I like sleeping. Mostly during the day when its quiet and calm. Especially when the sun is behind the clouds and its kind of dreary and the light is not too bright in my window, you know, pretty much most of the winter? Yeah, well…like I said, I like to sleep. There I said it. One might say it’s the depression talking, or my lack of motivation, but really, I just like to nap in the morning. Some days it’s ALL  morning, some days, it’s broken up into several naps. All depends on what I’m trying to avoid doing that day. It’s subjective. It would seem I’m not the only one who digs naps. Check it out .

Anyway…I decided that today (sound the trumpet! doo-do DOOOO!) I will not in fact go back to sleep after all the kids leave for school and I WILL WILL be a productive member of society! Haha! Take that world!

I have this list you know…a mile long. Of things that I want to do so I can you know, do stuff. Stuff like host parties, and craft pretty things like aprons, and baby gifts, and Christmas presents. You know?! STUFF!

I know you are dying to see my list…ready?

1. DONE Mail my Dad’s birthday present and card Yay me!! I did it, I mailed the first birthday card of the year on time (hopefully) and I actually thought about it NOT at the last minute like I have in years past. **See list to the right to see what my goals for the year are… #4 on the list is “Remember all birthdays and send cards”. ** So far so good!! Yay me!
2. Clean up the kitchen. If you headed over to Sweetbippy Cooks you’ve seen the reality that is my kitchen. Forget trying to cook in it. And while you’re at it, forget that you seen what it looks like, m’kay? Thxbai.
3. DONE Sweep the living room floor. We finally took our tree down yesterday, I fear half the needles on the fake tree are on the floor. I thought those things weren’t supposed to shed?
4. DONE Put away all Christmas Decor Do I really need to elaborate? I didn’t think so.
5. DONE Rearrange furniture for maximum American Idol Viewing Yes my list really does say that. After we put the TV on the mantle, we were left with many more seating options and I want to be sure that my 15+ guests are comfortable with the seating. That’s just the way I roll.
6. Mop Bathroom Floor I got to cleaning it all up yesterday and wiped down all the surfaces except that floor. Eww. I think that one will get delegated to someone lower on the totem pole.
7. Sweet Front Entry again and clear off table and bench. Pretty self explanatory even though someone already swept, you can always find more dirt, unfortunately!
8. Vacuum Play Room Yesterday we cleared the floor and put stuff back where it belongs, (sort of) and all that’s left is vacuuming and cleaning up my craft stuff, but that’s a whole other beast to tackle!!
9. DOING Keep plowing thru laundry I’ve heard it said by more than one of my friends with far fewer children than me, laundry is never ending for all people! Doesn’t matter if you have a family of 6 or 2, there is ALWAYS laundry to do. *cue* “this is the song that never ends….”
10. Decorate for the next upcoming holiday “VALENTINES DAY’’! Yes, I know we just started a new year. Yes, I know we just put our Christmas tree away, but friend lemme tell you; there is already EASTER stuff out! I know! I found some cute mini glittered Easter eggs at the Dollar Tree! Squee!
11. ALMOST DONE Make/ Get Snacks for American Idol Party We all contribute to the snack table at my gatherings. I provide staples like, drinks, popcorn, and some form of chocolate. Most weeks, we have chips and salsa and someone always brings veggies and hummus. So good! This week we’ll have popcorn, candy hearts both chocolate and conversation, and some sweet tea, decaf since it’ll be after 9pm when everyone arrives.

That’s pretty much my list in a nutshell. ** I edited what has been done, but you can look and see what all I had done when I posted this. Just thought you should know I wasn’t a complete slacker today. There, I feel better, don’t you? **

So what did I get done today?? Ready?

1. I woke up, put a bra on and went to CVS. Came home and got online.
2. Brushed my hair and wrapped Dad’s present and headed to post office.
3. Called and stopped by my friend Laura’s house unannounced (I hate when people do that to me, but know where their heart was when they did it, like my heart was this morning. Concern and love) and visited for a bit.
4. Drove over to Dollar Tree for some Valentines goodies (and Easter too!)
5. Then drove home and made a sandwich. I talked myself out of going to get a sub from the new pizza place in town (that friends own) and spent $0 bucks at my own restaurant.
6. Got online.
7. Stayed online.
8. Made some homemade microwave popcorn, See recipe here.
9. Played on Facebook. Arrgh. That place is too fun! Dangit!
10. Looked over at list and sighed.
11. Drank a 3rd glass of water.
12. Waited for the kids to get home from school.

Not so good eh? Oh well. Just keeping it real. LOL!!

I still have time to get my stuff done before 9pm 5pm tomorrow, right? Oh yeah… I work best under pressure.

My friends love me for me. Like Martha says, “It’s a good thing”.

Seems like it just flew by, blown away by the wind. Or maybe aliens came down and kidnapped it? I know! A black hole opened up and November was sucked in and it messed up the space time continuum? What ever and how ever the reason, it’s gone. I missed a whole month to blog about my life. I guess I should catch you up.

Should I do this in a bullet list and spare you the boring details or describe each event and watch your gray hairs grow??  Gray hairs it is!! Ready??

I forget. The End……just kidding, well maybe only a little. It seems I can’t really remember how November started off. Something about many days running together wherein I got nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing accomplished. I slept a lot. I played a lot of games on Facebook and got really far in FarmVille… here’s a snippit of my status updates from Facebook:

Angie Harms Stueve
ok, it’s 10:00am; time to pick a room and clean it. I think I will pick the kitchen. Seems to be the least messed up one!! Annnnnnd she’s off!!

Valerie Croy                          Angie Stueve

Happy Anniversary Jon-

I love you more than words.

Love,
Angie

Happy Summer y’all!!

Why all this information on our shopping habits? Well…I’ve been trying to keep track of all the boxes and bags of stuff we’ve consumed in the last 21 days. Seems sort of silly but it astounds me how much our family can choke down!

Oh and as a side note-
My Dad told me to use what he had in the pantry and freezer. One problem with that. He cooks for 1 maybe 2 people regularly and so trying to plan meals for 6 people, means having to add to what he already has. It is actually easier to buy what I need and not add to what he already has. Having said that, we still require a lot of stuff to feed our family. I’m sure we could get by with less. Maybe that’s the secret to smaller butts? Oh wait. Jon and I have big butts, but the kids don’t and they are the one who eat most of the food!!!!

Anyway…

Here is a list of stuff that I can remember buying (I may have left some things out because well, I’m starting to get old and my memory isn’t as sharp as it once was)

• 6 gallons of milk
• 5 loaves of bread
• 6 dozen eggs
• 16 hamburger buns
• 16 hot dog buns
• 14 boxes of cereal
• 3 lbs. of assorted lunch meats
• 3 lbs. of assorted sliced cheeses
• 4 bags of peanut M & M’s
• 2 boxes of banana bread mix
• 8 cups of rice
• 10 lbs of sugar
• 10 lbs. of chicken (chicken tenders, chicken breasts)
• 8 lbs. hamburger ( 16 1/4 lb. hamburger patties, 4 one lb. pkgs hamburger)
• 2 lbs. thin spaghetti
• 16 pieces Texas Toast
• 1 huge watermelon
• countless lbs. of fresh vegetables used in various dishes
• 10 pkgs. Mix-aid (Aldi’s brand of Kool-aid)
• 6 cases of water (24 in each case)
• 48 cans of various carbonated beverages (generic Aldi brand)
• 3 lbs. pepper bacon
• 2 boxes of Whale cheddar crackers
• 1 case of Maruchan Top Ramen
• 12 rolls of toilet paper ( we didn’t eat them, but it was only appropriate to add them to the list! LOL )
• 300 napkins (out of a 500 count package of napkins- no I didn’t count, but estimated based on how many are left)
• 12 mini concretes from Fritz’s Frozen Custard
• 22 – 32 oz. frozen slushie drinks from Quick Trip
• 12 twix ice cream bars
• 6 klondike ice cream bars
• 1 pkg. fudge brownies
• 1 pkg. peanut butter cookie dough
• 1 long summer sausage
• 2 nights of Chinese Take out, 2 night of Mexican sit down
• 1 dinner at a buffet
• 5 tanks of gas (can’t eat that, but we bought it!)
• 5 pairs of new shoes/flip flops
• summer clothes for the girls
• 10 homemade lunches for Jon while he was working upstairs

That’s all I can think of for now. It amazes me how much food and “stuff” we needed while we are here. If I sat down and counted all the food we buy at home, the list would be much longer! Now I know why my wallet cries every time drive past Wal-mart!

This is just a small glimpse into our fridge and pantry. What does yours look like??

The chorus goes like this:

But you know, love grows best in little houses,
With fewer walls to separate,
Where you eat and sleep so close together.
You can’t help but communicate,
Oh, and if we had more room between us, think of all we’d miss.
Love grows best, in houses just like this.

Little Houses by Doug Stone
(see it here)

I’m not quite sure that Doug Stone was talking about 4 children, two plump adults, and a dog in that little white house.

When I got the brilliant idea to have us all come up to my Dad’s to watch the house and dog while he went out of the country, I didn’t really think it would be this stressful for me. I admit it. I’m a rule follower. I like order and I’ve come to the realization that I am not a slob. I just don’t like cleaning up after everyone. It’s painfully obvious who in our household has managed to pee on most of the toilets, leave the lights on, and the drawers open.

I bet you are assuming I will blame Jon. Well yes, he does do that, but I wasn’t going to lay that burden all on him. I have discovered it to be all THREE of the boys living in our house posing as the open-drawer-potty bandits.

I really try hard not to get mad, but to remind and use it as a teaching moment for my young boys. How is it working for me?

Not so good.

I think I need to lighten up a little. It is a new environment, a new house, a new town, a new place to hang out and have some fun. But at the same time, it’s a house that isn’t ours and I feel like they will mess everything up!!
I like that it’s clean. I like that it’s ordered and everything has a place, which is the total opposite of how our house is now! They just drop it where ever and whenever and walk away! Gasp! I know!
I hope this will be a good start to new habits, ones I will keep on them about and won’t have to use the excuse, “this is not our house, so let’s keep it the way we found it”.  When we get home, I want to be able to say, “This is our house, let’s keep it nice so we can enjoy living here!”

Ok, now that I have gotten that off my chest. Let’s talk about what we plan on doing while we are here. That is if I don’t lose my sanity while trying to keep them from killing each other with love and communication! Some places that have been recommended to us are tops on our list. Not sure we’ll get to all of them, but here are a few things I would like to do while we are here in O’Fallon, Missouri;  named in 2006 as the “Best 100 Places to Live.”

**edited to cross out what we did already**

• The Magic House
• The City Museum
• The St. Louis Zoo
• The St. Louis Science Center
• Grant’s Farm
• The River City Rascals Baseball Game
  
• New Town at St. Charles
• Visit to the library
• Up the movie
• Swimming

I think that just about covers any and all fun to be had while we are here. Do I think we’ll get them all in? No. We already have tickets to the Baseball game, so that’s a for sure and we went swimming today. (random brain thought: where did I put my camera? must find.) I would really like to go to the City Museum. It looks like a LOT of fun. The childrens museum, not sure that would entertain my kids long enough, might be too young for them as even my youngest wants to do the “big kid” stuff. It didn’t dawn on me until just now that I was bragging and bragging about this awesome place to live (New Town) and I even posted about it here. I took a gazillion pictures (which can be seen here) the last two times I visited and I didn’t even think to take the fam over there to check it out. We totally should because it’s free and we can walk through the models and dream about living there. You know, to torture myself. Cuz that’s just how I roll.

What does it say about me as a Mom that I am sitting on the couch with Spongebob Squarepants muted on the TV while the kids are “supposed” to be going to sleep? Don’t tell me.

I think I need some M&M’s.

In other news:

• MJ got a mohawk
• MJ asked to have mohawk shaved off
• Penny feigned a paw injury for sympathy
• Jon clogged the toilet. And here I thought it was OUR toilet. Nope.  It’s his butt. It’s full of shit no matter where we go.
• Our “new” van just quit on us and then started again once we stopped. Weird.
• I love shopping at Aldi’s grocery store. I can’t wait for Texas to get one! It’s almost like the dollar tree for me…”but it’s so cheap! Buy 9!”
• After watching me put on mosturizer, MJ asked if he could have some. When I put a little on his cheeks he walked away in amazment because his cheeks, “feel as soft as a weasle!!”  Wha??  **crickets**
• I have been able to get up every morning and walk the dog.  I’m not showerd and definately NOT cute, but who cares. I’m UP!  So if you see someone stumbling along the sidewalk with a poop bag in her hands, feel proud of her for getting up at the butt crack of dawn to walk the dog. She’s a trooper!

That’s all I can think of. Muh brain, she is empty.

Where are those M&M’s??!!

Work is well…work. It’s been quite busy and somewhat stressful, but bearable.

With all the busyness at work, I sure have missed the daily going-on’s at home. I scheduled a Scentsy wick-less candle party which gave me an opportunity to really get the house in order. Oh sure, it’s not perfect. Those who know me best know what a miracle it is that I actually dusted. If I wasn’t so darn busy the week before my parents and sister came to visit, I would have dusted for them!! The party was a success. I had 7 girlfriends come and visit for a while and smell some good and not so good candle smells. I mean really? Eucalyptus? I think that should be left for the great outdoors!

Moving on…

Let’s see…what’s next on my agenda?? I would really LOVE to paint the kitchen and move some more stuff around the house. Ya, know…tweak it a little. Make it even cuter than it already is! I need to pull out the sewing machine and make some pillows for the couch and add some cute fabric to the kitchen curtains. I see some furniture painting in my future too. I think my dresser needs a new coat of black paint to jazz it up. Jazz it up? Who still uses that word? Hah, I guess I do!

This week I’m looking forward to a couple of things. American Idol night with my gals, LOST, and grocery shopping. Grocery shopping?? Yeah, cuz then I can actually do something other than work and sleep!! Plus, I need new yoga pants, Dan needs new glasses, and Jon needs new jeans. Shopping and me don’t get along very well anymore because I apparently become laid up after a few hours of standing or walking, but if some things just have to be done, I guess I’ll do it. <insert sarcasalism here>

Sorry Mom it’s take me so long to post something. I know you still come here everyday looking for some nugget of fun from your daughter! I will try harder to post more often. Not sure if you saw the flowers I bought for the party on Facebook, so here’s another look.

So pretty! These flowers make me happy. I think everyone should buy themselves flowers or whatever it is that makes them happy. It’s the little things in life people.

Have a great week!

Tonight is Ladies Night Out. We aren’t meeting for dinner at a restaurant like we normally do. Instead we are going to meet at a local church for a “Cents-sible Celebrations” and dinner. This speaker will show us ways to get ready for the holidays without spending too much money or time. The tag line was “Get us thinking INSIDE the box for the Holidays”.  I’m looking forward to seeing what ideas she throws out because I tend to do the opposite during the holidays by thinking outside the box as far as menu’s and decorations, all at the expense of my sanity and bank account. I have a lot of neat stuff tucked away, I hope they come up with creative ways to use what we might already have in our homes for the upcoming holidays.
Speaking of holidays. I vow to put up my Fall decorations this year and not let another year go by with those pretty decorations sitting in my closet collecting dust. It’s my promise to myself to pull out the things that make me smile and bring out those warm touches that usher in Fall and make me feel cozy inside.
Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler…70 degrees! Can you believe it?? Here in Texas, we get so excited when the temperature falls below 75! That means Fall is here and soon after Winter!! And no more mosquitoes and sweaters and hot chocolate (like this one! OMG I’m in love!!) and fuzzy warm socks!! Can you tell I love Fall?? In fact, I think I’ll go put my Fall door bucket up right now!!

I might even post a picture or two after I’m done! Stay tuned…

**edited**

Here are some pictures of what I did on the front porch. I didn’t take a full shot because I have to find a place for all the crap the kids leave at the step, so I didn’t want to show you that part. Isn’t it pretty??

Happy Fall Y’all!!