Attention Shabby Apple Dress Lovers! 15% Off

Just Let your eyes wander over to the right side of my bloggy there. See that little Shabby Apple Box? Hit that baby and choose anything on the entire site

Whatever your little heart desires

enter the code

IVY

And like magic you will get 15% off

Go ahead and show your hubbies if you want so they can

"Suprise" you with a awesome gift.

Tell them I sent you

and

Your Welcome

:)

Dont know what Shabby Apple is? do yourself a favor and take a look.

If I were you I would buy the blue number up there.

Hint Hint Don Juan

1985 Called They Want Their Book Back

I always get so excited when we get a package. Its like opening a present on Christmas morning. I LOVE IT! so when we got this package I was pumped. I knew immediately it was a book. I automatically started thinking in my head " What book did Don Juan De Markland order me?"
I could hardly stand it so I ripped it open and you can imagine my surprise when i was staring at the Autobiography of Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan? Really? I knew this wasn't for me, and I knew it want for Don seeing as he is a bleeding liberal...(although he did just read Dick Cheney's book)What a let down. I decided that if he was going to order a book for someone else he should have it sent to his office, because this was a bummer.
In my disappointment I texted my love

" Hey, 1985 called, they want their Ronald Reagan Autobiography back"

I got no response.

SO in one day I was utterly disappointed twice

1. book package not for me.
2. My hilariously witty joke was not even acknowledged.

Boo for crappy disappointing days

Have a Happy unproductive lazy weekend!

Lunch Wars

When I was asked to Review Lunch Wars by Amy Kalafa I have to admit I was hesitant. Not because I do not believe in feeding my children good healthy food, on the contrary I believe it is essential. I do not let my children drink Soda or sugary juices we drink water. I don’t feed my children sugar cereals, nor do we have chips as a snack staple in our home. I have however met quite a few moms who feed their children all organic all the time, and while I respect that way of life it has never been for me. That being said I was a little hesitant because I was not really interested in reading a book that I thought would be telling me how all that I am already doing to make my kids healthy is still not good enough. I was not interested in reading a book that would tell me on every page how my children were going to be unsuccessful slothful adults because I don’t use whole wheat pasta. Am I sounding a bit bitter? Ok maybe.
I decided to read the book anyway and I was pleasantly surprised. While the Author does choose a fully organic way of life, I did not find her message Harpy or undermining. The book talks about the food our children are being fed in their school lunches. I think most of it would surprise any mother out there. While my children do not eat School lunches, they prefer homemade lunch (Phew!) I still learned quite a bit about what my kidletts are eating. I searched my pantry and Icebox to find any high fructose corn syrup (which I did have one thing that had quite a bit of the nasty stuff, you will never guess what…. My Jam that I put on my kids peanut butter sandwiches everyday! Dang it! )
Overall I liked the book, it was very informative. Was it an awesome page turner I couldn't’t put down? No, but I’m glad I read it. I will never look at a school cafeteria the same again.

Jump in and tell what you think HERE on Blogher we would love to hear from you

FYI my Ladies

" This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own"

Anticipation Will Kill Her

I have this awesome neighbor Allison who's daughter accidentally grew a billion beautiful cherry tomato plants in their front flower garden, this wonderful neighbor has invited me over to pick some tomatoes numerous times. not only does it make for good girl talk it also gives us all of those beautiful tomatoes that I have not been able to grow.

I also have this dog, who is not quite as awesome as my neighbor, but she is close. This dog, Ophelia, was found hiding behind the toilet again, ALL DAY. I have yet to find what said dog has done to warrant her hiding all day in anticipation of me finding her naughty deed. One day I will find what you have been doing sweet Ophelia, just wait and see.

For Mature Eyes Only. This is Rated PG at Least.

That title sure does make this post seem scary. It is not scary, but it is most surely for mature eyes only

* if you have a sweet spirit and anatomically correct wording makes you queasy please read no further ( get your mind out of the gutter this is a clean story, just maybe a little risque.


I have never been one of those moms who shy away from teaching the kidletts the correct terms for parts of their body. We use the real words in the Markland house, and we always have. Therefore you will not hear " WEE WEE or "PEE PEE" or any of the terms we use for girls. This being said, I walked in to the Jude Monsters room today and alas he is butt naked from the waist down AGAIN. He just loves to be naked. So instead of my usual " Jude we need to wear clothes it is not modest" I broke out with the big guns
" Jude you don't want to show everyone your ( insert anatomically correct word for the male anatomy here) do you? I know you don't, and that's what will happen if you keep taking your pants off"

here is where I naively believed my then humbled 3 year old would throw on his pants give me a huge hug and say " your right mom thank you"

Did that happen? Really? I was not talking about Logan here, I am talking about the Jude monster, of course that did not happen....Instead this happened...

" I do Mom, I want everyone to see my ( insert anatomically correct word for the male anatomy here) I love my ( insert anatomically correct word for male anatomy here). I want to show everyone because I love my ( insert anatomically correct word for the male anatomy here) sooooo much. Please mom Please."

Needless to say I was shocked. My jaw dropped to the floor and I instantly started searching for my phone so I could share this tidbit with his Pops. Don Juan needed to know Jude's love for himself.

Therefore, this is a fair warning for any friends, family, or just a random person driving by. I apologize ahead of time if you see what my son loves best about himself. If you do happen to see a half naked child and you do notice that it is my Jude Monster please feel free to tell him to clothe himself like the gentleman he is.

Thank you and again I am sorry.

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Umbrellas and Soccer Games

To be 100% honest our weekend was not that awesome, I would catergorize it under LAME. Jude not only was getting over strep throat, he then got that dumb Hand Foot Mouth virus that causes kidletts to break out in blisters on his hands feet and mouth ( they could have come up with a more creative name )

But we did go to some friends Baptisms which was great, Logan played and awesome game of soccer! I couldn't have been more proud, and Kennedy finally earned the umbrella she has been wanting sooooo bad. So the weekend was OK, not horrible, but not up to normal Markland Awesomeness. It probably seemed so lonesome because Don Juan and Jude were home all by themselves during the fun times. We missed them and want the Jude monster to get better.

My Maxi Skirt Makes Me Look With Child

What we did today.... nothing exciting, Jude got sick! are we surprised? I am not, I mean it is below 80 degrees out so of course this little nugget got sick. I don't know what to do with him he is so miserable. Logan refused to let me take a picture of his cute face so he is noticeably absent, as is Don Juan due to him working. Never fear we got two of Kennedy she is a camera hog.

I am having a hard time writing this because My sick little guy cant sleep, he keeps waking up and yelling because his throat hurts so bad...... I am counting the hours until that antibiotic kicks in.....come on medicine.....come on medicine. Stayed up with Jude all last night so Don Juan could sleep and tonight he is bestowing upon me the same luxury.....Don Juan is in for a bad night, but mine will be serene

And no I am not growing a child in my womb, even though my striped maxi skirt may be saying otherwise, it is just an unflattering angle, and I had a big lunch, and I might have eaten a whole can of Pringles by myself the last two days, and I am eating mint chocolate chip ice cream as I type. So maybe it is not a bad angle, but no I am not pregnant. And did anyone get my Sam and Diane reference in my post yesterday? maybe not? probably not my best reference

Sam and Diane

A perfect face to end a perfect day. I am starting to find the kidletts Halloween costumes and it is proving to be a Bear. I have something against those silly buy in the package jumpsuit costumes , you know the full body suit cowboy type thing? So, every year I am on the lookout for the most authentic costume pieces ever that I can put into the perfect costume for the kidletts. Considering my crafting and creative abilities register at a whopping ZERO it never really turns out that great. The kids love it but I always look at it and thing it is not quite LEGIT.
Plus they always want to be something lame ( no offense my loves, but it is true )
Therefore Halloween and I have a little Sam and Diane thing going on. I love it because it is one of the Holiday Trifecta that we Marklands adore, I hate it because I really want the costumes to look like it just came off a movie set. I will never win (unless Halloween quits to pursue its budding movie career.)

A Little Slice of Heaven

Remember when I said the Jude monster fell asleep at Mary Poppins? I told you it was a serene moment.Look at his precious face. I struggle with the Jude Monster because he is so different than my other kidletts. I love him so much, but that boy can get a rise out of me like I have never seen before. I still feel absolute love for this little devil, and deep down I secretly love his rebellious side, maybe I wont be so fond of it when he is 16, but for now it is awesome

We got our Halloween decorations out on Sunday. I know it is very early but we like to celebrate holidays to the extreme in the Markland household. We are EXTREME HOLIDAYERS ( is that a word?) Christmas goes up Thanksgiving night and I promptly take it down the day after Christmas. I do this because it is too depressing to leave it up any longer. The season is over, it is a sad day, and I do not appreciate the decorations up mocking me, reminding me that the best time of year is DONE, OVER, FINISHED.. Im getting upset just writing about it

On a Wonderful note, my cancer marker is still at a big fat 0, which means I am pretty much kicking this Cancers booty. I also will be getting a magical shot this year when I do my radiation so I will not feel any of the side effects I had to bear through last year. apparently I could not have done it last year because my radiation dose was too high, also it is insanely expensive. Seeing as I have met my own insanely high deductible and for the rest of 2011 all my medical expense are 100% covered I am going to be partaking of that magical, insanely expensive shot, and happily sticking it to my not so nice medical insurance provider. Overall we just thrilled that so far I am still going strong, in a year or so we will laugh about this, well, not really laugh but you know what I mean

Jude asleep on my lap, Holiday seasons amongst us, and still no more Cancer

A Little Slice Of Heaven

The Theater, The Theater

Mary Poppins is here! We love this movie, I loved it when I was a kid as did Don Juan. There is just something magical about Mary Poppins flying in on her umbrella that makes everyone smile.

I also love that she is just a little strict with the kidletts she watches, which is makes me feel a little better about my mothering skills. Mary Poppins is the best right? So I am doing ok right?

Yes that's what I thought. Thank you for agreeing with me

My favorite song was "Just a spoonful of sugar" What a great message for your little kidletts ( and adults ) to learn . Put a little bit of sugar in all the bad things in life and life will be quite a bit more delightful. Who couldn't use that little bit of advice sometimes/all the time

The kidletts had never been to such huge theater ( capital theater, we saw the touring Broadway way show) and they were amazed, I am a bit disappointed I missed the last half of the show due to this

He really tried but just couldn't make it. I got to watch the last half in the lobby on the huge TV on the wall. It just was not the same seeing Bert dance on the ceiling through a TV screen.
I do have to admit, before he wanted to lay on the floor he was snuggled quietly on my lap. It was peaceful and serene to just have him to myself cuddling up to me. HE NEVER DOES THAT.

Seeing Logan's and Kennedy's face as they came out made up for what I missed.

P.S they had figured out how Mary Poppins flew........ready for this??????? They had to have had a million fans backstage and all that wind made her fly........Not bad problem solving if you ask me, even if it was not quite right.

Lots Of Work to Do

Weekends are so full for us I don't even know where to begin......this weekend was especially crazy each activity truly is begging for its own post so since I am busy today taking care of the monstrosity you see above I will not being posting those today.
Sneak Peak: We played in the largest dodge ball game ever, saw a play, played soccer, I re-fell in love with my freckles...ad maybe a few more treats.

Lunch with Just Me

Ran in to grab some bread today while all of the kidletts were in school. All of a sudden I was smacked with the reality that I could get a sandwich, I have my kindle in my purse, and I don't have any children to pick up for 1.5 fabulous hours.......So, this was what I did between the hours of 1:10-1:45 pm. I cant believe how just 35 minutes can relax you when it is truly kid free. Plus I got a to of reading done, another thing you can do surprisingly fast kid free.

I Remind a 20 year Old of His Mother....... I know it.

I asked you guys what you wanted for dinner since Dad had client meetings most of the night. Rule is everybody has to agree, I am not the mother who makes something different for every kid, every single meal. after some adorable deliberation the consensus from you troops was clear

PIZZA!!!!!!!!

you guys were very clear you did not want home made you wanted delivery...

DONE, DONE, DONE

I made you kids watch The Santa Clause

Just because it makes me happy,

and got told by the 20 year old working at Smith's

that I had beautiful eyes.

I wonder if he knows that he tells me that every time I go in?

Does he tell every woman who comes in wearing Jammas and looking frazzled that she has pretty eyes?

most likely,

Maybe I should tell him even at my hottest in my early 20s my eyes were never the thing that made 20 something college guys swoon....

That would have been my Sparkling Personality!!!!!!

( and maybe my legs, I had pretty great pre baby legs, ask Don Juan :)

Anyway, that Smiths dude always stares at me like a dear caught in headlights

I have come to the conclusion that since my eyes are not that striking it can only mean one thing

I remind him of his mother.

P.S If i was his mother I would tell him to take those ridiculous huge circles out of his ears ( I think it is called gaging?) wash that horrible platinum dye out of his hair and go meet a nice girl.

but alas, I am not his mother.

:)

Jim Bridger is Mocking Mr. Logan

Ever seen this guy? It is Jim Bridger. I know this because I have seen his face in no less than 30 billboards spannig Utah ( he has more billboards than Glenn Beck and that is saying something)
Don Juan and I have never been particularly fond of these boards so we choose to ignore them.

Wasting time in the kitchen one day and Logan asks
" Who is Jim Bridger?"
I ask him where he heard that name and he said
" Those big signs on the road"
I answered just some guy I am not really sure, Logan said
" well, I hate those signs they bother me, I feel like he is mocking me"
With that he turned around and walked out of the kitchen.

I had nothing to say because,,, yes I don't like those signs either, and maybe I do feel like he is mocking me just a little bit....

Good Call The Logester good call.

P.S Isnt that picture just a little creepy? Im sure he was a wonderful man but come on that gives me bad dreams

Monday in Pictures

Our Monday in pictures.

Mondays are always blah.

Even more blah is when you husband comes home and says

" Hey baby lets watch the Republican National Debate tonight."

Which also means we will be watching two hours of commentary and responses after, switching between fox news and msnbc ( because they are both crazy extreme )

my Monday just went from Blah to Worse

The Tale of a Perfect Marriage

A little bit ago Don Juan was speaking to a consultant at his work and she asked about his marriage. Weird that she would ask? yeah she was a little nosy, anyway, He said

" oh my marriage is perfect"

She responded

" Well that worries me because anytime someone says their marriage is perfect it is obviously a lie because no marriage is perfect, so, really, how is your marriage"

Thankfully my man simply said

" My marriage is prefect, next subject please"

he came and told me what happened which led to a discussion. I also said I thought our marriage was perfect.

So we started debating why this was such a bad thing to think.

We came to the conclusion that our definition of perfect was different than some peoples.

We obviously do not get along perfectly all of the time. Sometimes we even tiff. Well, to be perfectly honest I tiff with myself seeing as he doesn't seem to get mad at anything.

We disagree alot

Sometimes we are rude (correction: I am rude)

sometimes we are not the best parents

sometimes we are selfish

and the list can go on and on.

We know this is normal

When all of these issues come up we choose to follow the rules we set early on in our marriage

1. Always Always Always go to bed together

2. Never say mean things in a disagreement just to be mean, we like to call this fighting fair.

3. Go on a date once a week . This is probably the hardest one but we do go at least three times a month, we make it a priority

4. Laugh (i suck at this)

We follow these rules and it seems to work out.

When we bug each other we talk it out once we have chillaxed

To us this IS a prefect marriage. Two adults working towards the same goal the same way. We don't think perfect means never fighting. We think a perfect marriage is defined by how you deal with Not having a perfect marriage

So yes missy

We DO have a perfect marriage

Do I lose credibility if I admit that I am writing this up in my room while I mope because we were supposed to have a date night at home tonight......and then Don Juan noticed the Packers were playing?.......NO that is not a fun date night........

So I am moping,

I have been moping for a good 30 minutes

I don't think he has noticed.

I will probably go out for a walk with my friends and shut the door extra hard to make my point.

Don't worry, I have every intention of letting him know before we go to bed that I had a whole fight with him tonight and he didn't even know it!

See! PERFECT! ;)

Albus Dumbledore in our Bed. Not as Exciting as you Might Think

Somebody Needs to tell Albus to get his own bed.

I love you and all but you weigh more than me and we don't exactly have room for the three of us. When Don Juan goes away on business you are more than welcome to share my bed, but for now you have to get your own.

Have an awesome weekend, Mine is going to fun and full of girl shopping time with no kids.

I know I know

your jealous

Dear Logan

Dear Logan,

You are loving school this year, second grade really works for you. It is wonderful to see you so happy. I do have a confession to make, second grade is kicking your madres butt. Your homework is crazy this year, I am talking 1.5 hours a night,and as much as you love school it is hard for you to focus and get the work done. It is causing me some undo stress. I remember being your age and thinking my teacher was so old and sooo smart, but now as your mother and a 31 year old woman I find your teacher quite young (23 anyone?) and when I spoke to her I found myself retreating back to my school days age and I was nervous and wouldn't make eye contact. Then I noticed she was also nervous. WHAT? NO WAY! she was intimidated by me! Oh how the tables have turned! I was the older wiser one ( that might be taking it a little far but this is my story and I am sticking to it).
Not to worry my sweet Logan ,I took it easy on her, I told her I appreciated all of her hard work and that you love her, and then I simply asked her to explain to me your homework expectations because what she sent home was unclear. She very kindly explained expectations then apologized for being unclear. I told her no apologies needed it was probably my silliness that made it unclear and was on my way.I walked out of that school with my head held high.......... That was the best discussion I have ever had with a teacher. Maybe growing up all of my teacher were just people like me who make mistakes and are not perfect. knowing this fact would have been nice during my middle school years, it would have saved me hours and hours of practicing what I was going to say to my teacher in my bedroom mirror...........10 year old Michelle, eat your heart out!

Love,

Mom

Untolerable Cuteness

I know this is totally Jude overload but it was his first day of preschool, cut me a break. :)

heading to a day of doctors appointments today...... one after another and they are all just for me. I am hoping I can work my magic with my Big C doctor and convince him that my next radiation treatment doesn't need to be in December, I could just as easily be postponed to after the Christmas season no? I am keeping my fingers crossed, otherwise just like last year their will be no frolicking this Christmas season. This would be a travesty and I will do everything in my power to make sure it doesn't happen again. Last Christmas was a sad tired mess ( well that's how I felt anyway)

Keeping my fingers crossed!!!!!

Labor Day was Fun Fun Fun

We had a great Labor Day Weekend! it included a Baseball game with friends that totally got rained on, but we plowed through and enjoyed the game. We also ran a race, went on a family bike ride, and played a little Clue.

Jude starts preschool this week, and he cant wait........

Wonderfully Wonderful Weekend

Have a good Weekend all. Ours will consist of laying in blanket forts in the family room while we have family story night, a little 5k race, Raptors baseball game, yard work, homework ( for all of us.... BOO) and a lot of lounging around. We love 3 day weekends

Banana Republic Ripped Me Off

Ok kidletts this is a true story and it starts about a year ago.....................

Your Pops and I were bored one night so we decided to turn on a little show called Mad Men. We liked the show OK, but for some reason the next week we watched it again. Now, this show is not exciting, thought provoking, its really kind of a downer, but something about it drew us in. It could be my little crush on Don Draper, but really, I don't know, I'm just saying that could be it.

One day while watching the show I told Don Juan that I loved the clothes on the show and I wished we dressed like that nowadays. I would be the hottest wife ever cooking dinner in those house dresses........Oh how I wish I lived in the 60's. I even posted this little post here about how hot Don would look in those Mad Men Suits

Fast forward to Don Juan and I in New york City and I see this on a Taxi!

I was very excited and we ran straight over to the closest Banana ( three stories thank you )

I had Don Juan try on those suits so fast he didn't know what hit him.

Bam! he looked hot just like I knew he would.............He even loved that beautiful 3 piece suit. I was sold, the suit was his.....until we looked at the price tag.........

$750. Yes you read right $750 ( if I wanted the Rain coat I was looking at over a cool $1,000 )

Now I have decided that this is unfair, Seeing as I had the idea that people should dress this way over a year ago, shouldn't I get a better deal? Sure, Banana Republic actually did the work, I just sat on my couch and said " people should really dress like that now" But somehow I think that Banana Republic is ripping me off. I should get a huge thank you for this brilliant idea that is obviously going to make them a TON of money. I should get some kind of compensation ,no?

So to Banana Republic I say " Your Welcome for my genius " I would also like to state that I would consider a $1,000 men's suit adequate compensation.... That's all I'm asking for......I don't think that is too much :) Pretty Please :)