Christmas Decorations

It's been a while, I know. I'm a horrible blogger. Sometimes living life just gets in the way of blogging life though. We got back from a weekend trip to Disney on Sunday and I'll be posting pictures of that soon, but in the mean time you can check out some of our Christmas decorations at Today's Housewife today...

Sharks and Elephants, Oh My!

Today was mostly spent recovering from all of us being sick this week - laundry, dishes, more laundry. A stomach bug took Luke down first on Wednesday so he was home from school all day with me. Bedtime rolled around that night to find Mark getting sick. I knew I was next but by the end of Thursday I smugly thought, "Wow. I can't believe I didn't get sick." Not so fast. Friday morning it hit me with a vengeance and I thought I was going to die. Thankfully it was a school day and I could lay in bed and moan most of it, but it shot our plans to go to the Trunk or Treat Carnival at the church down the street. I called everyone I could think of to see if anyone could take Mark, but no one was available. I felt horrible because he has literally been talking about this carnival since we went last Halloween. So, today I wanted to do something fun for him.

I thought I'd make a special lunch of "worms and dirty rocks." When I told him that's what we were having for lunch I thought he was going to cry. I had to quickly explain that it wasn't really worms and rocks, but just beans and hot dogs. So much for that plan.

Then a friend called to invite us to a small party at her house to culminate with trick-or-treating. We headed over there and it was fun, but it was so hot here today that the kids were just miserable. After an hour or so we had a sand-throwing incident, followed by a time-out/fit-throwing incident, immediately followed by an accident in our pants incident. (And all of those were the 4 year old.) Needless to say, we didn't stick around for trick-or-treating.

Mark being a mummy at the party - before the incidents!

I told Mark that if he obeyed when we got home that we'd take a bath and go to a few houses on our street. He did indeed start obeying so we dressed up one more time and trick-or-treated just on our street.

Mark wanted to dress up like a shark this year after seeing the costume in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog and getting a Hot Wheels "Shark Park" racetrack from Uncle Eric and Lauren for his birthday. He also would say he wanted to be a shark so that he could "chase Luke around." (Sweet brotherly love!) But he changed his mind to a "nice" shark and since I'm too cheap to pay PB prices (and they were sold out before they went on sale) I had to make one with a hoodie and some felt. I think it turned out pretty cute! Luke, as usual, was what Mark was 2 years ago. Although, I couldn't have picked a cuter costume since he already walks with a little waddle in his step.

Now, if you'll excuse me I have some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to eat while my children sleep. I consider it good mothering. No child needs that much candy - it'll rot their teeth out!

How's this for Scary?

And this was how Luke's hair looked when he woke up this morning...

Happy Halloween!

More pictures to follow....

Things I Don't Miss So Much...

In the interest of not being a total "Debbie Downer" with yesterday's post, I have also compiled a list of things that I don't miss that much when Tim is gone. As wonderful as my husband is and as much as I adore him, there's always a silver lining, right? So here's the ever so small one I've found.

1. There are no dirty clothes left on his side of the bed for me to find after I've done the laundry.

2. I can watch "One Tree Hill" and "The Hills" without being mocked. (Except now that I've written it on here I'm sure someone's going to mock me for that!)

3. I can eat cereal for dinner every night for a week and no one complains.

4. I don't have to share the computer or Facebook time.

5. The toilet stays cleaner longer.

6. There's no stubble in the bathroom sink. (Thanks for that one, Meredith!)

7. There's a lot less laundry and none of it smells like the boat.

8. It's much easier to workout, diet and lose weight when Tim's gone

9. The alarm doesn't go off at 5 am.

10. I can rearrange the budget to spend money on shoes instead of food. (See #3.)

Anything else that's an advantage that I've forgotten?

Things I Miss...

By no means is this list exhaustive, but these are a sampling of the things I miss when Tim is at sea, in no particular order.

1. Having someone to cook for

2. Having someone to laugh at all my jokes

3. Sleeping well (that doesn't happen when I sleep alone)

4. Praying with him

5. Someone else getting up in the middle of the night with crying little boys

6. The boat smell (I know it's horribly gross, but I guess that's just how much I love him...)

7. Who I am when I'm with him

8. The way he hugs me

9. His ringtone

10. Not having to finish my own sentences

11. The way the boys scream, "Daddy!" when he walks in the door

12. Foot rubs

13. Going to church as a family

14. The background noise of college football for 12+ hours on Saturdays

15. Spooning

16. His eternal optimism about OU and Cowboy football

17. Having someone to take care of me

18. His grin

In Damaged Children News...

We've lost our first tooth around here. I'm pretty sure teeth don't start actually falling out until 5 or 6 years old. I think this one was knocked lose somehow. I even remember looking at Mark this morning and thinking, "Has that front tooth always been crooked?!" Apparently, it hasn't. And now it is somewhere in Mark's digestive track. He was quite traumatized when he lost and subsequently swallowed it at school during lunch. But Miss Jennifer said that hearing about money from the toothfairy and forthcoming "big boy" teeth made him feel much better. Too bad he's probably going to have to wait 2 years or so for that tooth.

Man, am I glad the boys' Christmas pictures are schedule for NEXT week...

Trouble Sleeping?

I went in Mark's room to check on him tonight before I went to bed and found this...

After I took the picture he woke up slightly so we went to the bathroom and when I was tucking him back in he picks up his hat and whispers, "This is my magical sleeping." He puts it back on his head and promptly falls back asleep.

So, if you are having trouble sleeping you might consider getting yourself one of these...