The Wee One Turns 7

Ahhhhh….seven years ago today I struggled through hours of labor without pain meds to bring boy #2 into the world! And when people told me I would forget the pain…..they lied. I remember every. miserable. second. Even this morning I recollected those agonizing hours of being in labor, and I am pretty sure I had some Braxton hicks just for ol’ times sake.

 

Connor David Budach is growing up!

 

 

He’s a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich loving, DS fanatic playing, high energy expending, tough as nails….. BOY. He’s great at math and is reading every night to us, instead of the other way around. He continues to love baseball, basketball, and will play soccer this spring as well. He swims like a fish and can’t wait for pool time during our vacation next week.

 

With both of my boys I have always been amazed at how much growth occurs between the ages of 6 and 7. This is the year that so much maturing and realization happens. I sat at a restaurant last night (thanks for dinner Grandma Cindy and Dave!) and was so proud of how he ordered his own supper, looked the waitress in the eye, said thank-you and please repeatedly as the dinner went on, never once had to be asked to stop kicking/talking loudly/bouncing, and ate like a real person!

 

This is the year Connor has discovered friends! He has had play dates and birthday parties and is looking forward to his own friend birthday party this weekend. He has come to recognize the qualities of a good friend and it’s been fun to see him expand beyond just playing with the older neighbor boys. He’s become such a social butterfly that it was the one thing discovered at conferences that he needed to improve on…LESS TALKING! Seems he’s got a little girl in him after all…..who knew.

 

 

 

He still never tattles (lucky brother he has), he rarely cries, he loves to sleep, and he is a great eater! He’s even decided he likes broccoli this year. He doesn’t like pop (perfect!), does like Spongebob macaroni and cheese, Doritoes, Sunchips, pears, lemonade, and can make his own ham and cheese sandwich! He does not like cake of any kind. So this year I got him an ice cream cake which seemed to go over a little better.

 

 

I can barely hold him anymore. He’s almost too heavy for me. I knew this day would come. Makes me sad. He’s starting to sit still for longer than 3 seconds too so he’ll actually hang out on my lap for awhile. So, I suck it up and allow both legs to go numb just to squeeze out a few seconds with him. He always has, and still does, prefer to be held when he first wakes up…..mom and dad are happy to arrange that.

 

I can’t wait for this summer. Seriously, with boys like this…..our summers are going to be so much fun. They are easy, they are sweet, they are fun, they love to play with each other, and they are pure entertainment. What more could parents ask for? We are so lucky.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUGAR! We love you and are so proud of the boy you are growing up to be……

 

Weekend

Busy weekend!

We are finally thawing out in Minnesota! Sunday afternoon the sun came out, and temps got up to 50 degrees. You know spring has arrived when the sump pump is going off every 15 minutes or so. A familiar and welcome sound…..

 

The yard is a mess, but that’s okay.

Saturday we took the kids to see The Lightning Thief. Noah read the book, took an AR, and was ready to see the book come to life. I had already heard that the book and movie were nothing alike. Boy was that an understatement! Noah kept telling me when things were changed throughout the movie, and there were numerous. He was a little disappointed in how much they changed it, but still thought it was a good movie. I liked that it taught the kids a little about Greek mythology. It was an action-packed movie, sure to please any boy….and a mom who is easily amused.

 

 

A little sword fighting is a must after seeing this movie. You have been warned.

Next weekend is busy. We are having a progressive dinner on Saturday with four couples. (Which by the way, I am in charge of dessert. Any suggestions?) Then Sunday is Connor’s birthday party. The movie we had hoped to see doesn’t come out early enough, so we are having Connor’s party at the indoor Holiday Inn Serengeti water park. He has five little friends coming and since we can bring up to 10 kids, Noah gets to invite two friends too. Should be a good time.

 

On a side note, last week I got out the last of Connor invites. I actually drove over to their houses and put them in their mailboxes (they lived on the same street, near each other so it was easy). FOUR days later, they were returned to me with a little $44 written in the right hand corner. In other words, the mailman didn’t like my little sneaky plan. I wasn’t happy about it. I thought for sure the kids’ parents would have made plans already and they wouldn’t be able to come to Connor’s party.  It would take another two days in the mail for them to get delivered and I was discouraged to say the least. 

 

Mike decided that night we would drive them back to the houses and go to the door. So, we all piled into the car and drove back over to the houses and Connor was going to run up to the doors. As we pulled up to the first house, I was confused. It looked nothing like the houses I had been to a few days earlier. You guessed it, I had delivered those invites to the wrong houses that first night! OOPS! One street was called Stony Creek and the other was Mossy Creek and both streets have identical house numbers. I took back all those mean things I said about that mailman (including the part about him injuring himself on the rust on someone’s mailbox) and drowned my humiliation in a Shamrock shake from McDonalds. I laughed the whole way home every time I thought about all the mean things I said about that poor mailman! Ha!

 

Since next weekend is pretty busy, I have been doing some things this weekend to get ready for Florida. We are down to 12 days and can feel it creeping closer and it’s stressing me some. I have been hauling out summer clothes, making the kids try on tons of stuff, and then I did some ordering online for ME and found the CUTEST t-shirts online at Ann Taylor loft for 30% off!

Here’s one…isn’t it cute? I am sure I will look that skinny when I wear it too.

 

Planning on grilling some chicken tonight, doing some correcting, and watching my Sunday shows! Another week is upon us. I started teaching health this week at school though and it’s BY FAR my most favorite thing to teach. I actually look forward to it. So, makes for days that fly by when I get to teach it three times a day!

 

Hope you are all enjoying some spring sunshine. What happened to the 30 inches of snow we were supposed to get?

Love,

LB

March, my love….

We love March around these here parts. The long cold months in the tundra can start to get to a person. Then, just when I begin to think winter will never go away and spring will never arrive to put us out of our misery…it gets to 34 degrees!

 

 Look! You can even see the GRASS! And it’s green! Okay……green-ish.

 

 

 

I can open the front door and enjoy the light coming in. Until the furnace kicks-in anyway. Which takes about 7 minutes.

 

 

Never mind that it still looks like this across the front and back yard. Heck, the side yard too, if you want to know the truth.

 

 

 

Never mind that the swing set is buried still…..

Nerf gun wars still work in the snow! Although don’t put the gun down, you won’t find it again until June.

 

 

MARCH brings with it BIRTHDAYS!

Connor turns 7 on March 18th. I think we will plan a movie theater birthday party.  THIS movie comes out this month so I think he and his friends will enjoy that while I enjoy the peace and quiet a movie brings, even with 5-7 small boys!

 

My birthday is the 24th. I tease Mike because he actually has acknowledge it this year! For the past three years we have been in Florida for my birthday so I, of course, didn’t expect anything or any big deal made. But, this year we will be home, so hopefully he’s planning something grand. I am sure he is. Right now. As we speak.

 

Then we leave for Florida at the end of the month! I can not tell you how excited I am about this. It’s what is keeping me from going insane. Things have been hectic, crazy, all over the place. Not my idea of fun.

 

So WELCOME March! What took you so long?

It started out innocently enough….

“Let’s go and find a shelf for the laundry room!”

 

Sounded like a good idea at the time. Our laundry room was a mess. The walls had never been painted, they were the same horrible primer white they were when this house was built. The only storage was a cheap wire rack above the washer and dryer. Speaking of washer and dryer, I hated it. I was waiting for either to die so we could get new. Why won’t something die when you want it to but something you LOVE will die lllloooonnngggg before you are ready?

 

After checking out IKEA and being thoroughly annoyed with how that store works (it’s like I am a cow being herded around a pasture. I hate the constant pressure to move, move, move, move or risk the chance of being run over by the lady behind me with 8 screaming children in a large shopping cart), we came home and had luck at good ol’ Lowes. We found two shelves actually, one for above the washer and dryer and one for above the utility sink.

 

On the way home from purchasing the shelves, I started thinking about the walls in that room. I knew they needed to be painted very badly. It’s not what I had planned for my Sunday (planning stations for the endocrine system for science was the intended job for Sunday) but I decided to tackle it.

 

Mike proceeded to pull out the washer and dryer.

 

 

 

While pulling out the washing machine, we noticed a greasy film on the floor where it once stood.

 

Have you ever washed a load of clothes and found little grease spots on your clothes? They show up extra clearly on dark clothes. And especially vivid on clothes you have just ironed for work the next day, if you know what I mean.

 

Well, Mike thinks there is a connection between the grease on the floor and the stains on our clothes. That’s when I heard the most beautiful words ever……

“We should just get new ones.”

 

It was with that that I sent him to the store with my parents (mom to pick out a cool color and style and dad to drive his pick-up) and I proceeded to paint the walls.

 

INTRODUCING THE NEW BUDACH LAUNDRY ROOM……

 

I know many of you have these already, but bare with me. This is exciting. I know, I know, I did not go with the front loading. There are a few reasons for that…

1. My sister-in-law has this top loader and she loves it. She has five children. She does a lot of laundry. I trust her.

2. I wanted the biggest capacity washer I could get, and this is bigger than front loaders.

3. I had heard horror stories about people having to deal with mold in their machines with front loaders, I didn’t want that nightmare and I didn’t have time to research all the ones that had this problem.

 

 

Shelves already filled with detergent. Gonna buy some cute baskets for above and in that little shelf in the middle.

 

 

Filled with cleaning supplies!

 

 

I used a sage/gray green color we use in the bathrooms in the house because I wasn’t about to buy new paint for a room no one but the family (and you) sees.

 

I love it. And check out this baby……..

 

Is there such a thing? Whitest whites?! Is there such an animal? Do they realize I live with boys? Boys that go outside with their shoes off all the time? Socks that aren’t even close to the color white after one wearing? We will see, I have a load of them in now as I type.

 

 

Productive weekend. My poor husband put those shelves together until almost 10 last night. Feels good to have done. Now we have a real grown-up laundry room!

 

Happy washing……

LB