it was a good afternoon

and I discovered Hipstamatic today- a cool picture app on my phone!

random pictures from the week

a zhu zhu get-together
found this on the island...
bad, bad goings on in the master bathroom:

water leaking in

running down the wall under the top sheet of the sheet rock

NOTHING we can do but watch in horror...

John is ready to be committed to the psych ward...

and even worse some nights we hear a constant drip drip drip but can't find where it's coming from(somewhere in a wall I'm sure= mold!)

me too much of a baby to go outside for better shots of the kids building their fort after blizzard #1 so here are not-so-good pictures from the kitchen window...

Mickey's newest cool creation:

I love that he has a cup of coffee in there. today he added a coffee maker. :)

the felt/wool flowers I've been making:

SO easy! I got the idea from here

how was that for a bunch of random stuff?? hope everyone has a wonderful NEW YEAR'S DAY!

my bff

this is one of the best inventions ever created- and one of the best things I've ever spent my money on. it is the shark steam mop and if you don't have one you MUST go get one. trust me, you won't be sorry. i'm sure you have all seen the info-mercials about it and maybe you wondered if it was as great as it seemed on tv. well, it is. my mom has one and says it has CHANGED her life drastically. my friend amber has one and she HEARTS it. the swivel sweeper was my old best best friend but now it moved into second because this is definately my new bff. ps. the cheapest way to buy one is at kohl's on sale with an additional % off coupon(I had a 30!!) + during kohl's cash. i got it for a steal that way. but they sell them everywhere(walmart, target, the usuals)

oh what a night...{nights}

(picture taken by Craig Gerlach for the Fargo Forum)

Last night was CRAZY! We were awoken out of a dead sleep at 1:30am to the sound of the tornado siren going off. Then we ran down to check the tv(1 of the 3 channels we get with rabbit ears) and they said the worst part of the storm was heading toward downtown Fargo and get in the basement. But I didn't want to wake the kids! I decided we better be safe than sorry so down we all went(MB was delirious) and meanwhile... nothing happened. Just some lightening. I wouldn't say I was disappointed exactly... but SOMETHING to justify waking us all up and ruining a perfectly lovely night's sleep would have been nice. Jeez.
THEN at 4ish a BIG storm came through(just a thunderstorm, no tornado warning) and it would have been fine EXCEPT it eventually knocked out the power so my box fan that blows right on me from the window sill and saves me from from death by heat stroke each night- turned off. (side note: the air conditioning refuses to make an appearance in our bedroom so even though it was on and all the kids were comfy- it was still 106 degrees in our room) Then after I managed to fall back asleep MB showed up to let me know that the power was indeed off in her room too. Thank you peanut! Then the thunder was SO loud without my fan to drown it out that I had to shut my window. This resulted in my room changing temperature to 135 degrees with a humidity of 100%. I tossed and turned for the next 2 hours, sweating and hallucinating until John's alarm(battery powered) went off 3 times(pet peeve) and I mumbled something about not leaving me there with a bunch of rancid food to deal with from the warm fridge. He ignored my "lunacy", per usual, and went to get ready for work. The power came on an hour later and my fan sent me back into a happy nap. Best night EVER. And by best I mean worst.

And now for tonight. Here's what we did- Applebees-yum! thanks again Amber!- (she gave us a $25 coupon/voucher thing) and then off to Target for this...

Now, I went to Target with the whole fam(mistake number 1) and was armed with 8 million coupons(mistake #2) with the expectation that since all of them were legit everything would work out perfectly at the register(mistake #3). I even split the stuff up between me and John so that there would be less to keep track of(mistake #4). Low and behold- it was agonizing going through all 44 of MY coupons with my cashier(I LOVE how Target puts out their own coupons but then their register always beeps when you use them) and then when I checked John's receipt I found a $3.50 coupon didn't come off and that turned into a 1/2 hour fiasco... Needless to say John and the kids were not happy campers and I'm vowing once again not to do that
1. with them and 2. using so many coupons at once. Oh well, all and all it turned out ok since I got all of that for $20 and I saved $100 in coupons. In case you are curious, that's: 8 boxes of kashi granola bars, 4 juice box packs, 3 bags of bare naked granola, 4 jugs of yogurt, 3 packs of pens, 2 packs of boys socks, 2 dishwasher Finish kits, 4 bagel bites(for John), 4 ritz cracker thing-ys, 4 cans of soup, 4 sobee waters, 5 pudding packs(occasional treats for lunch boxes), 4 willy wonka bars(free so what the heck- there might be a golden ticket inside!!), 3 diced peaches packs(treats again), 1 pack of markers for MB, and a partridge and a pear tree. Not too shabby I guess.
Now I'm off to lay in front of my fan and watch a couple more episodes of the Tudors- I'm obsessed!
Boy, this was a long post. Sorry. Good night everyone.