Keep it in English please :)

I have one small request to make... I really enjoy reading comments that people make on the blog... but could you please keep it in English?  I don't want to have to make the blog private, but I have thoughts of some super-secret terrorist organization communicating via the comments section and I can just picture homeland security knocking down my door for housing some big terrorist plot... (me, the drama queen??  Julie, I don't know where you get that thought at all!!)

... so please, for my benefit, lets keep it all in this mama's language :)

oh... crap!

... is a bad habit I have been trying to break.
I've transitioned myself into word choices such as
oh man!
dangarama!
oh mylanta! (this one I heard Josh repeating in exasperation when baby Elizabeth was trying to un-build his lego creation)
and just plain aaagggg!

... but today,
there simply was no substitute.

you see, we are neck deep into potty training mode around these parts.

... so far we have been hit and miss...
... some good days
... some .. not so good days,
(you see where this is going... those with weaker stomachs are invited to exit the blog now...)

but none have been quite like today...

Mom, "Hey Josh, do you want to wear you big boy underwear today?"
Josh (with all the gusto his two year old body could expound), "YES!!!"
Mom, "So, when you need to go pee, where are you going to go?"
Josh, "In my potty!!"
Mom, "awesome!  When you need to go poop, where are you going to go??"
Josh, "In my potty!!"
Mom, "awesome!"
...and then I proceed to do the 5 minute 'checks'  i.e. "Hey, Joshy, do you need to go potty?"

issue #1 - I walk into the kitchen to find him squatting on the ground, playing with leggos, doing his 'potty grunt'
mom, "Hey, Joshy, do you need to go potty?"
Josh, "jus a minute, mommy, I not done going poopy..."
mom quickly picks him up, and takes to bathroom to finish the job.
Set Joshy on potty, rinse out undies, go put them in laundry room.
Come back to bathroom to find Joshy on the FLOOR in the middle of not one, not two, but THREE available potty choices (two of his training potties are currently in that bathroom)... on the floor, squatting to 'finish the job'
mom, "What are you doing??!"
Pick him up, place back on one of his potties.  Clean up mess #2. walk upstairs to get another pair of undies.  Come back down to find him once again on the FLOOR finishing the job, and had tried to wipe some of it up with tp, which smeared it everywhere, then steps in it and slightly slips...
... at which time I scoop him up, and b-line it to the shower.
... all clean and before getting into big boy undies again, I find him squatting by the chairs on the CARPET.  Pick him up and step in something oddly oozy and wet...
... and take him directly to the diaper station.

yep, some days, no other word will do.

Happy...

Fourth of July...???

Yep - in typical Minnesota Fashion, we went from sweltering humid heat yesterday,

To Freezing cold rain today.

Go figure

At Least we got some of our fireworks lit last night

Yes, It was July 3rd.

If you know my hubby,

and you know me,

the following SAT-type sentence will make perfect sense:

Jerry is to July 4th Fireworks As Jen is to Christmas Music

As in...

I have been known to break out the Christmas music as early as September

(okay, there was one year that it has been heard around our general vicinity in July... but I'll stick to the 5th on that one...)

And Jerry, 

Well, fireworks have been heard around our general vicinity as early as January.

So last night was more like a '4th of July Eve' for Jerry...

ya know... like getting to open a present (or two) on Christmas Eve

He got to light off a firework (or two... or twenty...) on 4th of July Eve.

And for my benefit, He did start out pretty tame

But pretty soon, it was onto the "Wyoming Specials"

the kids loved it

Including Elizabeth, who made her firework watching debut...

and me?  Well, I only screamed a few times...

... except for the one shriek...

when the launcher tipped over and shot a launching firework directly at our neighbors house, 

then turned and launched one right at our mailbox

then turned and would have launched one right into the garage, but it ran out of ammunition

(it was a pretty long shriek)

Yep, 4th of July 

Never a dull moment around these parts.

HAPPY 4TH of JULY!!!

Now you see it...

... now you don't...

... now you see it...

err, kind of...

... in pieces...

at our neighbors house...
... Yep, during our vacation, it seems our trampoline also decided to take a vacation...

... helped out by the tornado that swept through minnesota while we were gone.

... we got a call from one neighbor telling us that our trampoline was no more... getting demolished in the huge storm.

... some other sweet neighbors gathered all the pieces and had them sitting on their back porch, and when we came back, we found every piece except for one spring...

can you believe it?

yea, me neither!

Some pieces had been put through the ringer, and we scouted out a welding guy who did a little magic melding and put some of the pieces back together,

... and after a lotta gathering and jerry-rigging (literally!)...

... and self proclaimed 'parents of the year' awarding...

The tramp is BACK in action!!!

much to the joy of the children.

and the parents.

So honey, what did you do all day?...

... oh, you know, the usual -

a little gardening...

(I wish this was chocolate spread all through her mouth... it's not... she got a little 'too' into the gardening and decided to test the tomato plant soil...)
... fed the kids
... packed for the trip...

... yep, pretty much run of the mill day around these parts...

WOmans best friend...

Yes, this is a roomba...

Yes, you've seen those dorky infomercials

Yes, it does sound a bit corny...

Yes, I did, in fact, dive in to the roomba family...

Yes I did get an amazing deal (c'mon, you know me, I don't buy anything unless it's an amazing deal!)

and YES, I love, love, LOVE my roomba!!!

I mean, really, what's not to love??

... it cleans up after you

... you can push it's buttons without any repercussions

... you can leave it alone for hours on end and your house will actually be cleaner when you come back

... it even puts ITSELF away (I think it may be the only thing that actually gets put away around here lately!)

yep... woman's best friend.

The squeals of summer...

... are some of my favorite sounds in the world.

I love to have the doors and windows open and hear the kids outside.

especially when they are running through the sprinklers...

... yes, they ARE running through the sprinklers... in my jackets...

(before we learned how to turn on our sprinklers on demand, they were programmed to come on at 6:00 in the morning.)

... the kiddos really wanted to run through the sprinklers...

... once we learned how to turn them on, the kids have been going at it nonstop in the afternoons :)

... jumping on the tramp...

... yes it is dark in this picture - we set up the tramp after fhe one night, and they couldn't wait to test it out...

... and then within 24 hours one of them poked a hole in it with his action figures...

... so it got sent into the shop for the whole next week...

... which to the kiddos seemed like the longest week in the world (even though I reminded them that they had successfully lived their entire lives up to this point without a trampoline...)

... and even some of both...

... which is the latest top activity on the kiddos list.

ahhhh...

Bring on the squeals!!