonder Pets

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
I think....watch TV

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
maybe being cute. (yep, that's probably it!! What a kid!)

11. What is your mom really good at?
Beind very good at church. You were good today Momma. Thank you.

12. What is your mom not very good at?
you not good at letting me watch Thomas and Jerry.

13. What does your mom do for her job?
listen

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
pancakes. Right Momma? I like pancakes. Member you ate my pancakes after Becky's house? And I ate your shrimp? Can we have pancakes for dinner?

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
You put me on your 'puter when I ran around the living room? That's funny. Let's watch it, ok??

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
You can be Thomas. I am Jerry.

17. What do you and your mom do together?
hold hands

18. How are you and your mom the same?
we are CUTE. Right! Daddy, momma and I are cute right? DADDDY: YES

19. How are you and your mom different?
You don't run super fast even though you have super fast shoes. Daddy, momma needs new super fast shoes, ok. DADDY: NO! Ava: Daddy, momma super fast shoes are super slow. So the answer is yes. Momma, I say yes!

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
you tell me, silly face.

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
that you kissy kissy (insert smoochy noise here)

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Target

She loves to clean!

We start at the far side.

And continue.

I made her get in the corners!

Almost done!

And a final dry and we are all done!

I think Valentines Day is stupid. I think some money hungry CEO at HallMark schemed up this whole idea just to get a bigger bonus.

If your marriage, relationship, whatever...needs Feb 14 to provide romance, then I think you might have a bigger issue.

That's just what I think.

This year, like the previous 16, I told John I wanted nothing. No flowers, no candy, no presents... I think he appreciates the fact that I think it is stupid, although he tries to act hurt and offended. But, honestly, I know if he REALLY was into Valentines Day like most people are, he would get me the flowers, candy...

BUT

He thinks it's stupid too! That's why we are so great together.

Happy Valentine's Day

Birthday parties OH MY!!

Ava has been invited to 8 birthday parties this month so far. And the month is not even half way over. We have two this weekend, 3 next weekend, and **sigh** who knows what else is being planned that I do not know about.

The thing is, all of these parties (except for 2) are parties for kids not even in her PK class. Ava is in PK1 and the other 6 of her 8 parties are for kids in PK2. I'm beginning to think that either Ava is REALLY popular, or the parents in PK2 have gotten together and talked and figured out that if she gets the invite Ava will come with present in hand.

And here's the other thing. If we for some reason can't make the party, we bring a gift to school before the day of the party. That's the guilt in me. I don't want some parent to think that Ava likes one kid and goes to that party but doesn't like their kid so she doesn't go to his/her party. The kid whose party we don't attend normally gets about $5 more on the gift tab, because of the GUILT I feel.

I think that in the book "What To Expect When Expecting"--the Later Years--they should include a chapter about birthday parties.

I'm just saying...

This is the "smile" you get when she's just not into pictures.

4th picture tag

I was tagged in a fun photo blog. I am to open the 4th folder in my photo directory and post my 4th photo in that directory. So, here is that picture.



This is a wonderful picture of my very dear friend Emily after a night of fun on the beach. We took a couples vacation with Emily and Daniel and had some very good times!! This picture was taken long before we had any parental responsibily.

I'm not so sure she will enjoy this particular picture posted, but you can still see how stunningly beautiful she is, even if she has a slight hangover.

Ava, as we speak, is using 409 and a sponge to scrub down the kitchen table and chair. actually, I am spraying the 409 and she is scrubbing.

Is it child abuse to let a 4 year old clean out the refrigerator if she BEGS to do so?

Stay tuned. We will see how long this cleaning madness goes til!!

Pictures will follow soon!