Tagged by Chrissy

It took me a while to figure out what this was. On my friend Chrissy's blog, it "tagged" me. I am to take the fourth picture out of my fourth folder and post it. Here it is!


Phew! I could just see it being a really gross pic of me or something!

Backlog of Dramatic Scenes

Nat has become quite the drama queen/dancer/rock star lately. Here is some of our recent dialogue (approximate):

I. (After turning her musical movie, to which she had been dancing earlier, off ) "I didn't even bow yet."

II. ( Julsie is in the tub and I am in the bathroom with her.)
"Pretend this (the bathroom) is your house."
"Okay"
(she leaves, shutting the door. After a while, she knocks)
"Who is it?"
"It's Natalie"
(I open the door to find she has decked herself out with a pair of sunglasses, necklace and purse)
"Oh Natalie, it's so good to see you again." (we hug in greeting)
"Its been a long while" she says.
"Yes, we're so glad to have you here."
"Yes, I just came to ... to chill out."
"Oh, great, well, come on in and ... chill. (We sit down. I'm on the floor. She is on the toilet. Pointing to Jules, I say)
"You know my baby, Julia, right?"
"Noooo, we've never met."
"Oh, I'm sorry, this is my baby, Julia. Julia, this is Natalie."
"Yes, Natalie, Natalie... Rockstar"
"Oh!"
"Yes, I'm..., I'm from Howdy, Howdy Texas. I love Texas. I'm a cow... cow... cow goil (girl).

III. (Relayed from my friend Cheryl, as our daughters were playing veterinarian together.)
Ky, the vet, says, "what is wrong with your puppy?"
(putting on her best dramatic face, with raised eyebrows and lowered eye lids, Nat rubs her fingertips down her own throat.) "Well, you see. My dog, .... my dog is having trouble. He..., he can't get his ruffs out. He's having a problem with his throat and he can't get his ruffs out.
(Ky goes on to prescribe a special dog bone to cure this issue with the ruffs.)

IV. As is always the case, kids know more than we give them credit for:
I say, "On Tuesday, we are going to go see a man,.... well, you know how daddy is like the boss of our family? Well this man wants to be the boss of our country. That is called the President. He wants to be the president of our country. "
"You mean, like Obama?"
"Yeah, like Obama, but the other guy."

V. Nat is in bed, I'm rocking Jules.
"Mom, sing the song about the bear and dreams."
Racking my brain, "I don't know that song honey. Why don't you sing it for me?"
In her falsetto, she sings about 4 or 5 lines of a made-up song. I have a hard time putting it all together, but it was something like this:
"Oh little bear, come to me. Come to me and dreams come true. There is glitter everywhere....." and on.
"That one, sing that one mom."
"I didn't quite get it, can you sing it again for me?"
She tries to sing it again, but has trouble remembering it herself. I sing a few words, including bear and dream and it seems to pass muster. She sings another song. It begins like this:
"And the monkey kisses the frog ..." It goes on to include words like dreams and prince or princess. It even speaks of a turtle in a glittery hole. All the while, she is "conducting" with her hands while singing.
"Sing mom." I stand up now, snuzzling and "slow dancing" with Jules as I sing. I now understand the kind-of thing she is looking for and make up a high-pitched nonsense "song" made up of all those "key words" strung together (like dream, glitter, various animals, wish, princess, etc.) From her bed, she is still directing:
"No, mom, you have to do this (demonstrating a slow, circular "conducting" motion) with your hand."

VI. We are eating lunch yesterday. Jazzy is hounding Jules for food.
"Did Jazzy eat today? I think she didn't eat today."
"No honey, she ate."
"Jazzy! get away."
A few minutes later, Nat is in the closet. John and I just look at each other but say nothing, pretending we aren't aware. Nat gets a scoop of dog food.
"Come Jazzy" (going towards Jazzy's bowl). "Sit. Good goil." tinkle tinkle of the food hitting the dish. Nat comes out of the kitchen and sees dad and I looking at her.
"I gave Jaz some food."
"Ok dog whisperer," says dad.
"I'm not dog whisperer. I'm Natalie. I'm just trying to teach Jasmine. I'm just trying to teach her to sit and not to jump on people and not to lick people. So I'm just trying to teach her."

Annual Trip to the Pumpkin Farm

Last week, we went on our annual trip with friends to the pumpkin farm! Daddy was able to go again this year, which is always so much fun.

We had an informative presentation on pumpkins and gourds

Went through a corn maze

Took a hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick out our very own pumpkin (The joy of finally finding just the right one can hardly be described haha).

We finished out our trip with donuts and cider!

Hershey Park in the Dark

On the 19th, despite suffering colds, the whole fam went to HP in the Dark. It was the only night this entire Halloween season that Tob would be able to go with us. Here are some pics from our adventure. HP has many rides open (with new spooky names), a trick-or-treat area for the kids, fall food and entertainment. It was free for the girls and I with our season passes.

We even splurged and bought a bag of Kettle Corn. When I met up with John and Nat after buying it, we just stood in place and feverishly shoveled handfuls into our mouths - like we hadn't eaten in days.

Here is Nat on her favorite ride - the Frog Hopper.

Here is Julie on her first "big girl" ride!!!! It was mom's first time on the Frog Hopper too. Here we are telling the little girl on the right it was J's first ride, she was so excited, she passed the info on to all of her little friends sitting on the next car. Turns out, Julsie is NOT in love with the Frog Hopper like Nat. Maybe next year.

Here are my little girls at one of the photo-ops in Treatville. More candy please!!!!

It was chilly that night, and by the time poor Julsie got home, she was like a little ice cube. I had to stick her in the bath just to warm her up. Eventhough she had shoes and socks, her feet were frigid... takes after her mom, I guess.

More Home-Ec

Ok, so yesterday, I bought:
4pk Bic Advance 3 Razors
2 Palmolive dish soaps (11oz ea)
1 Sally Hansen diamond lip gloss
1 18pk Girl product
1 Loreal age perfect moisturizer
1 Oral B toothbrush
2 - 6 pk Sunmaid Raisins

and I made a PROFIT of $4.00!!

An "A" in Home-Ec

(for JIR)

As a stay-at-home mom, I firmly believe that part of my job is to make his paycheck go further. Not so humbly, I give myself an A for my recent performance. I should definitely get an A for effort. I spend tons of time each week perusing the ads from the Sunday paper, clipping coupons, and mapping out my shopping plan for the week. I have learned how to play the CVS game and work the Rite Aid rebate system. So far this month, I am scheduled to receive $60+ back in rebates from Rite Aid.

The picture on the left is a sampling of stuff I bought for between $0.30 and $1.50. The picture on the right is a sampling of things I've gotten for free. That's right, FREE! Remember, this is just a sampling. As I was putting everything away from this photo shoot, I kept finding more and more items I had forgotten about. It also doesn't include items I have already used. For example, to the Free Side, add a Gillette Fusion Power Razor, another apron, a children's book "More Spaghetti I Say," a box of Honey Bunches of Oats, a jar of Bertolli Pasta sauce... oh, and I just received a free sample of FiberOne Cereal and cereal bar today. I LOVE getting stuff for free =)

I can't take all the credit. I've had some help. My friends here in Hershey have aided me in my conversion to a bargain shopper. They've introduced me to new "bargain" stores (bargain is the nice term) and helped me learn in-store "systems." We even pass around info on a Hershey coupon clipping blog!!

My personal secret has been to stock up on coupons. Oh, and I don't even get the Sunday paper. I'm too cheap for that. Sometimes John works on Sundays and will bring one home from station. Most of the time I just wait until someone throws their paper in the recycling bins near the dumpsters. Yes, I dumpster dive for coupons. Once I was caught by a man bringing his doggie's doo to the dumpster, "Oh, it's only you," he said, "I was afraid it was a raccoon!"

I not only check the dumpsters near our individual building, but I've also been known to walk or drive to the other dumpsters throughout our apt. complex looking for especially valuable coupons. Some weeks I have managed to wrangle 5 copies of the same coupon! John is completely embarrassed, but I choose to see it as one of my endearing qualities =)

Jazzy and the Great Outdoors

Jazzy needs a little face time too.

Here she is fetching at Sugar Lake (by my parents' home)

The lane to Sugar Lake and my mom's cousins' boathouse

All these pics were taken by John. This is right up his alley.

Jasmine standing over Mr. Tudor's gravesite at my parents' home. We planted that tree for him.

John thinks Jazzy is getting more lovey. I don't know, I try not to get too close to her. However, tonight I was snuggling with the girls on the couch and when Julsie got up, Jaz (for the first time ever) put her front paws discreetly on the couch and put her head in my lap. =)