And I was standing right there when it happened.   I am such an attentive parent.

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These are the days I know will fly by like the landscape passing by a speeding minivan.  I am making many mistakes.  I raise my voice too often, I am too quick to get irritated, I say no more than yes  and I am often filled with mommy guilt at the end of the day.

But then we have moments when it all feels right.

Moments when my heart feels so full it might burst out of my chest.

Moments when no one is snatching a toy out of someone’s hands and no one is screaming because their world is coming to an end.

Well maybe the no screaming thing was taking it a little far.  Let’s be real.  Someone.is.always. screaming.

I guess that just comes with the territory.

And we do have peaceful moments occasionally.

A very special thank you to Elmo, Barney, Nemo and naptime for all the quiet moments.

I want to enter Alivia in our local newspaper’s baby photo contest.  I happen to think she is the cutest baby EVER.  I know, I know I am biased but whatever…so the only problem is that I can’t choose a picture.  I have narrowed it down to a few and I need your help!

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I have a few favorites in this bunch but I would love to hear what you guys think.  I am not indecisive at all…nope.  I just value your opinions that much.

In other news we are leaving for the beach tomorrow and I have about eleventy hundred things to accomplish before tonight.  I maybe probably should be productive today instead of playing on the computer.

In other other news our fabulous real estate agent (also known as  my dad) is coming over tonight to discuss putting our house on the market.  Last night he sent us some listings to look at online and although the idea of moving into a new house is exciting I am getting really anxious for many reasons.   I am just a fretter and I fret about things and make 35 lists and call my mom and consult her about every little detail.

I am however really looking forward to going to look at bunches of houses.   I mean HELLO it will be like House Hunters in my own real life!  Now how fun is THAT?

12 days ago I started the BIG SPRING CLEANING PROJECT.  Otherwise known as clean out every dresser, closet and drawer and throw the junk in the dining room.  It was horrible nightmarish process.  There were piles of crap everywhere.

There were goodwill piles, consignment store piles and trash bag piles.  I finally got rid of the last load of things a couple of days ago.  I looked around at the house and it was FILTHY DIRTY!  It looked like a pack of wild dogs lived here. It was a pigsty.  Or a dogsty.  Whatever… I am not kidding.

So I spent the last few days vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing and Clorox wiping.  Mr. 007 and I even washed the windows inside and outside.  Actually he did the outside and I stood inside  scrubbing the  inside of the window yelling” You missed a spot”!

Hey I am nothing if not thorough.

So this morning I woke up to a spotless house and it felt so nice that I decided to make homemade sweet potato muffins for breakfast.  I honestly don’t know what I was thinking dirtying up my beautifully clean kitchen like that but I guess it was just one of those domestic impulses that I later regret and bitch about cleaning up.

While I was mixing up the batter for the muffins Alivia let out an ear piercing scream and Addison called out in a panicky voice “MOMMY IT’S STUCK IN HER HEAD IT’S STUCK IN HER HEAD I AM SO SORRY IT’S STUCK IN HER HEAD!” All the while Livie is crying and crying as Adam and I race into the room.

Then I saw it.  An electronic motorized gerbil was stuck in my baby’s hair.  It was attacking her head.  It had wrapped it’s little wheel feet things around and around her hair and she was freaking out.

It may look innocent enough...but this is the rare, hair eating, toddler attacking gerbil of North America. Approach with extreme caution!

I honestly breathed a sigh of relief.  As I found the off switch I was just so happy it was only her hair and not as bad as I was picturing.  When Addison said something was stuck in Livie’s head I honestly pictured blood and an emergency room visit.  Adam took the gerbil apart and we only had to cut a tiny bit out of her hair to detach it from her head.

just minutes before the attack

They didn't even see it coming...so innocent.

Anyway after the motorized gerbil attack I finished the muffins and waited for them to bake. When they were finished I thought I would sprinkle a little powdered sugar over the tops for a bit of sweetness.  I only did this because Addison had groaned about how GROSS sweet potato muffins are even though she had never even heard of such a thing. I figured powdered sugar would make them a little more appetizing to her.

I have one of these Pampered Chef flour/sugar shaker things so I found the Ziploc bag filled with the sugar, put it in the shaker and sprinkled the tops of the warm muffins.

I got a little sugar on my finger in the process so I licked it off.

Something was wrong.

%&#@!!! ACK!   It wasn’t powdered sugar!  It was cornstarch! $#@$!!!

And let me just tell you I was IRATE.  I was so mad I could have SPIT NAILS!  I might have said an ugly word or two.

Enter Adam who actually saw humor in this situation.  He grabbed the camera and started taking pictures of the muffins despite my EXPLICIT OBJECTIONS! He told me that I needed to laugh at myself.

Yeah that's not powdered sugar.

You know what?  I have no problem finding humor in my stupidity.  I just need a buffer of a little bit longer than um 30 seconds after I do the stupid thing.  I need a buffer!

I was able to get most of the cornstarch off the muffins with a wet paper towel and sprinkle the real powdered sugar on top.  We added a little butter and they actually tasted pretty good.  And now I know that you should label your Ziploc bags when you put unidentifiable white powders inside.  Because cornstarch tastes like you licked the bottom of a shoe.  I am just saying.

So the bottom line is if you haven’t blogged in 12 days all it takes is a baby eating gerbil crisis and a ridiculous baking blunder to kick start your writers block.

Yay me!

I sat down to write my Wordless Wednesday post.  Then I realized I have stuff to say.  And stuff to say means words to type and well that’s not really cohesive with the whole Wordless Wednesday vibe.

The oo7’s have been busy lately.  In the past couple of months we have gone to GA twice, survived a tornado, watched Charlie Daniels play ‘The Devil Went Down to GA” at our church’s Easter celebration, had an argument about pizza on the hippie bus at Mellow Mushroom and Alivia turned 18 months old.  Whew!

I have several half written blog posts in my draft folder and I have been trying to figure out why I haven’t been posting very many blogs.  Then BAM it all made sense to me.

Did I mention Alivia is 18 months old?

Yeah 18 months is the best age ever.  I seriously LOVE it!  Addison hasn’t been that age in oh let’s see 6 1/2 years so I kind of forgot how time consuming babies are at this age.  Wonderful and hilarious and enchanting and adorable but time consuming none-the-less.

She naps really well for me but to be perfectly candid while she is sleeping I am usually sleeping, showering, twittering, cleaning, folding laundry or shuffling around the house trying to decide where to start.

So that is my story…Livie is a busybody and I am too busy trying to keep up with life that I haven’t had too much time to write about it.

Last weekend we went to the American Girl Store and Bistro in GA to celebrate Addison’s birthday  a little early.  Like a good mommy blogger I took lots of pictures and I have even started writing a post about it.

BUT…I also bought myself something a couple weeks ago and I am just about to start it.  Like as in as soon as I finish writing this post.

I am nervous about sharing it because then I will actually feel like I have to follow through. UGH  Accountability can SUCK IT!

So yeah I am a big fat fatty and I need to lose weight in the worst way.  It’s time for me to do something serious and I think this is a good start.  I will let ya’ll know how it’s going.

Ok so now I think you are all caught up…did I forget anything?

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of a kite on a windy day?  The things I do in the name of blogging!

She looks like she is having fun right?

After I took this picture she handed me the kite and didn’t touch it again.

Apparently she has inherited my mom’s irrational fear of flying a kite.  Sorry to out you mom but it is too funny and I have a blog.  Gotta keep it fresh!

Alivia had fun running around even though I didn’t let her hold the kite.  I mean it might carry her off to the next town or something.

It’s hard to get good pictures of her because she is constantly in motion.

She did think the basketball made a good place to sit so I took advantage of the seconds of stillness.

Addison stole her idea and shrieking soon followed. Then a few moments of sisterly love happened.

I love these girls!

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We had about 4 inches of snow a few days ago.

Addison was at my mom’s house so I took Alivia outside and she hated every minute of it.

By the time I took her inside she was losing her mind.

So I  got her settled on the couch with a warm blanket,  her loveys and a video.

MUCH happier

I took Max outside because I wanted to snap a few pictures.

Max was ecstatic!

He ran and ran!

He is the funniest dog ever!  He is big, hairy, dopey, smelly, he brings all kinds of debris in on his fur AND after he gets a drink he drips water all over the floor and your leg.  Not to mention THEN you step in the water drips while wearing socks.

BUT

He has the sweetest brown eyes EVER!

He just lies there looking all calendar cute …

And then he pees in the pristine white snow

Thanks Max

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Apprehension

ok THAT was fun!

Tears of frustration

Perseverance

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Alivia “helping” me dust

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