I Guess I Am Awe-summm~ Who Knew?!

I received this award from a new bloggy friend a few weeks back. Go over and meet Jillian at It All Began With a Man in a Black Jeep. She is expecting her first baby any day now!

The Rules:

1. List 7 things that make me Awe-Summm.

2. Pass the award onto 7 bloggers that I love.

3. Tag those bloggers to let them know they are now Queens too (and link back to the Queen who tagged you).

Well, I am not one who likes to toot my own horn, but then again, who does?! OK, we all know some people who do and THAT is why many of us are afraid to do the same thing...

Here it goes!

1. I can clean a bathroom faster than a speeding bullet. And, don't even get me started on how fast I can fill a shopping cart.

2. My skin is so pasty white that my dad often says that I am a little "too white." You will not see me with a tan. Ever. It is impossible. Sunburns on the other hand...

3. I think talking on the phone should be an Olympic sport and I would win the gold medal.

4. I am smarter than 90 percent of the people on reality TV. (I should know, since I love me some good, clean reality TV.) And, yes, I realize that isn't saying much...

5. I believe bigger is better when it comes to jewelry, especially diamonds. Love them!

6. I have "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown memorized. I am holding out hope that this will somehow come in handy when I decide to enter back into the professional world. Here's hoping... but, I have my doubts.

7. I am obsessed with vacuuming and love my Dyson (also known as Derek) way more than I should.

Now to tag some friends who are Awe-summm:

Mummy McTavish over at Samster.com. If you read the comments on our blog, you already know that her comments are funnier than our posts. Hands down.

Lisa over at Boondock Ramblings. She has me in stitches most days. Plus, you often get to see pictures of her precious little boy.

Boy Mom over at Boys R Us. Another awe-summm commenter and someone I consider a friend, even though we haven't met in real life. Yet.

Tiffany over at Rural Chaos . Another new discovery. I love that she is probably the polar opposite of me. She lives in the country and thinks pigs are cute...not to mention the other small creatures that she runs into on a daily basis.

Mother Mayhem is another woman I enjoy checking in on. She is such a loving mother!

And, I can't forget Suz. She is best friends with Boy Mom in real life. I can't wait until I get to be their third wheel. Plus, she makes the most adorable cakes!

I hope everyone has an AWE-SUMMMM DAY!!!!

Monday's Random Musings

Mrs. Nurse Boy here.

This weekend was full of fun, food, and too much sun. We had our local fair and spent most of the weekend enjoying what marks our official start to summer. Today, I will share some random moments from our action packed weekend...

Saturday we started off with the parade. The kids were lined up next to the street and armed with bags to collect their junk, oops, I mean loot. We are stocked up on suckers and tootsie rolls for the summer. Aren't you jealous?


Bruiser was STILL a little bit afraid of the sirens and some of the costumes. Sweet Pea? Not so much. This boy cracks me up! He is my wild, yet sensitive one.

We also spent Saturday with Sweet Pea's future husband. Yes, we have an arranged marriage planned for these two!



Look what we spotted! Some homegrown crack!

(I would just like to say that, "Crack is whack!")

We rode some rides. Of course, I only have a picture of Sweet Pea since I was scoping out the craft booths while all of the boys rode the rickety rides. Plus, I can't watch them ride those "portable" rides. I just have to LOOK AWAY.


We knew it was time to end the Saturday fun when the ugly cry reared it's head.


Sunday was more of the same. Dimples is seen here sporting a new 'do.

Doesn't Bruiser remind you of the Incredible Hulk? We practically had to pay him to wash his hair last night. He loved it!

We watched a magic show, a puppet show, and some "Lumber Jills".

Lastly, we watched in amazement when this gentleman balanced a BENCH on his face! I am pretty sure the boys WILL try this at home. Pray for me this week!



Oh, and even worse, he juggled with fire. He even ATE the fire. I told you I needed prayer. Do they ever hear the part where they say, "Don't try this at home"? Yeah, I didn't think so.


We ended the weekend with dinner and a movie in our air conditioned living room. Some of you have recommended that I watch "Over the Hedge," due to my complete love of all things squirrel and possum. (You heard the sarcasm in my voice, right?!) Yeah, really enjoyed the movie, loved the jokes that went over the kids' heads, didn't think even THAT squirrel was cute, and I am now certain I am living out that movie in real life.

Hopefully, I can sleep at night.

I didn't take pictures of any of the food we ate, because I thought the calories might count if I had photographic evidence. Without the evidence, I am pretty sure that none of those calories counted. Right? Right?!

Oh, all right. I'll go hop on the treadmill. But, how much fat can be in a fried piece of cheesecake? Dipped in fudge sauce?

Don't answer that! I'm going, I'm going...

Friday Fare!

Mrs. Nurse Boy here.

WOW! It is finally Friday. You know, I couldn't wait to get all the kids home for the summer and now I am looking for camps and VBS's to send them to. You knew I would change my mind, didn't you?

Yeah, me too.

But, we are keeping busy and we even had a garage sale yesterday. We plan to finish it up next weekend. Why, next weekend, you ask?

Because this weekend is only my FAVORITE weekend of the year!

It is Old Shawnee Days and I LOVE it. We kick the weekend off with a parade and candy first thing Saturday morning and spend the rest of the weekend eating healthy foods like funnel cakes and kettle korn. Then we ride those scary rides that travel around our fair state and get put up in a couple of hours.

OK, I don't ride them. My kids do. And, I am not sure what that says about my parenting. Don't tell me, either.

The thought of this weekend brings tears to this mama's eyes. I hope they remember the first weekend of June as one of their favorites years from now. However, they will probably remember it as the weekend that Mom MADE them go to Old Shawnee Days and walk through the craft booths. I do love me some craft booths. LOVE THEM!

But, first we need to eat a healthy meal to offset the nachos and slushies. Not too mention Dippin Dots, turkey drumsticks, and fried Snickers bars. (Oh, I am just kidding about the fried Snickers, because THAT would be gross and clog some arteries.) So, how about a yummy salad with...you guessed it...chicken. (If you didn't guess it, you are new here. Welcome. I hope you like chicken!)

I threw this little salad together for the first time a couple of months ago. We love it and eat it often!

Mrs. Nurse Boy's Chicken Spinach Salad

Ingredients:

Fresh Spinach

Grilled Chicken--or cooked however you like!

Sliced Strawberries

Feta Cheese

Sliced Mushrooms

Nuts--Sunflower Seeds or Walnuts or Honey Roasted Walnuts (which I found at WalFart)

Light Raspberry Vinaigrette (Or any other sweet dressing)

Mix ingredients together and enjoy! This stuff really is yummy!!!

We are off for some fun and tummy aches! Have an awesome weekend!

Maybe Our Neighbors Should Hate Us

Nurse Boy here.

(I am writing our second post for the day, so you should read our last post if you have not been here in the last 12 hours.)

Today was garage sale day for the Nurse Boy family. It is a day where we put out our junk that we don't want, have people come by all day and look at it, and if they don't buy anything, we feel rejected. Even though we don't want it either.

None of our neighbors came by to say hi. I suppose they were worried that we would hard sell them. We did not make a killing today, but we did have some fun.

We got to set out all of the kids toys that they don't play with anymore.

Except when it's sitting in the driveway with a 25 cent sticker on it. Then it's like gold.

We were selling a sleeper sofa also. A 500 pound sleeper sofa. A 500 pound sleeper sofa that we promised to never move again about three moves ago. It has served us well. It is the bed that I slept on the week leading up to my marriage to Mrs. NB. It is what we slept on in her parent's house when we were working on our current house for about 2 months longer than expected. It is what my parents slept on every time they visited for the last 5 years. It has also produced hernias (from lifting it) and a permanent line in every ones back that has slept on it. We sat on it in the driveway like the king and queen of white trash today. I even took a short nap on it.

It did not sell.

We have two more days to try to get rid of it. If it does not sell, I will have to burn it in my driveway. I swear I will not move that thing again, unless it is helping to lift it into the back of someone else's truck.

Speaking of white trash, the Mrs. gave me a haircut on the back patio again tonight. The neighbor kids were at the fence and over the fence and on the fence. (That goes without saying, because we had just had dinner so they blessed us with commentary.) So she was using the clippers, and the neighbor kids were called away from the fence. This was the perfect opportunity for the Mrs. to give me my summer cut in privacy. You know the summer cut. The one where she continues down and shaves my back so I won't scare the small children at the pool.

"Look mom, it's the missing link."

"No son, that is just a man who likes to wear a shaggy sweater to the pool."

No, that is just me. So anyway, I have a little pride, so I don't want the neighbors to know about the back shaving. So Sweet Pea sees what is going on and, in shocked amazement, screams, "Mommy, you giv'n daddy's back a haircut?" There goes my privacy.

Outside.

I told you we are white trash.

Raising Boys

Mrs. Nurse Boy here.

I love my boys. I really do. But, like most women, I always imagined having at least one daughter. I needed someone to go shopping with me, let me decorate them with bows and lace, and give me the opportunity to have some pink in my home. Without moans and groans, that is.

Before Sweet Pea was born, I was out numbered. No one cared about the dress I got on clearance or my new lipstick. No one.

Then, Sweet Pea came along.

Aw...pink finally entered my home and my life felt complete. But, there was something challenging about my "sugar and spice and everything nice."

Sometimes she wasn't nice.

She knew how to hold a grudge. From the very moment she was born.

She, just like the boys, was jaundice pretty much at birth. She came home with a billi-light. And, she was so mad about it, she didn't sleep a wink for 24 hours.

Then, at 2 months, she went in for her first round of shots. She didn't forget about that pain for at least another 24 hours.

Can you say, "grudge?"

I love her, but girls really know how to hold a grudge. I should know, I certainly have been known to do the same thing. (No comments, Nurse Boy. Thank. you. very. much.)

Fast forward to a few weeks ago.

During our carpool one morning, ~H~ and ~J~ (sister and brother) entered the van while arguing with one another. ~H~ sat down in a huff and rolled her eyes in a way that put all other big sisters to shame. She then inquired, "Dimples, do you and Bruiser fight a lot?"

Dimples: (Thinking long and hard.) "Um, not really."

~H~: "Well, that's because you are both boys. You don't hold grudges."

Dimples: "What's a grudge?"

EXACTLY.

I love my boys. Always quick to forgive and forget.

You gotta love that!

Won't You Be Our Neighbor?

Mrs. Nurse Boy here.

We have lived in our neighborhood for 5 years now. We loved the neighborhood for its large, beautiful trees and older brick homes. It is a quiet neighborhood with very little traffic. The elementary school is about 2 blocks away with a walking track and an awesome playground. It just looked like a wonderful place for our kids to grow up.

Then we moved in.

We have blogged about our neighbors before. Truth is, we don't seem to be very popular around here. Not really sure why. We do know that the previous owners lived here for 19 years, lost a teenage son to a horrible car accident, and soon went through a nasty divorce. Maybe we bought their friend's house? Maybe, in some weird way, they think we took sides? Maybe we just represent that sad time when everything seemed to fall apart for the family? Whatever it is, we have just learned to keep to ourselves.

We have neighbors that won't even wave back at us, much less partake in some friendly chit chat.

We have neighbors that speak Spanish and English, but their English suddenly gets rusty when, say, their tree falls on our home or our car. All of the sudden, they can't form a complete sentence. Lucky us...on a number of levels, wouldn't you say?

Then there is the older gentleman behind us that thinks men shouldn't be nurses and that it says something about my husband lacking on some professional level. I sure hope Nurse Boy gets to be there for his colonoscopy one day. :0)

We also have some little children whose parents think "No" is a word that holds a child back. I'll say... like the time one of them got mad and choked one of our sons out of anger. You can't say, "NO!" then? Their little ones have also been known to climb to the top of the privacy fence and comment about our dinner while we enjoy our meal in the "privacy" of our backyard. Yeah, I just love that !

OH! I must NEVER forget the bachelor down the street that has an old, abandoned, in ground pool that breeds MASSIVE amounts of mosquitoes ALL SUMMER LONG. And, no the city won't do anything about it. It is just a perk of living in the neighborhood.

But, today was the last straw...

Nurse Boy has shared his dislike of our friendly possum that hides out in our trash cans. He now refuses to take the trash out passed dark. I guess their eyes have locked in the moonlight one too many times. The possum just feels like we are the ones climbing over the privacy fence while he enjoys a tasty meal of apple cores and sticky sandwich crusts.

Except, "he" is a "she."

And, she wasn't eating for one. Meet our newest neighbor...





We found this "precious" little creature in our backyard this morning. YUCK!

So, won't you be our neighbor???

The First Celebrity to Die From the Swine Flu

And, I think we all know who the carrier was...

(Just thought you might need a laugh!)

Hey, while you are here...my bloggy friend, Lisa, gave me a shout out on her blog! Go over HERE to check out her awesome blog about living in the boondocks while raising an adorable little boy. She is so funny and she thinks I am too!

I know, I know. I have her fooled!

I feel like a celebrity now...guess who I am staying away from? That's right, little Miss Piggy!