Tazzy Tiffany

I find myself suddenly involved in a couple of different projects. I'm not sure if it's the springtime air, freshly mowed grass, pollen allergies/headaches that feeds my neurosis for numerous undertakings. I become the tasmanian devil spring cleaning, tossing, sorting and organizing. I find comfort in it. Does anyone else have this disorder? Here are a few of my many happenings in order of importance:

#1 My word searches are VERY important to me. It was hand-held Yahtzee for a while. Okay, so this isn't a home improvement project but definitely an addictive project which keeps me from doing the physical projects at hand.
On to the more serious stuff =)......

#2 (small task)
Updating my terracotta pots which we inherited with our home. They were cracked and corroding. I purchased some Satin Finish spray paint and voila. I decided to add a couple of accents at the top with the gray paint I used to coat our shudders with last spring. We had some green shudders that made our house look yellow. We also changed out our brass light fixtures on the front porch. No kidding, our house looked totally different.
I'm looking forward to filling these pots with some beautiful impatiens soon.


#3 (medium task) keeping my van in good working condition. My van has had some MAJOR issues lately. I guess it's fed-up with the lack of attention it's received since we had Miles. I try my best to service it and wash it, but it decided to take a few months off to recuperate. I really HOPE that its repairs will help mend the "issues" of transporting three kids around and listening to endless hours of the Wiggles and Veggie Tales. The van was dying because of lack of oxygen to the engine and the heat went out. I've driven a Quest, Yukon and Bravada over the course of the last few months. All great vehicles but nothing compares to the JOY of having your own car back.

We (me, Karson and Isaac) washed the van this afternoon. Isaac makes it a full-body event.


#4 (large task) putting hardwood floors in our great room and hallway. I think a law should be passed banning white carpet. Although it looks great in some homes and I understand the "clean" look it yields and how it "opens" up a room, my family can destroy it in a matter of days. The last two homes we've owned have had white carpet. I guess we attract it. No amount of cleaning can solve our white carpet problem, SO we've opted for hardwood. Our mission will begin this Friday. Actually, our mission began Sunday night when I began pulling up carpet, pad, and tack board. I want this mess GONE by tomorrow when our trash is picked up.

The hardwood was delivered last Wednesday. It became an instant attraction at our house. Since it is unfinished, we didn't want the kids climbing all over it. Our brillant solution: putting a fleece blanket over it. Believe it or not, it helped.

During this process, I've also been working on our trim throughout the house. We will be getting quarter round at the baseboards of the floor which will be freshly painted. I want all our trim to look that nice. Translation: painting all the trim, an oil-based, stinky nightmare. BUT, I do love the finished look.

# 5 (a future project, maybe) A friend of mine is starting to paint wooden frames and various items for the home. I'm considering having my old bedroom suit done. I want to update Karson's bedroom before school starts. I want her transition to Kindergarten to be as positive as possible. I feel like a new bedroom may aide in the process? My full set is nice but could use a more modern look. It's currently being stored in our garage and attic and providing no useful means whatsoever.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Hey, hey, hey, hey #10...we got our eye on you....and what

we like most of all...is the way you bust that ball!

Hey, hey, hey, hey #10...somebody's calling your

name...and it goes tick tock can't stop you Karson!

I miss softball cheers. I'm not sure if they exist anymore???

Karson is playing softball for the Pink Panther's this spring. Matt attended the team meeting a few weeks back. The girls were a bit confused on the whole name voting process. Matt said they raised their hands each time a different name was called out. Karson came home and told me, "our team name is the Pink Panther's but sometimes we will be the Lady Bugs." Last year she played for the Cheetah Girls. I'm glad that she enjoys softball. It's great exercise, a chance to make friends, and fun to play in the dirt. GO PANTHERS!

#10's boyfriend came to watch her play last year!

Looking cute on first base.

Isaac loved her hot pink helmet.

My TOP 10

Top TEN Parental Events in April thusfar:

(1) Watched a Spiderman grow in the middle of our kitchen table for NO LESS than 10 days. He must reach the full length in order to experience the complete euphoria.

(2) Come up with creative ways to channel our children's energy like painting the lawnmower ramps in the shed.

Sidewalk chalk is always a hit too. Isaac covered every square inch of our driveway this afternoon.

(3) Given our asthmatic Miles breathing treatments which HE CANNOT STAND. Solution: Baby Einstein. What on earth did mothers do before Baby Einstein and portable DVD players for the car???

(4) Planted the wild flower seeds we received in class last Wednesday night. Karson thought they would sprout up instantly. I strategically planted them where we once had our trash bin. It's an ugly spot next to our backdoor. I'm really hoping these flowers will sprout up beautifully there.

(5) Took the kids fishing on numerous occasions. Thank you Vernon's for your hospitality!

(6) AND, let the kids eat things they shouldn't =). Any suggestions on what to do with leftover Easter candy?

(7) Miles has started using a spoon. Hey, they have to learn sometime. It's a messy ordeal.

(8) ATE at the Wal-Mart McDonald's. Weird, but we were hungry. Of course, once we got our food and settled down, Isaac informed me that he needed to potty. LOVELY!

(9) Matt parading the kids through the 'hood. Why yes, that IS indeed a jump rope connecting the wagon to the lawnmower. This picture is priceless!

(10) THE OFFICE returns to NBC THIS THURSDAY. Every parent needs a good dose of Michael Scott in their lives.

Michael's words of wisdom to us parents:

"I don’t get why parents are always complaining about how tough it is to raise kids. You joke around with them, you give them pizza, you give them candy, you let them live their lives. They’re adults for God’s sake."

VOTE FOR MILES

Miles will soon be known throughout the neighborhood as the "Lawnmower Politician". Matt rides him through the streets. Miles smiles and waves to everyone. He wakes up from his afternoon nap mumbling jibberish along with the word "monmower, monmower". Monmower comes up about every fifth word for him in his limited vocabulary. There is NOTHING that thrills him more than riding on the lawnmower. He can sit on it in the shed, the yard, anywhere as long as he's on it. I took the keys out of it the other day when he was sitting on it. He threw the biggest fit so I gave him the keys, and he immediately put them back in the ignition. Yesterday, after Matt took him on the campaign trail, they came back to the house and he hung out on the mower for a while. When he got tired of it and got off, Matt put the mower back in the shed and locked it up. Once Miles noticed, he made a beeline to our rock hide-a-key (which contains the shed key). He got the key out and started running towards the shed. I love his passion for mowing. I wonder if he'll feel the same way when he's a teenager ???

*Yes, that was me on WUHU this morning stating that my favorite kids TV show is, in fact, SpongeBob. I was sitting in traffic on my way to preschool and decided to call in. I'll be happy to sign an autograph for my 2 minutes of fame this morning. Just let me know =).*

Plano Bound

3 month photo

6 month photo

12 month photo

I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T do you know what that means?

I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T do you know what that means?

She'll go to Plano, it's across the street, we'll be walking there, with our own two feet

She's a good broad =).

*Okay, I like Weebie's new song "Independent". I have liked rap music ever since I can remember--I guess Vanilla Ice or the Beastie Boys were my 1st experience. I download the clean versions although I exposed my 16 year old mind to the explicit lyrics back in the high school =(. I remember my Dad throwing my borrowed Bone Thugs-n-Harmony CD in the trunk on my Galant one day. Whoopsie! I've always enjoyed a wide variety of music including RAP.*

Karson is officially registered at

Plano Elementary.

It's hard to believe my firstborn will be

in Kindergarten this fall.

Oh my, where does the time go????

Beach Bunnies and low Batteries

My little Easter babies enjoying their loot.

Karson looking tired from getting up at the crack of dawn!

Miles has started posing for photos.

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Easter Sunday we heard the pitter patter of Karson's feet at about 6 a.m. We kept hearing her sneak down the hall, run back to her room and close (slam) the door. After about three rounds of this, we decided it was time to GET UP AND GET GOING =). She loved her basket and all her goodies. I decided to get the boys up around 6:45 so I could take some photos and Karson could FINALLY tear into her basket. The morning was chaotic as usual, but it felt busier on Easter Sunday. Here are some fun photos from the day.
The un-traditional Easter photos in front of our fireplace. Since we had nothing in bloom at our home and it was ice cold outside, we took our Easter pics. inside the warm, cozy house.

After church Sunday, we went to my parents house and celebrated my Dad's birthday. He shares a birthday with Ms. Windy on March 26 (and who we surprised at church on Sunday with a amazing cake by Larie, a gift basket full of nifty gifties and a bouquet of flowers). It was birthday party central. After the party for Dad, Matt and I left for a kids-free vacation to Destin with Shannon and Paul (sans kids also). It's the first trip we've taken since Karson's birth.
I've tried my best to chronicle our beach events.

Please don't feel like you have to read the post below, it's mainly for memory purposes.

My camera battery was dead so I was only able to snap a few photos.

Our home away from home.

The weather was perfect, and the ocean was beautiful.

My husband is very strong and quite handsome!

DAY 1: Matt and Paul golfed at Indian Bayou. Shannon and I hit the outlet malls and set up appointments for spa treaments the next day. We also hit all the local beachy stores like WINGS and Beach Zone. Shannon LOVES these places. They are fun. It's amazing how many trinkets they can actually pack into these shops. You can own lovely finds such as sharks in a jar, string CORONA bikinis, crocodile skulls, hermit crabs, toes rings-or if you're feeling crazy, you can get a hair wrap or henna tattoo. Shannon is like a kid in candy store looking at t-shirts =). Paul and I went half-zies on the buy 1 get 1 free sweatshirts. He had been sporting my Mom's red WKU sweatshirt due to the chilly weather. We ate at P.F. Chang's that evening for dinner. My awesome sweatshirt.

DAY 2: The weather was still a bit chilly but that didn't stop the major sun goddesses. Shannon and I aren't those and went to Avantgarde Aveda Spa and Salon. I wish I could say that we felt pampered and relaxed, but the whole experience was quite tortourous. We had both scheduled a customized facial and body polish. Both sounded amazing in their descriptive language in the brochure. The actual experience was quite different. The body polishing felt like someone rubbing sandpaper all over your nude (yes, that's right) body. I'm not sure if it was the masseur or the product, but it was sheer agony. Shannon did the body polish first and wanted to warn me about the intense pain but didn't have a chance. Meanwhile, I was having a facial which I was excited about because of the extraction. I was thinking extraction meant they were going use a machine to extract all the yucky oils and dead skin cells in my face. WRONG--the esthetician started popping black heads, AHHHH. I do my share of face picking but certainly wasn't expecting this from a spa tech. When Shannon had her facial and I was being skinned alive in the body polish, the esthetician broke the viewing mirror over her face and almost decipitated my sister. Overall, we gave the spa two thumbs way down. Shannon made a yummy enchilada casserole for dinner which helped soothe our aching bodies =). We hit Hurricane Lanes for some bowling after dinner. Shannon bowled the game high 201. Since we hadn't competed enough at the alley, we came back to the condo and played Scrabble. I won that round =).

DO NOT visit this spa.

DO visit Hurricane Lanes for pain-free fun.

DAY 3: The guys went golfing at Regatta Bay, and Shannon and I layed out on the beach all day. We ate a Captain Dave's on the Gulf for dinner, watched Disturbia and played Yahtzee that night. No real exciting events of the day, but Matt and I made a late night run to Wally World for toys. We were missing the kids and decided we needed gifts for them. We bought Karson a Fairytopia Barbie and Isaac two monster trucks. I bought Miles a cool water ball at Beach Zone on Monday which is sure to be busted with his sharp teeth.

Enjoying our dinner at Captain Dave's.

DAY 4: We spent most of the day on the beach. I've collected a myriad of seashells this week. I'm doing children's church on Sunday and thought the kids might want a cool seashell from the beach. We're talking about fishing and making fishing poles. We went to Pizza Hut for dinner and played miniature golf at The Track. Shannon and I decided to go back to the outlet malls and dropped the guys off for Louisville/Tennessee basketball. Barf!!! I would rather be at the Persecution Spa than watch college basketball on TV, but I was proud of our Hilltopper's for hanging with UCLA.

DAY 5: We beached it up again and decided to come back home. We had planned on staying through Saturday but decided we'd rather drive in the afternoon/evening than leave the following morning. We had a very nice, quiet, peaceful, relaxing vacation. It's nice to break free of the daily chaos of life and retreat to somewhere warm and restful and FREE (thanks David and Beth).