Home Sweet Home!

We got home from our mini vacation on Tuesday night and are getting back into the swing of things at the House o’ Glamour.

*Check out Mommy and Emily's matching glamorous Nexcare bandages!

We had a great time! We went to our adoption agency’s annual reunion on Saturday. There was a downpour (which was a recurring theme for the weekend) before we arrived, so everything at the park was soggy. The event itself was lackluster, but seeing friends from our travel groups was a lot of fun. Most importantly, the girls had a blast digging in the sand on the “beach” at the lake! I forgot my camera on Saturday, so you will have to wait until Robyn and Erin return to see photos of Emily’s “lovely home for the ants” that she built on the beach.

We headed over to visit with Chuck’s brother Mark and his family on Saturday night. We haven’t seen them since New Year’s Day and of course, we had a great time visiting. Right before we arrived, Mark came home with Pat’s new scooter that she is going to ride for her 4 mile commute to work each day. With the price of gas continuing to rise, this is the way to go!


This trip was the first time that Mia slept in her air mattress/sleeping bag. She was so excited about it that she couldn’t settle down on Friday night. She eventually crashed and slept through the night! Our baby is growing up too fast!


On Sunday morning, we packed up the van and headed out to Fredricksburg where we visited two wineries. We also stopped to buy peaches and tomatoes…yummy! We didn't try the Goat Cheese Pops though...

Just as the girls were ready to have a complete meltdown, we rolled into Schlitterbahn. We checked in and made our way to our apartment. The place was really nice. It was formerly a doctor’s office that was recently converted into four apartments. We had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a small sitting area and kitchenette. After unpacking and a quick change, we headed over to the water park where we had dinner and splashed around in the kiddie play area. The main purpose being the release of pent up energy from three little girls who had been sitting in car seats for too long!

Glamour Girls...

The next day involved more splashing and swimming in between rain storms. This has been the strangest weather for Texas. Who would have thought that we would be dealing with soggy weather instead of raging heat near the end of June?!

In spite of the weather, we had a great time!

Our travel buddies, Robyn and Erin continued on down to San Antonio when we headed home on Tuesday. More photos will follow after their return! They seem to be the House o’ Glamour’s official photographers!!

Updated to add...we now have 1,014 Nexcare bandages left!

This...

Is what a year’s supply of bandages looks like.

Seriously!?!

When I got home from my marathon of errand running today, I found this big box in the dining room. I could not imagine what it was since I didn’t remember ordering anything. Obviously, I forgot that I won the 3M Nexcare bandages at 5 Minutes for Mom!

Here’s what we got: 8 boxes of Tattoo bandages (2 each of Ratatouille, Emotions, Disney Princesses and Winnie the Pooh – that’s 160 bandages); 3 boxes of Brights with Extra Cushion & Stick (total of 60); 9 boxes of Waterproof bandages in a variety of sizes (150 total); 13 boxes of Heavy Duty bandages (258 total); 7 boxes of Comfort Fabric bandages (150 total); and 10 boxes of Active Sport bandages (240 total).

If you lost track trying to add in your head, that’s a grand total of 1,018 bandages. Seriously!?! To utilize all of these bandages in one year, we would have to use 2.789 bandages per day. Unless I put out an email to my community informing my neighbors that they can stop by the House o’ Glamour for a bandage, we’re going to have our supply for longer than a year! I am praying that we won’t have the need to use all of our 1,018 bandages in a year.

Thanks again to Susan and Janice at 5 Minutes for Mom for hosting awesome giveaways! And, thanks to the folks at 3M for all of these Nexcare bandages…they’re awesome. And, they just didn't toss the bandages into the box. They included a very nice letter congratulating me on winning the bandages and wishing my family a summer full of skinned knees. No, the letter didn't include that last part, but Mr. Carter, Communications Manager did wish my family a nice summer! Who would have thought that I would be this giddy over bandages!

I’m off to pack for our long weekend mini vacation…since we’re visiting a lake park and a water park, I think that I’ll toss in a box of the waterproof bandages!

More Like...

The House o’ Germs rather than the House o’ Glamour around here, which explains my lack of blogging! Everyone has been sick including me and a sick Glamour Mommy is not a good thing. I’m crossing my fingers when I say that everyone seems to be on the mend. We have had a rough couple of months, but hopefully the arrival of warmer weather will have us healthy for a good long stretch!

Although there was illness, we enjoyed dying eggs for Easter and having an indoor egg hunt!

We were supposed to go camping last weekend with our friends Robyn and Erin and their families, but had to cancel because of…illness. After reading Robyn’s post, we’re almost glad that we were sick! So glad y’all weathered the storm and made it home safely…except for Erin and Bob’s tent!

Even though we didn’t get to camp, we had S’mores on Saturday night. I had all the fixin’s and was determined to introduce the girls to their first S’mores. The photos say it all…

Finally, I’ve been working on a pretty big project that I plan (hope) to tell you about it in the next few days. I’ve been having a great time with it and I’m excited to share it with y’all!

Speaking of sharing…the system that tracks my blog showed that there were 128 visits to My Glamorous Life last week. Hello! Don’t be shy! Let me know that you’ve stopped by to visit and how you found me if you aren’t a real life friend. And, invite me to come by to visit your place, if you have a blog. I’m not fishing for loads of comments…well, maybe a little…but I really would love to know who is stopping by!

Oooh...How I Love a Good Party!

And, this is going to be a great one! Susan and Janice at 5 Minutes for Mom are hosting The Ultimate Blog Party March 2 – 9. A week long party…with prizes! The prizes are awesome, but the opportunity to check out some other blogs is the part that I love...well, I like prizes too!

I’ll be partying all week long and the following week will introduce my faithful readers (yes, even those of you who I know visit, but still refuse to comment! Love y’all!) to new friends that I meet at the party.

I hope that many of you will join the party too!

Merry Christmas!

I'm quite sure that Emily was starting to think the Christmas Day was never going to arrive. Last night when I put her to bed, she asked me at least a hundred questions trying to confirm that Santa was indeed going to arrive that night while she slept. I finally convinced her that he was just around the corner and we had to get to sleep. Even though we put up a gate in the hallway, so she couldn't get into the game room if she got up before everyone else, I told her that she had to stay in her room until Mommy or Daddy came to get her in the morning. I told her that if she woke up and couldn't get back to sleep that she could turn on her light and read books. She must have woke up very early because when Chuck went to get her a little after 7 AM, she was laying on her sofa sound asleep with the light on and a pile of books on her lap!

Santa brought the girls several new DVDs including Mary Poppins (a Mommy favorite) and Mulan. Emily received a pink and purple Leapster L-MAX and Mia received a Little Touch Leap Pad. There were also books, slippers, new toothbrushes and toothpaste (how did Santa know that Mommy has been struggling to get the last of the toothpast out of the tube). And, most exciting...a play kitchen from Grammy and Pop Pop!

Here is the unveiling of the play kitchen.



They have been busy creating culinary delights ever since!

My Santa gave me this (But, my new one is the 124 square inch version. I broke the last one I had -- surprised?) as well as this and this. I think that he looks for gifts every year that will make me teary-eyed...he did it again this year! I've looked at these oil paintings several times, but never mentioned them to Chuck, so he really surprised me this year!

Chuck's Santa made him a small travel sized photo album of photos of the girls. He also received a DVD (The Davinci Code) and Chris Daughtry's debut CD as well as this and this. He's probably sorry that he mentioned that his New Year's Resolution is going to be to read more.

The girls had a great time and so did we! Merry Christmas y'all!

This and That

Today I have a miscellaneous mish mash of this and that...

Sometime during the kickin' party that we had earlier this month, we got to talking about safes...not sure how we got on this topic, but we did. So, my husband comments that he saw the one that he likes at Lowes and my mouth opens and I say, "Oh honey, just go buy it!" To which all the men grunted and cheered for Chuck. So, here it is...THE SAFE! Don't go getting all excited if you're a safe cracker stalking my house...it's primary function is to hold paper documents that are not worth any money at all! Yes, for some reason, we require this enormous thing to hold the adoption documents! Sigh...I love my husband!















At lunch last Friday (this is a link to Robyn's blog that has a recap of lunch and photos of my girls), Jamie gave the girls kits to grow a snowman and a tree. So, the other night set up our snowman and tree and very carefully added the "magic" water. I told the girls that they would grow overnight while we were sleeping. Emily wanted to know why the snowman didn't have to go to sleep. I guess that he doesn't have a mean snowman mommy who insists that he go to bed! Chuck wanted to know why I was growing mold.















The next morning we gazed in amazement at our "fluffy" snowman and tree. Emily jumped up and down until I added the "sparkles" to the tree and some for the snowman too. So, thanks to Mrs. Dr. Matt, I have even more glitter floating around my kitchen! Love ya J, but enough with sending glitter to my house! The snowman got kind of creepy looking because the "snow" grew up over his happy smile so you could only see his eyes.















Grammy and Pop Pop sent Christmas ornaments for the girls and we were given special permission to open these gifts before Christmas so we could put them on the tree. Emily received a Disney Princess ornament that lights up and a Rudolf ornament with a glowing nose. Mia received a Santa with arms and legs that move and a Pooh, Eyore and Piglet ornament. THANKS Grammy and Pop Pop!






























And, here you have it! Evidence that I can (and do) bake! I was feeling bad because my little family did not have any Christmas cookies to snack on because Grammy is not here this year (boohoo!) and she has been sick, so she hasn't baked anything to send to us. So even though I hate to bake and I try to avoid it, we got this to make cookies. We made the chocolate chip last night and they're pretty good...not as good as Grammy's, of course, but they'll do in a pinch! We're going to make the sugar cookies this weekend.















And, some last minute advice...You better watch out; You better not cry; Better not pout; I'm telling you why; Santa Claus is coming to town!

Isn't It Ironic and Decking the Halls

This weekend while I was cleaning our bedroom, I decided to clean out and organize the drawer in my bedside table. I keep hand lotion and lip balm in there to use before I go to sleep as well as a few random books and magazines that I’m in the process of reading.

Way down at the bottom I discovered my copy of Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood. I bought this right before Emily turned two and she has been reaping the consequences…I mean benefits…ever since.
















When I picked up the book, I noticed a black smudge on the front. I wondered to myself what it was as I rubbed my finger over the mark. As I rubbed, I discovered that there was actually a lump underneath the smudge. Now, what could that be? I opened the front cover to discover this…
















Raisins and Cheerio's!

Believe it or not, this is not the handiwork of the child who you might think would do this…you know, my youngest child who mangles glasses. I know this because I do not allow the two of them have snacks in my bedroom. Obviously, I shouldn’t have let Emily have snacks in my room while I was in the shower!

I just had to laugh!

Decking the Halls...

We spent this weekend decorating for Christmas and I will post a few photos later this week. In the meantime, I want to share one of our favorite family traditions...

Each year Christmas since we have had Hattie (2002), we look forward to taking photos wearing the deer antlers. Before we had children, we would put them on Hattie and try to get her to sit still for a photo. Now we take photos of the children and ourselves wearing them! Isn't it a lovely heartwarming tradition?

Mia...in motion as usual!















Emily...striking a pose.




















Daddy...being his usual goofy self! Good thing he doesn't read my blog!




















No photo of Hattie this year...and no photo of me...we have our dignity!

Snakes at House o' Glamour!

Okay, it was one snake. And, it was about six inches long. But, it was a SNAKE! And, where there is one snake, there must be more snakes. He must have friends and family somewhere close by. Hopefully, in a field on the other side of town, but eventually those snakes may come looking for their brother. Their brother, who now lies buried in the lot across the street. And, we must send a message that the house o’ glamour is not a snake friendly house!

This is how the reptile invaded the house of glamour! Chuck was doing yard work on Sunday afternoon while the girls napped. I almost bit his head off (a strange, sick reference of things to come) when he banged on the front door causing the dog to bark. I fling open the door, ready to reprimand…He says, “Run to the shed and get the spade shovel! We’ve got a snake out here!” Oh crap!

I deliver the shovel then run back inside to grab the camera. This is exciting stuff! Good blogging material!

Disclaimer…The following photos are not suitable for viewing with children and are not for the squeamish!

By the time I got back outside, Chuck has done this to the snake.















He says, “I guess that I didn’t really need to kill it.”

I shriek like a girl, “YES, you needed to kill it! It’s a snake! It will probably get bigger! And, he probably has friends who may see this and decide to move away from my house!”

Then, the head of the snake started to do this!





















Alrighty then! I suppose that he deserved to be a little ticked off, but it confirmed that it was necessary to do away with this snake. I apologize to all nature lovers out there, but it was a SNAKE!

Ah, the glamour!

A New Blue Baby

One of Emily’s little friends is traveling with her parents to China next week to get her baby sister. We saw her friend, J today at playgroup. On the way home, we had this conversation…





Emily: I want to go to China with J.
Me: Why do you want to go to China with J?
Emily: To pick up a baby.
Me: Why do you want to pick up another baby?
Emily: I’m done with her [Mia] and I want a blue baby.
Me: A blue baby? What is a blue baby?
Emily: I don’t know.
Me: What color baby is Mia?
Emily: She’s a pink baby, but I want a blue baby.

This conversation went on for a bit longer, while I tried to find out exactly what she meant by a blue baby. I don’t think that she was equating a blue baby with a boy because she referred to the “blue baby” as “she” or “her” several times. Where oh where does she come up with these ideas?