Shopping with a five year old...

So today I had five million things to do in Bowling Green which included dropping forms to be filled out at Dr. Cavanah's office (thank you teenage boy GGC worker who insisted that I unload 2 half asleep children by myself and haul them in just to turn in a paper...I'm sure your 16 year old legs were too tired to walk the papers 10 foot across the lobby...)

Wait I got sidetracked...then I had to drop off some videos (I think they were actually on time) and then meet Travis at Hobby Lobby to pickup a frame (Yes I met him so he could corral the children in the van while I ran in, because the sight of Hobby Lobby turns my two little angels into whiny animals who sound like dying alley cats)

Actually things were going so smoothly I decided to venture to the mall with the munchkins. By the way, did you know that given then opportunity a five year old will chew the ear pieces off of two pairs of glasses simply because he was bored! It's a fact, and the look on the Lenscrafter man's face was priceless when I pulled out the aforementioned glasses and told him we needed two new sets of ear things. The man kindly asked, "Is this the first time he's worn glasses," Yes dude...what clued you in? He then proceeded to try and sell me a $150 pair of sports glasses for high impact sports (aka gym class) I kindly informed him that I didn't really think there would be much high impact sports going on in Kindergarten gym class, but thanks for asking...

And now the point of this post...I didn't realize I had a son going into high school...I thought he was going to Kindergarten. From the way he shops for school clothes you wouldn't know the difference. Anything I picked out was "uncool" and he repeatedly picked out the $40 jeans and the rocker t shirts, and to beat it all he loved the vintage 70's t shirts at old navy. We came home with a star wars one but I convinced him that a Rolling Stones one was not age appropriate. He also snaggled two pairs of camo pants, some more Old Navy T Shirts and two pairs of shoes...one of which his father nearly had a coronary over because they have skulls on them...(I tried to explain it went with the Old Navy rock and roll t shirts) but Travis insists that we will look like a juvenile delinquent...so I suppose he won't be wearing them to Sunday School any time soon. Anyway, if shopping with him was this challenging now I can't imagine when he's a teenager...I'm not even going to think about it.

He did however still want to ride the Carousel so I guess we're not quite ready to start shopping at Hollister...yet...

My Project is Finished!!!

Remember my earlier post, (you know the one about the spray paint, the fabric, etc?) Well I'm happy to report it is finished and our front porch has been given a face lift.

Basically, Travis and I are the proud owners of a vintage wrought iron patio furniture set that was going to be trashed by the previous owners. And this stuff is heavy, not flimsy like what you can buy now and it blows away. Add to that 10 cans of black spray paint (1.12 each at Walmart) a hubby who will spend a Saturday spray painting away... 10 yards of damask fabric (Walmart $4/yard) and some potted plants (3 o4 4 bucks each from Mammoth Cave Transplants) and we revamped 4 chairs a chaise lounge and 2 wrought iron tables. The result? Cute as can be!!! The best part? the entire project cost around $60 total.

OH wait, the second best part...me and my mom recovered the cushions ourselves and neither of us can sew...or at least I can't (Mom can but doesn't like too) What's our secret...we know how to fold fabric like you're wrapping a gift and use monster sized safety pins which are impossible to see unless you totally deconstruct the chairs....voil1a' a new porch for the Parsley's!

Nothing New I suppose

So today's allergy tests were really nothing new. She still has a "significant" egg reaction as well as some environmental allergens that are probably worsening her asthma. We are going to keep her on a morning and night drug regimen to try to keep the symtoms under control and we will check back in the fall (when asthma tends to flare) and see if we need to add something stronger to the mix. However it was a LONG day. We did chest x-rays this morning and then ended up in the allergist office for nearly 3 hours. I had to wait close to an hour at CVS and then run straight home to get ready to run to Kindgarten openhouse.

After open house, the kids wanted to go to the park so I delivered a photo order to a customer and we played at the park for a while. I am worn out, and it is nearly 10pm and Noah is still going strong...we had been trying to get him into a set early bed time in preparation for next week but I think all the excitement of seeing his friends tonight at school has him wound up!!!

I cannot believe that this time next week we will be officially begun on Noah's school career!!! His little backpack and lunchbox came in the mail today and it is SO Cute!!! He was so funny when he saw it he said, "I have always wanted a backpack just like this!"

I also must add in this little comment about South Edmonson Elementary. I am so impressed with the amount of work they have done in preparation for Noah coming to school. They have adopted a peanut policy to keep the campus safe for him, and my sweet friend Carol organized the open house with snacks that were completely safe for him. He was SO excited to get to eat the same cookies as everyone else, he's used to us saying, "Noah you can't have those, we'll get some of your cookies in a second..." tonight he got to just be a regular kindergartener, not the kid with the food allergy! I really feel like the school year will be a successful one with all of the strategies they have in place!!! Thanks guys, you have NO IDEA how much this means to our family. Travis and I have talked every night this week about how lucky we are to be involved in a school system that has so much care and concern for it's students.

Busy day

We are off again to the (HOPEFULLY) last checkup for a while...I think we've spent the entire summer in a doctor's office or hospital! Lil is going this morning for chest x-rays to make sure the pneumonia is gone and then this afternoon we are going for her official allergy tests. You have no idea how much I dread this, but I hope it will give us a clearer picture as to what we need to do to help get Lilly healthy again! (We had a blood panel when she turned 12 months and found out the egg allegy but that only tested egg, milk, and peanuts.) Today will be a broad test to cover a variety of food and environmental allergies. Noah is staying with Mom today because this is a stressful test for any kids, especially an almost 2 year old who has just been put through the ringer twice with hospital stays! But I am being positive that I hope it will be over quickly and we can get on the road to where we need to be. As I've said before, I couldn't have any more confidence at all than I have in our allergist. She is wonderful and she really cares about my kids and that makes a world of difference.

We will hopefully brighten up the afternoon with some chicken nuggets (lilly is addicted to chicken nuggets), a visit from Nana, and then we're off to Kindergarten open house for Noah to "meet" his teachers...only not really because they've known him since the day he was born. We're all very excited, and I cannot believe it is school time. He's still my baby! Have a great day blogging buddies, and I'll update test results as I know them.

Decorating...a little at a time

I love love love to decorate the house...I don't love love love the amount of money it takes. We moved in our home almost 2 years ago and when we moved in we had purchased new furniture for every room except Noah's bedroom (it was already new) so alot of the extras (decor stuff) had to wait! I have slowly but surely been furnishing one room at a time and I have not let myself get in any hurry.

In the past I would be in a hurry to finish a room and I would buy stuff that I didn't love and in a month I would be tired of it. Several of the rooms in the house are coming right along and I am almost satisfied with them.

Except the dining room, I love my dining room table and china cabinet, (black with dark wood top) but it is seldom used (Noah actually calls it the thanksgiving room...because that's the only time we use it). Don't get me wrong, we eat meals every day together as a family but we always sit at the kitchen table. However, I decided recently it was time to hang some wall decor in the dining room. And what better thing to decorate my walls than portraits of my beautiful babies??? So the above photo is what will soon be hanging on my wall in a 24x36 gold frame. What do you think? I will post photos of the room when it is all done, but I wanted you to see my sweet babies first!!!

All in a Day's Work...

This post is mainly for my benefit dear friends....I want to know your routine...that's right I'm being nosy and I want to know how you swing it all in a day's time!

As Mama's, I know that everyone has more on their plate than they can handle, so over the years (meaning over 5 years since N was born) I have experimented with different ways to get my routine all done in the 24 hours allotted in a day. When I worked a full schedule in the salon (when N was a baby) I hired somebody to come every other week and clean my house. I also had a job then that didn't require after hours computer work so the whole routine was pretty simple. I did a few loads of laundry a week, cooked supper when I got home and picked up toys, etc. and left the cleaning to be done by my hired person. Also, in that house we had 6 rooms (2 bed 2 bath kitchen, living room, playroom, plus a basement garage. So worse case scenario I could take a few hours and have the whole thing done! Fast forward one more baby, a job at home, and a house with 15 rooms and 2 kids home all day and it's been a challenge getting it all done.

When we made the decision for me to stop working during the day to stay home with the kids, we decided that part of that job would be also not hiring someone to keep house, because I "would" have time to do it during the day. So I started out trying to choose one day a week to get the cleaning done...never happened. I ran out of hours before the house was as clean as I wanted it. So then I revised my plan...clean a certain area each day and do basic kitchen, bathroom, bedroom every day. I try my best to get it done before the kids wake up but that doesn't always happen.

So my daily routine is this

Every day, make beds, unload dishwasher, swipe bathrooms, pick up stuff, one or two loads of laundry, washed folded and put away. (3 meals, and then clean up as you go)

Then I clean 2 additional rooms each day of the week (I combine the laundry room with a smaller bathroom) and then if all goes as planned by the weekend, the whole house is done. (When I say clean I mean, dust, take out trash, mop, and clean glass/mirrors, tubs, sinks, etc on bathroom day)

It all works beautifully until I get behind a day and then somehow I never get caught up. (Somehow I procrastinate mopping the wood floor cause I don't exactly know the best way to do it?)

Also I am addicted to products to make the whole process faster/easier!!! I use microfiber cloths and mops, method cleaning stuff (from TARGET and it's MY FAVORITE) and swiffer dry cloths sometimes. I have the vacuum for hard floors (cause we don't have any carpet anywhere.)

Mentioning METHOD, have you heard of it? It's chemical free and nontoxic. As you've read before I have asthma as well as both the kids, and I cannot clean with regular chemical cleaners. I have tried regular (clorox, etc) bathroom cleaners and wound up in urgentcare with lung problems, they are just too hard on our respiratory tracks. So I discovered method, they are all natural (they use plant derivitive cleansers and natural sanitizing agents) and that's all well and good, but I'm addicted to the scents (like grapefruit, cucumber, mint, lemon ginger, just to name a few) I would love to try the floor cleaners for wood as well but they contain almond oil, which is an allergen in our house. They are more expensive that regular cleaners but it's what we have to use and I love them!!!!!

Anyway, even with a "schedule" there are tons of weeks where I just can't seem to fit it all in a day. I do computer work at night and then somehow I never find time to get the vehicle cleaned out or the laundry put away....hmmm...I still think there's an easier method to all this, so give me some tips guys!!! Do you do house stuff in one day or do you spread it out over the week?

The Backpack Saga...the conclusion

I know your life has been on hold while you waited to see what kind of backpack we're getting for kindgergarten (ha!) We resolved it and ordered a super cute one from pottery barn. I voted for the orange and brown but Noah picked the blue one (a certain iCarly character also carries a blue backpack!) We also ordered the matching lunchbox. I can't wait for it to come in...however I am not quite so anxious to pack up my baby and send him to school! It helps though when his teacher is one of my best friends in the world and his teachers aide is my Mom. Do you think he'll be well taken care of???