McGinnis Wins Drake Relays Decathalon

That was the title on the U of M Track and Field page.  And you remember how I told you that he was also number one for Big Ten this year as well?  Yeah, he's apparently got it going on right now.  Here's a picture from the UofM website just because it was way better than what I could get on my point and shoot at the relays...Although I am going to post those as well below.  In addition to RJ being busy with all this track stuff, he is also getting married on May 22nd and then will be going to Nationals (hopefully to score the #1 spot there as well!) and then in early June, he'll be heading for Houston to be a science teacher under the Teach for America program.  He had me read his application letter (he had to apply and be interviewed multiple times to be accepted) in the car coming back from Drake and it made me question when the "Smart" role reversal happened.  I used to be the one who was good in school, not him.  Not because he wasn't smart but because he didn't try for the longest time.  I was good in school and he was great in sports...now he's got both things going for him and I have babies at home that have zapped any last bit of knowledge that I used to possess.  Oh the joys of being a mother =)  I am for sure blaming it on motherhood because I never felt stupid like I do now with my lagging memory and inability to retain anything of importance these days.  But back to RJ and his awesome self...



Running the 1500...





Doesn't he look like he's prepping to be on a track and field magazine?  This hat cracked me up too...but it was a nice addition because he and two other guys looked pretty similar from far away.


Doesn't he look like a warrier here?  Like he's ready to go out and get his kill for the family waiting at home?

Typical RJ fashion...he wins first place and he's just like "whatever" looking down and stuff...

Alright, now we get a little wave...

A picture of the 4 U of M decathaletes...

Aww...how cute...



That's pretty much it for the Drake pictures...we took the below right photo at the hotel because we had the below left photo of RJ holding me when I was pregnant with Ayris...look how young we both look on the left...like babies!  I'm sure 5 years from now I'll think we look dang young in the picture on the right...(and hopefully a little less fat myself!)

Just thought I'd throw in this picture of the sour cream that expires on RJ's wedding day...

And this picture...well, the picture on the left is a bowl of awesomeness...the last couple boxes of Lucky Charms that I've had, the last two bowls worth of cereal get turned into one bowl so I can have double the marshmallows.  And on the right...well those are the delicious Neiman Marcus cookies that I made yesterday after seeing a picture of chocolate chip cookies on someone else's blog...how many of you are going to want to make some cookies now?

36 weeks...

I had my 36 week appointment today...not much to report. I was 1/2 centimeter dialated, 50% effaced and at a station -2. She checked what I was at 36 weeks with Asher and I was 0 centimeters dialated, 0% effaced and at a station -3. So, I am a smidge ahead of the game with this one and she has no doubt that I will be "favorable" for induction...meaning, I can elect to induce at 39 weeks but that I have to be so many centimeters (I think she said 2 and I was 3 centimeters with Asher by that point) so...that's good I guess. None the less, I'm excited to start tracking the progression from week to week now that we're finally at weekly appointments...Even though I don't feel "ready" with roughly 3 weeks to go, I am over the nightime interruptions...or at least their frequency...and in addition to my numerous trips to the bathroom last night, I found myself taking a bath at 3:30 a.m. because my back was KILLING me and I couldn't get back to sleep. Pretty lame when my lazy butt physically gets out of bed to run a bath...I'm hoping this doesn't mean that I'm going to have back labor though (if the pain were contractions in my back?? I don't know at this point...perhaps it was just from the 4 hours I spent yesterday cleaning the garage??).

Here is a 36 week picture. He's getting big...at least his head is getting big...I had the doctor look at the ultrasound results...his stomach, arms and legs and everything were all measuring around the 35-36 week mark and his head was measuring around 38 weeks...seriously! I don't think I'm ever going to get my small headed baby! I've been trying to decide if they get that from myself or Chris...my mom has concluded it might be me because she tried on a headband that was loose on her head that fit mine (and Ayris' by the way!)...and I did notice when I was trying on sunhats in Target before going to Iowa for RJ's meet, that they weren't even fitting my head...I find it hard to believe that almost 5 different sun hats would be too small...unless it's just my head. But maybe Chris has a big head too...I'm going to google what the average female/male adult size head is and then measure Chris and myself...then I'll get back to you!

I'm in LOVE...

I just found this woman on Etsy: RaeGun and her clothes are ridiculously cute...granted, most of her stuff seems to be geared towards girls as all other etsy shops it seems BUT, I did just spend a pretty penny on this number because I couldn't resist...I can't wait to see baby Collins in  this summer! 



And check out these girl jumpers with the little ruffles!  It's probably a good thing this isn't a girl because there's about 3-4 I'd just have to get...which, would run me about 100-120 bucks!







Seriously, how super cute is that little lady lying on the ground in that romper? I WISH I knew how to sew!

Just as a side note...I'll have you know that I spent a good 4 hours out in the garage cleaning and going through boxes today and I only saw one spider...it's pretty sad when there are more spiders IN the house than on the outside...bleh!

And on another completely random note, Asher just asked if he could go potty in Daddy's bathroom...I said yes, and then he asked if he could bring his bear with him...I love how he asks permission to do anything these days (he didn't used to...and his sister's motto seems to be, "do whatever you want and then apologize for it later thinking that will make it okay")...he's already turning into such a great little man like his daddy...I'll randomly get calls from Chris...hey, do you mind if I grab some lunch from downstairs? Do you mind if I pick up a c.d.? Do you think we could buy Avatar on DVD? I'll have you know too, these requests for things by Chris happen maybe two or three times a year...he never asks for anything...well, sometimes guitars...but aside from that...the fact that he actually asks to spend his own money...what a keeper huh?

Wanting to Crawl Into My Own Uterus

Last night, I was starting to feel like I was living in a 3rd world country...well...at least when it came to the bugs in our house. What in the world is up with the bugs lately. Yesterday, I saw two spiders and 3 ants. It may not sound like a lot people but it's a lot for one day...I was itching all yesterday and I'm itching now just writing about it. Asher pointed out the first spider, which was a daddy long legs on his and Ayris' bedroom door...then came the super cool HUGE hairy scary spider that just dropped down from the cabinet as I was making dinner...I couldn't much pay attention to dinner after that thing landed as I wanted to catch it under a cup and take it outside...luckily Chris got home so I was going to let him deal with it...I told him it was fast and to be ready...well the spider was so fast, Chris actually put the glass over him cutting him in half...so then I was feeling guilty for the spider...say what you will, I know the rest of you out there are bug killers but I honestly feel bad killing anything...as I know they're more frightened of us anyway...AND who knows if they have a family...that could have been a mama spider looking for food for her babies...who knows! Anyway, then I envision a similar situation if the roles were reversed and I think it would be like a plane of glass being dropped from high above onto a human (Like in Final Destination 3) and cutting them in half...obviously it's probably not the same but still! THEN last night as I was watching Brothers and Sisters, I see something moving in the dark on my duvet cover...yeah, it was an ant...not 15 minutes later, there's an ant on my pillow...what the heck! The third ant was in Chris' bathroom which is no biggie...for whatever reason, he always has an ant or two hanging out in his bathroom...but I'd prefer not have them sleeping in bed with me...so I came downstairs and told Chris that I didn't want the cats sleeping on the beds anymore because they must be bringing ants onto the bed with them in their fur...he thought that theory was dumb and that it's probably from all the food the kids eat in the bed and everywhere in this house that the ants are searching out the crumbs...I was like Hello! So ants are going to crawl into the window, down the wall, across the floor, up our 3 foot high bed, onto the mattress just to find some cereal crumbs? Needless to say, I went to bed around 10:30 and still hadn't fallen asleep by 11:30 because I was lying there thinking about how lucky baby Collins was right about then...aside from just getting to eat and sleep all day in a warm bath like environment, he also had the luxury of being in a bug free zone...and it kind of made me just want to get in there with him...at least until winter. Seriously, I've been waiting for winter to end for like the past 5 years (or so it felt that long) and now that it has, I'm reminded of one of the suckiest parts of spring/summer...
In other news, I had my 36 week ultrasound yesterday...I didn't like the lady much and she didn't give me any ultrasound pictures so I don't have those...basically all she told me was that he was weighing around 6 pounds 4 ounces currently. I imagine I will find out more tomorrow from my doctor when I go in for my 36 week checkup...if she has the ultrasound charts by then.

I have pictures that I'm wanting to post from RJ's Drake Relays but am waiting on my Lightroom 2 Program to show up in the mail first but I'll leave you with a few things Ayris has said lately.

I was explaining to her that I was going to ask Grandma Callie to watch her and Asher during RJ and Andrea's wedding...she asked me why, so I told her that it would be probably a little longer than what her and Asher would want to sit around and behave for...to which she replied: "It can't be that long...all RJ has to do is give Andrea some flowers, sing a song to her, give her a ring and then kiss her. That shouldn't take very long."
Then as we were leaving Andrea's wedding shower party on Sunday, Ayris was talking about how much she missed Andrea and then said that she would marry her if she could...but that she couldn't because she was a girl. She then went on to tell me not to tell Andrea she said that because she didn't want Andrea to get mad or be worried. I told her I figured Andrea would think it was sweet...but isn't weird how they get these ideas of what a wedding consists of...or who can marry who (we've never discussed opposite sex versus same sex marriage), and what people might think of them based on something they've said...when they are only 4?

THEN, the other morning, Ayris wakes up and the first thing out of her mouth is: "I want a stinky butt because I want dogs to be around me." I was like what?!?! It was too early for me to be completely coherent but the day before, I was telling her that she needed to take a bath because she had a stinky butt...and she said she didn't care if she had a stinky butt, to which I responded that people might not want to be around her if she had a stinky butt...only dogs would want to hang out with her. As I'm writing this, it sounds worse than it was...like I'm telling my kid no one but a dog is going to be her friend unless she cleans her butt! But it wasn't like that...anyway, it apparently stuck with her because obviously the next morning, she decided she'd like to stick with the stinky butt...dogs are more important to her at this point than people!

A Few More Random Pictures...

Here was one of my organizing projects today...I went to clean the toilet and realized it was time to clean out the underneath of the sink. I'm beginning to think that if it has a door, there's probably a clutter/mess hiding behind it! I'm constantly anal about picking things up and having "rooms" be clean but apparently cabinets/closets/drawers/cupboards don't really fall into the gotta-have-it-a-certain-way category. None the less, everything I'm cleaning out, I'm keeping on top of...the laundry room and the linen closet still look immaculate =)



While I was cleaning, Ayris was in her room playing...I came in to find that she had lined all of her zoo animals up against her window screen...doesn't it just look like they're itching to get out? Especially that little bear thing that's willing to stand on a tiger...she had just given all of these animals a shower with her...then she put those little tiny rubber band things for girls hair around each of their necks...not sure what they were for? Collars...necklaces?



I just found this picture as I was taking the above pictures off the card...apparently, Ayris or Asher...not sure who was taking pictures at the time...got this shot of my belly...it looks REALLY big here...I don't feel like it's this big so hopefully it's the angle. And that blue thing tucked in my dress was my second camera card...not sure why I had it sitting there...it obviously made sense at the time =)



THIS was going to be my lunch. I kept smelling something burning but just thought that it was something outside so I didn't get up...until I remembered that I had put some eggs on to boil about an hour and half before! Yeah, this is what the pan looks like when all of the water has evaporated off AND an egg exploded when I went to move the pan off the burner. Burnt, exploded eggs smell way worse than egg salad/peeled eggs. And lucky for me, I had little egg bits all over my arms from the explosion...so I continued smelling it until shower time.

Picture Sizing...

Just checking to see if these sizes work better...







This below was a little planter that Ayris made at Lowe's this past weekend...I'm thinking I might try and take the kids to these workshops at Home Depot/Lowe's as often as I can...Ayris loved doing it...and it's all free! They have cute and fun little things to do too...the next weekend is building a bird feeder...for this planter, they even gave us the soil and some tomato seeds to put in it...we just had to paint it on our own once we got home.



Now...if only I could figure out how to center that darn main header picture of the kids!

Changes...

I'm trying to figure out how to get my picture of the kids above to be in the center...it's not working too well for me right now...but in some good news, I have figured out how to make the pictures WAY bigger on the blog...with the help of Sean Gilman...I have a new love of photobucket to upload and edit pictures...along with making them side by side. The lame thing about this whole thing...is now, my process is about 3 steps longer! The more involved I get with trying to make my pictures perfect, the more steps it takes. First I bought the expensive camera...then I had to get the expensive lens so I could get the blurred backgrounds on the photos...then I decided to edit them in lightroom...well now after I edit them in lightroom, I have to pop over to photobucket now to save them as a larger file and then embed a code that I then place on my html portion of my posts...it's just time consuming...and be it that I like to post a million pictures...it can be REALLY time consuming doing that to each picture...but seriously, after editing my pictures and making them bigger, who really wants to go back to the regular pictures I used to post? Not me...can you even imagine how sweet this little baby boy is going to look when his pictures are all blown up for your viewing pleasure on this blog...can't wait! Seriously...cannot wait for him to get out.

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING...if we go by when I'm hoping to induce, I would be at around 29 days right now instead of the 36 that the ticker shows (the ticker is now at the bottom of the blog...I know...sucks that you'll have to scroll down to see it...but I'm not professional...I can only figure out blog code so much at a time =))...so he should be here in no time!

K, so maybe the pictures a little BIG...but until I get the kinks figured out, that's how it's gonna be...




There's not much else going on here...the kids and I went to Walgreens today so we could score 6 bags of gummy worms/bears for 12 cents a bag...they're on sale for .39 cents...no coupon needed but then if you pair that with this coupon: http://www.gummies.com/GummiesCoupon.html then it equals out to about 12 cents a bag...unfortunately the limit is 6...so I think I might be making another trip there for another 6 bags, considering we've gone through two bags in about 3 hours now. Anyway, you're welcome...I'm sure all of you are as excited about gummy worms as I am.

That's all for now...

Testing?

Random Post With Pictures...

This is an open invitation for anyone else who would like to come lay all over me. Seriously! These cats have been ridiculous lately...they are both glued to me in addition to my two children who can never seem to be off of me. It's been making me crabby most days because I already feel totally cramped with the extra ten pounds that are riding in front of me (baby, placenta, amniotic fluid), then to have two kids literally smooshed up against each side of me and then the two cats right in my lap...I'm ready to just blow a gasket. I should probably feel loved but all I feel right now is overly crowded and claustrophobic.

The kids have both become addicted to PBSkids online so both computers have been in use as of late...now it looks like we might have to get another, whatever this thing is below of Chris'...

Ayris put these 3D glasses on last night because she said they reminded her of spongebob...

They actually remind me a little of Siobhan Magnus on American Idol...

Asher's turn...

Yeah, guess who has absolutely no future in the makeup artist industry? That would be Ayris! But it sure was relaxing to let her go crazy doing my makeup. Notice her favorite color pink is the standout but she did make sure to include my favorite color black as well!

The next few pictures are of my awesome organizational skills. I'm kidding. But I decided to start cleaning random areas out one by one and hope to have all the projects done before little man comes. This was the laundry room...I know...gross right?

It's so clean in there now though that it's kind of my favorite hangout. I get all happy when I open the door and realize how nice and neat it is...you might not be able to tell, but those shelves are highly organized...even though they might still look crowded...I haven't bargained shopped for toiletries in a long time...it turns out my stash is lasting FOREVER...

This was the hall closet...I just tackled it this morning...

I got rid of a bag full of trash (not that I was using it as a trash can...just boxes and random things we didn't need.) And two bags of blankets/sheets for goodwill...and I'm not big into folding sheets...more of a wadder...so those stacks are as good as it gets.

And this I just came across...it's Ayris' box of pacifiers...I haven't decided if I should put this away in her own box and buy all new ones for baby Collins or let him use these? I'm thinking they're kind of special and should be saved for her...her pacifiers were a huge thing...I do know for sure that I'm going to try with all my might to make this next kid a pacifier baby. I'd much rather deal with taking it away than dealing with everything going in the kids mouth. Asher wouldn't have a thing to do with pacifiers...and that's when I realized that kids actually put poop and sand, and goldfish left under the couch and rocks, etc in their mouths. I never had that problem with Ayris because she constantly had that pacifier in there. Not only that but Asher was on nightly bottles for about a year longer than Ayris because she was satisfied with just the pacifier at night and not a bottle. The only downfall I can see of the pacifier is having to go in about 10 times a night to give it to the baby until they're like 9 months old...at which point, you can just throw like 10 of them in the crib and the baby can find it themselves! This is probably half...maybe even a quarter of the pacifiers we went through with Ayris...

The Color Post

I'm not sure what my obsession with color is about lately since I've always been the super boring, black and taupe type of person...BUT I've been on a mission to get some colorful rugs for the bathroom. As I was standing in the shower today, I was thinking to myself that I was finally ready to drop a hundred or so on some. Sorry Chris =) Actually, I don't have to say sorry...I highly doubt Chris would care. He knows that I save money on most everything and I also sit on decisions to purchase something until I'm REALLY sure. He probably wishes on some occasions that I weren't so frugral. The last time we went out to lunch he said "So what am I allowed to order?" because we generally only go places that I have coupons for! And some of those coupons restrict you to certain things...are you feeling bad for him? That I even dictate what he gets to eat when we got out?? Don't be...he'll tell you himself he can eat anything...AND on that particular occasion, he was able to eat whatever he wanted. The sad part, is that we still managed to spend close to $50 that day for the four of us even with a free entree! I've joked (although it's not really that funny!) that it'll take a half day's pay for us to go out to eat once we're a family of 6 and the kids are bigger. Yeah...that's actually depressing. ANYWAY, the kids and I went to Marshall's today and didn't find any bathroom rugs but did find a rug for the kids room:

And this super cute pillow that I have plans for in our bedroom to complete a look...

I've been looking at this comforter for a while...it's white...which is crazy with kids, I know...and Chris and I currently have gotten used to having our own down comforters and I don't think either of us want to go back to sharing a blanket...but I love the little pleats on this...and I'd like to actually have a bed that looks like a bed and can be made instead of two huge down comforters bulked up on it.
These were the Easter egg dying cups the kids used this year...they've actually come in handy when the kids want cereal or fruit snacks in a bowl...however, we have about 500 jelly beans right now that I needed to find a home for because I decided to buy these popsicle container things and they were filled with all of these jelly beans...

The containers make for huge Kool-aid pops...

Ayris begged me for this flamingo in Target...it was in the dollar section (although it was $2.50)...I really wanted to say no but she had me convinced that she might just die if she didn't get it. So then it occured to me that I could actually SAVE some money in buying this if I just made a deal with her...she could ONLY get the flamingo if she didn't ask for ANYTHING else the entire shopping trip. Surprisingly, it worked. Unfortunately, this is now sitting out in our front yard (partly because that's where it's supposed to go and partly because the kids were about to kill each other fighting over it just in the time it took me to empty the groceries.) Ayris has already asked if we can get another one when we go back to Target. She must be craving some color too. The only problem, is that everytime I see it...I think of some trailer park in Florida...and adding more flamingos to our yard is not going to alleviate those images in my head.

This is a bowl in our cupboard that doesn't have a lid...these cookies are about the only thing I can store in it knowing full well that they will be eaten by the end of the day (And they just got put in there around 3:30). Every single person in this family loves these ,basically filled with a crisco like substance. Ayris eats the pink, I eat the chocolate and Chris and Asher eat the orange or whatever is left over. I personally have gone through an entire package of these before...and stats are disgusting: Calories = 1200, fat grams = 64! Thankfully, I have children and a husband to help me now. These are one of those taboo items that get bought about as often as I left myself make rice krispy treats (because those too get eaten usually in one day.)

I found a recipe for rainbow cupcakes online and we decided to make them today...since you know, we're obsessed with pretty colors right now...and here's how lame I am...I was pretty sure I was going crazy...each store I went to, I could NOT find food coloring like the dropper kinds below...just those dumb gel tubes that come with colored frosting like stuff that can dye your frosting or be used to write stuff on cakes, etc. I had been to Target, Walmart, Cub, etc...(I have been looking for these since Christmas when we were going to do cookies...and then this Easter and now)...I was convinced this was just another thing that was trying to make me feel old...like I'd outlived some oldschool creation back from when I was "young"...(there've been two other things that have made me question my age...I took the kids to the park the other day and found myself appreciating the weather AND noticed all the pretty birds chirping...what is up with that? Those are definitely not things I've ever cared about before...and the second thing that made me think that the times were changing and that I'm apparently an old person is my brother's wedding registry...it's like a Christmas list (Sorry RJ and Andrea!)..."back in my day"...people asked for toasters and blenders...maybe even money...but now the kids are asking for Wii systems and video games???) so yeah, back to what I was saying, I thought those little bottles were a thing of the past just trying to make me feel old in not being able to find them...SO I called Rainbow as a last resort and asked the guy if he had any...when he said yes, I asked him where they were...Yeah, they're in the spice section...not the baking section...which, I mean, makes complete sense right? Yeah, I thought so too! Needless to say,every store seems to carry them...in the SPICE section!

The cupcake liners were layered with all four colors we made...

Aren't these SO cute and fun?