She blessed it within 30 minutes...

I've been researching five point harness booster seats for both of the girls for about a week now. I have had both of them in a seat belt booster, but I'm beginning to get paranoid about them not being safe enough. That along with us having a lot of road time in our near future (most likely 4 hours a weekend until Richard comes home!) I decided I needed to bite the bullet and get the best of what I could find. I did a lot of research and ended up with this baby.

It's a Sunshine Kids Radian 80 in the color princess (I wanted the black and gray to streamline with my interior, but who can deny a four year old a pink flowery carseat???). It stands up well against the more popular Britax brand, but it has two things that made it worth purchasing over a Britax. #1 look at the base...see how skinny it is??? My little Honda's backseats sit like bucket seats. So every other carseat that I've tried in the back of this car wobbles trying to balance on the higher cushy parts of the seat. #2 The seat folds up against the back of the carseat so that it folds flat. Awesome for travel, needing to carry it though at airport (has straps for that too), fold it flat to allow more room in the car, or even to pull it out and fold it flat to stow in the trunk.

But, as the title of the blog tells you...this isn't the end of the story. Anyone who knows Diva knows she spews. Yep, we were all the way back from the one and only USA Baby on island sitting right outside of McNair gate when she started screaming that it was coming. Luckily we had just stopped for a happy meal on the way to pick G up from school so she had her little paper bag to barf in, but she slightly missed and got her new favorite dress coated along with a spot on her new carseat. Oh did I mention she got my actual car seat too that I just vacuumed and cleaned the upholstrey yesterday?? I should've known better. It's just like every time I wash my car it rains, or anytime I change the kids sheets after an overextended period they pee on the clean set the first night. I wonder why that ALWAYS happens????

Happy Love Day *cough cough*

Today is Valentine's Day whooptie woo. The first we've been a part in three years...and I'm sick as a dog. I fought off this thing for two days with Zicam. It normally doesn't keep me from getting sick, but it definitely lessens the symptoms. Well, that lasted until last night, I am soo soo sick right now. But what can a girl do when she's at home alone taking care of her kids? March on as usual. I never get an oppurtunity to be sick even when he is home, but it's still nice to have someone here to run out and get you chocolate ice cream at eleven o'clock at night because your throat hurts.

Richard sent me a pajama gram, delivered right on time. I am swimming in them, but I have a feeling a run through the wash will make them a little tighter...at least I'm hoping. The girls were so jealous that daddy sent me pj's and not them, that I had to make an emergency run to the mall to get them so pj's. We promptly got back in the car and headed home where we all immediately threw on our new duds and laid on the couch.

I really do love my kids so much. Gillian kept making sure that the blanket never came off my feet and Brenna sat behind me and brushed my hair for an hour straight. They worry me a little bit though because I feel like they worry about me a little too much for being only four and five.

As far as an update on the family goes, we are all doing exceptionally well given the circumstances. I was told at Gillian's parent teacher conference this week that she is already ready to proceed onto first grade, so we have nothing to worry about when we transfer to Riley. Brenna is just busy being my little shadow. She's the one that gets me through most days. And Richard is doing really well at school. He had a test at school (call for fire or something??) and he aced it. Apparently about 20 of the soldiers in his class did not pass it, so getting an A is something to be said. I think he is being challenged more than he expected to be, and I think it's harder for him to be away than he expected it to be. It's kind of like us being so far away from our families. Our lives go on here, and we don't realize how much we are missing out on until we visit for a few short weeks once a year or so. It goes the other way too. Now he's the one getting glimpses of our lives ticking by while he feels like times standing still for him.

Well I'm off to choke down anther Mucinex and try to go to sleep although I feel like I want to pound a shiv through my eye. I'll try to update pics when I'm feeling better. I need to do some other random crap for Richard too that I'm gonna be in trouble for if I don't do it soon!

Chore Charts

We've been giving the girls for a while now one dollar every time they clean their room without help. If one cleans and the other doesn't help then the cleaner will get two dollars and the non-cleaner gets to be jealous ha ha. Well...I never have dollars on me! I'm always having to tell them, Mommy will give you your dollar tomorrow after I go get some cash. So I think, what about a chore chart? That way I only have to give them money once a week and I can prepare myself for say Friday being allowance days. I've also decided that Gillian at the least is getting big enough to help me with some of the other stuff around the house like feeding the dog and dusting (after a brief lesson of which way to not point the can so we don't spray polish in our face). And for Brenna I think I'm going to get creative and make up *chores* for her like no biting nails, keeping things out of our mouth (do you see a trend here?), saying please and thank you, etc.

So, I go off on my journey as self-proclaimed master googler to scope out chore charts and see if there is anything worth my husband's hard earned money to buy. Everything pretty much out there is a free printable chart. Well anyone out there that knows me, and knows me well that just won't do. Neither will a giant poster board full of stickers. I've ran across this Melissa and Doug chore chart at Borders and Macy's both.

While I think it will do what I want it to I don't want to buy two different charts for my two different kids at $20 a pop.
And then I ran across the Super Nanny chore chart which actually sparked something else in me.

I like the idea, but I think it's God awful ugly. So I'm going to make my own! I'm pretty sure that I can get all of the materials right at good old Wal-Mart, and with a bulletin board and a bunch of pretty scrapbook paper, pretty stickers and a few clothespins I'll make it work (and it'll match the house ha ha, there goes my anal rententiveness).
Now I think maybe I'll have a little help around the house, but I'll add one more thing to my list of to do's...keep them out of the chore stickers!

Happy Birthday Diva!

Diva is four. Four whole big, short, long miniscule years. It seems a lifetime ago that she was born. But just last week she was a sleeping little gorgeous lump. I hate to admit that I go into her room at night after she's asleep because it reminds me of how little she still is. When she's sleeping she can't say words like 'fabulous' phrases like 'you're making this the worst day of my life'. When she's sleeping she still has the face I remember watching sleep right after she was born. I cling to her being my baby.

Her daddy was sweet enough to record himself singing her happy birthday before he went on lock down. I think it made her day. She pretends not to notice he's not here, but when she has time to let her mind take over she is really bothered that he's gone.

And mommy was evil. Mommy made her get shots. She told mommy when shopping for cupcake ingredients "I don't ever want to go back to that kid doctor cause they hurt me" complete with a perfect pout. Well, chicklet, mommy didn't intentionally hurt you....and boy is mommy in for a tongue lashing in a couple days when you figure out that you have to go back and get three more.

And of course, in Diva fashion, no birthday would be complete without turning yourself into a pixie and spreading pixie dust all over the house. If her Poppa was here he'd be covered in glitter and sparkles right now. Sister had issues sharing all of her new fun dress up costumes. Our next splurge will be a trunk or chest for all these tutus, fairy wings and dresses!