The camera thief strikes again

Blake is notorious for swiping my camera and taking pictures while no one is looking, and then putting it back where he found it before anyone notices.

I usually only find out because almost every time I load my pictures onto the computer I'll find several odd shots in a row of random things around the house. Followed by the classic face shot:

The last couple of camera uploads have held some extra surprises though.

First, I found this picture and thought maybe I'd taken it out our new bedroom window and forgot about it.

That right there is a lawn that hasn't seen a mower since sometime last fall. 

 But then I checked out the next shot and it made more sense:

Hahaha. Busted!

Secondly... Blake learned how to use the self-timer. I caught him red-handed on this one, which is how I know it wasn't one of his siblings who took this, and can I just say how impressed I am that he centered himself perfectly in front of the camera?

But I didn't know he'd already taken this one! 

Boys are such BOYS!

(Which explains why my son is perfectly content to wear one sock only, and with a giant hole in the toe no less!)

(Oh, and that's my husband's rear in the background.... perched as close to the TV as possible while watching game film to prep for an upcoming basketball game, safe from all possibility of someone walking in front of him and blocking the screen for a millisecond ;) 

Hello, Room!

 Hello, basically completed lovely new master suite. 

 Hello, gorgeous sleigh bed. 

Hello, $49.00 clearance bedding that I am in love with. 

 Hello, blank walls just waiting for some Pinterest-inspired decorating.

(and hello, uncompleted wiring sticking out of the wall.)

Hello, very wrinkly bedskirt that there is zero percent chance I will ever remove to iron.

Hello, french doors!

Hello, sneaky nightstand drawer, I didn't know you where there at first!

(and hello, kindle light, earphones, pens, extra cellphone case, and little bag of earplugs... in case you were wondering.)

 Hello, pretty dresser. 

And HELLO, AWESOME!!!

Hello, long-awaited second bathroom for this family of five, you will be well used. 

Hello, ugly white shower curtain rod that is going to be replaced as soon as my "oil rubbed bronze" one arrives in the mail (because NO store carries the right color in the size I need.)

Hello, private restroom with your own door.

Hello, double vanity and matching storage/linen unit.

(Hello, more unfinished wiring.)

And hello, $29.00 perfect-sized mirror from Home Depot! You will be hung on the wall very soon.

 Hello, my first ever walk-in closet.

 And hello, open shelving for my husband, who doesn't do well with drawers.

(Or more specifically, getting clothes back IN the drawers ;)

Hello, hiding pull-down ironing board and iron hiding around the corner to the right.

Hello, proper shoe and clothes storage space, how I've needed you!

 Hello, bathroom view from the closet.

And hello, awesomely deep and wide soaking tub.

My children can't wait to swim in you.

Hello, sweet satisfaction of finally living in this new space. 

There are almost no words to describe how wonderful it feels.

I'll be back

Because my new bedroom looks like this right now:

And our only fully free day for moving in this week was sadly shortened yesterday when we opened the box our new dresser was in and found it was damaged - requiring a second trip with the trailer up into Portland in two days to get a replacement...

And my husband's basketball team is competing tonight in the first round of state playoffs at a school 2 1/2 hours away...

And I can't find a black or oil rubbed bronze colored shower curtain rod in the right size to save my life (four different stores out of stock and counting!)...

And my car broke down yesterday and we just found out it's going to cost $400.00 to fix...

And the dirty laundry pile has almost reached the point of no return...

And I haven't cooked a real meal for dinner since last WEDNESDAY...

And our curtain rods are still on the floor after 45 minutes of effort because my husband + late nights + cheap screws that keep stripping + meticulous handyman jobs do NOT mix...

And the hour and a half finale of season two of Downton Abbey, plus the season premiere of The Amazing Race, are now available to watch online...

I'm afraid to say that blogging is about the last thing on my mind right now, and probably for most of this week.

I'm sure you can understand. 

P.S. I'm also sure you can bet that watching the Downton Abbey finale is my absolute TOP priority ;)

InstaFriday

It's Friday... time to upload the cell phone pics from the past week! 

Cooper's subtle way of letting us know that this little treat for us on Valentine's Day was really from him. 

In case you can't read his last line it says, "p.s. Cooper did it all by himself".

Kendall was none too pleased.  

I also recently found this note stuck to my kitchen window.
And there it shall stay for a while I think :)

 Enjoying a visit with my beloved Nanna - we had a great catch-up time (pic by Blake).

 Blake enjoyed visiting his Nanna too!

 Miley's new haircut - still laughing at Cooper's face as he gets licked :)

 My sister-in-law Tricia and I cheering on our girls Varsity basketball team
at the district playoffs last night.

(Russ coaches the team and Tricia's daughter, Miranda, is one of his players.)

And guess who won?!! 

We're headed to State, baby!

That's one excited coach, right there. 

Aaaannnnd... Blake gets in trouble once again. 

Sure he's smiling now, but this kid just got busted. 

See his very wet hair? 

He came out of my bedroom to show me his "cool hair" and when I asked him what he put on it
 he tried to tell me he did it with a wet wipe. 

Me: "I don't think so Mister, that looks way too wet. What did you get into?"

Him: "Just one wet wipe, Mom!"

Me: "Hmmm, why don't I just check my room..." (stands up from chair)

Him: "Umm hang on, I just need to clean something up" (races off ahead of me)

And there was the hair gel open and laying on it's side on my dresser. 

Niiice. 

Never a dull moment, I tell ya!

Happy Friday, my friends!

I'm linking up to Jeannett at

Search results

I have a statistics feature on my blog that tracks certain information about visitors to my site.

One of the things it tracks is the key words entered into a search engine (like google), that have brought people to my blog as a result, and while most of the searches are either some form of my blog title or a search for outfits and clothing items (I do have a lot of "What I Wore" posts), there are sometimes some really random searches that are more entertaining, and I'm sure have led people here quite unwittingly...

"goodwill soulmate" - yes, definitely.
"how to keep a poinsetta indoor plant alive forever" - or in my case, from Christmas till May.
"embarrassing moments pics" - Hello, Monday confessionals.
"date outfits from Walmart" - Well speaking of embarrassing!

Some are weird...

"seen a jod" - what?
"manic frustration trouble" - huh?
"tights to the dentist" - that's a bit concerning.

And then there's the plain disturbing...

"girls sniffing uggs"
and
"pregnant girls pooping"

WHAAAT?!!

I'm pretty sure I've never talked about anything like that before, and if I ever were to, it would be more in the line of pregnant girls NOT pooping, because I'm sorry to break this to any childless reader out there, but pregnancy and constipation go hand-in-hand.

Or so I've heard. Ahem. I don't discuss these things.

Random Tuesday

A whole bunch of randomness, because I'm watching Smash right now, and the singing, OH the singing! It's all I can do to type a coherent sentence together. (During the commercials of course.)

I'm also baking a triple batch of brownies for Kendall and Cooper's class Valentine's parties tomorrow, and I just finished making way too many of these...

Can we say, "Procrastinates much?"

1. Our bedroom carpet is in and looks BEAUTIFUL! We are not in yet though... still shopping for a king sleigh bed set, and waiting for a free day in my husband's still-busy basketball schedule to get our rooms all moved around.

The tile on the left is in front of french doors.
This room will look a lot nicer when there are actual things in it. 

2. Russ and I had a fun Valentine's Date night out Saturday night, hitting Starbucks, the mall, The Cheesecake Factory and the movie theater, plus the photobooth where we took those ridiculous pictures I posted yesterday. (Embarrassing moment: stepping out of the photobooth to find a group of teen boys inspecting our developed pics that had just popped out. Not awkward AT ALL.)

picture taken by a stranger riding by on a bike who only spoke enough English to ask, "You serious?" when we begged him to stop for us. Um, yes, we're desperate, Sir. 

3. About the movie that night: I wanted to see The Vow, but made the mistake of checking out online reviews and let myself be swayed by the critics. With me on the fence, Russ jumped at the chance to see something else, which is how we ended up watching Chronicle for our Valentine's Date. And sadly I ended up hating it and it's horribly non-feel-good ending. If we hadn't gone to the latest showing I would have dragged Russ right into The Vow straight afterwards so I could end the evening on a lovelier note. As it was, poor Russ tried to change the mood with romantic talk on the way home, which I kept interrupting to say things like, "We'll never get those two hours back!", and "That was $20.00 straight down the toilet!". I tend to get a little emotionally affected by the things I watch. 

4. Blake night-peed in the hallway again. I was, once again, quite horrified.

5. Kendall cracked me up while watching last week's American Idol... it was Hollywood week and young singers on the show were going down left and right with health problems (dehydration, flu, stress, etc.). Kendall came up with this explanation for her brother: "Oh I know what's going on... it's winter time, and right now is the season for Spring Fever. And it's a real fever, Cooper."

Whaaaa? Hilarious!

6. Sunday afternoon I went to a surprise birthday party for my friend Shay, who is the photographer behind Be Photography. Our friend Jessica made this amazing cake - a replica of Shay's camera. Incredible, no?

7. And here's my super cute friend, Shay. See the lovely wrapped presents behind her? Not from me. See the lone Cadbury cream egg in front of her? Yeah, that was my gift. And I wasn't ashamed. Shay is a fellow cream egg lover and understands the awesomeness of cream eggs out in early February.

8. Survivor AND the Amazing Race start again this week! Happy dance!

9. I just sampled the brownies to make sure they turned out okay. Phew, I think they're good.

10. Ohhh, maybe just one more try...

Then and Now

Then: Celebrating Valentine's, 1998

Now: Celebrating Valentine's, 2012

Then: 18 (her) and 20 (him)

Now: 32 and 34

Then: dating for 2.5 years

Now: dating for 16.5 years, married for 12.5 of them

Then: Young and bright eyed

Now: Still young(ish), but seriously concerned about the drooping of our eyelids!

Then: A firm believer in brown lip liner and dark lipstick (her)

Now: A firm believer in Burt's Bees lip balm (and plucked eyebrows, thank goodness)

Then: a rascal that tried to squeeze his girlfriend's rear when he thought people weren't looking (him)

Now: a rascal that delights in embarrassing his wife by stealthily squeezing her rear all date night long! (and I'm not kidding, like THIRTY TIMES. At least.)

Then: very much in love

Now: very, very much in love

InstaFriday

Catching up on my life via cell phone pictures and linking up to

I've been eating a lot of these lately.
For a fruit they're amazingly addictive! 

 Lunch dates are the best.
Especially when pink fluffy zhu zhu pets come along and don't turn off when you want them to!
Blake and I met up with Jana and Emily for lunch at a cute cafe and a trip to the library on Wednesday.

Turns out I hadn't been to the library in a while. Like, two years.
(It's called a kindle. The librarian gasped in mock horror when I said that ;)
I had $15.00 in late fees from 2007 - 2009.
Kind librarian lady decided they were ancient enough to delete without worrying about it.
Yay for librarians! I won't stay away for so long again, I forgot how lovely a place it to be in.

My neice Lizzy just got bangs for the first time.
She came over to my seat at a basketball game to tell me all about it,
and talk hair and fashion for awhile because she's 8 going on 15. I love her.
We shared a brownie treat she'd just won in a free-throw shoot out and discussed things like the intricacies of hair care and the best way to flip your head to get our bangs out of your eyes while still looking cool :)

 Reason #39 why I love Starbucks: free little whipped cream cups drizzled with chocolate
so this guy doesn't feel left out at the pick-up counter. 

Blake's version of the perfect outfit. For church, shopping, going outside in 45 degree weather, etc.
The boy changes clothes ALL THE TIME and drives his mother crazy by it. 

 Oh, cuddly brothers... warms my heart. 

 Kendall doing a magic trick for Uncle Jamin.
He figured it out immediately, while I watched it twice through and was still amazed.
Dang magic tricks. 

Today!
So, so excited.

Have a great weekend!

What I Wore Wednesday

Hello.
My name is Jodi, and I am the newest addict to Downton Abbey.
(not Downtown Abbey, in case, like me, you thought the people going crazy about the show all over the internet were having serious typo issues.)
I heard the hype and it did not disappoint.
But I'm sure this is no surprise since I just wrote about reading three Jane Austen books in a week.

Me and period dramas/romances go together like peanut butter and banana on toast. Delicious.

What else do I go together with?
Dresses and boots.
That's what.

Saturday

 Old Navy cardy, thrifted Target dress, Walmart leggings and boots, Fred Meyers necklace

Sunday

 Target cardy, Sunriver gift shop dress, Walmart boots, SarieJune etsy store necklace

Monday

 Old Navy cardy, Target dress, Walmart leggings, Nordstrom cardy Uggs, thrifted necklace

Tuesday

Walmart jacket, H&M scarf, Shade Clothing tee, Target jeans & wedges

I also like jeans. 

And some time last week...*

Shade top, Target jeans, Ebayed Uggs, handmade scarf, gifted bracelet

*Please note: this outfit definitely wins the boring award for the week, but I included it because I knitted that scarf myself, and then used extra yarn to hand stitch it into an infinity scarf, and I am QUITE pleased with myself for being even a little bit crafty. Yay me! It might look plain white in the picture but it's really a mottled oatmeal color that I love.

Now back to Netflix for more Downton Abbey :)