Trick-or-Treat, Smell my feet...

I know this one picture won't do. Come on, I know you want to see more. If you want the whole photographic tour of our exciting Halloween festivities, click here. It was a lot of fun, full of lots of candy, and the kiddos held up pretty well (until, of course, we got home and it was really late and they kind of fell apart). But, overall, it was a great night. Now time to get busy Christmas shopping!

A Sunnie Rainie Day (Part 2- The Pictures!)

A Sunnie Rainie Day

I know it's been awhile when my husband in nagging me for a new post. So here we go. We took a weekend trip up to Oklahoma for a cousin's wedding open house. This cousin comes from a family of 14 (12 kids, 2 parents, no twins). Needless to say, I was very curious to see the home of a 12 kid family. It was fun to see family and to try and relearn a lot of the cousins' names. We don't see them all that often, so as you can imagine, keeping 12 straight is quite a challenge for me. It was really pretty cold up there, and it made me grateful for Houston weather. Another plus of the trip is that we got to stop by and stay with friends in Dallas Friday night. The girls got to play in the morning, we were fed a great breakfast and some yummy chips and salsa, Rainie and I got to run (and check out the elementary school garage sale. If we would have had a truck, I would have been tempted to buy some things), and we only broke one thing (hopefully- sorry Cinderella). It was so much fun to see friends and family and get away for the weekend and experience new parts of the country. (I'll try to post some pictures from the visit later- blogger wouldn't let me post them for some reason!)

Besides all that, nothing else too blog-worthy. Elle started preschool (the picture is her on her orientation day). I think she really likes it. And on a gross note, I went to McDonald's today with the girls for lunch after storytime at the library. The playplace was a little crazy because some type of daycare was there, meaning lots of kids, few adults. My girls were okay at first, but then Mya started to get a little sad. I was holding out for the group to leave in hopes of some peaceful playtime for my girls. But then one of the little boys came down and was pulling of his shorts and underwear. The adults quickly got him to pull them back up, but not without discovering that he had pooped in his underpants. That was the last straw. I decided it was time for us to go. I'm sure all of you would have done the same. The last thing I wanted was for my girls to encounter some surprise on their was through the tubes. It was disgusting. The end.

Remind Me Again Why We Bought Her Her Own Bed?

I'm not ashamed to admit that we officially messed my first daughter up as far as sleeping goes. But in our defense, I really think she came pre-wired as the type that just wanted to sleep in bed with mom and dad. Even as a newborn, she would be restless in the bassinet, and the second I would put her in bed with us she would settle down and sleep peacefully. Unfortunately, she now has it ingrained in her mind that sleeping in bed with mom and dad is the good place to be. And lately, she'd often rather go to sleep on her floor than in her bed. And she's pushing 4 years old here. How do we undo what we have done?

Today

Today was a day where the girls teeth didn't get brushed until after lunch, I never officially did their hair, I wore comfy type pants all day and never put on the shorts I had ironed to wear, we had frozen pizzas for dinner, and never went anywhere in the car. I couldn't do this everyday for fear that the walls of my house may close in, but for today, it was really okay. And my girls hair probably needed a break from the mousse.

Two Days and (we've been) Counting...

So this is a special post dedicated to my overdue pregnant friend. She was one of my first friends I made after moving to Texas. So tonight I say for her, "It's just not fair!" Can't the girl just have her baby, please?!?! I mean Aubrey and Elle delivered their little stuffed animals no problem in one day. Turns out that delivering a real baby is a bit more difficult than the stuffed animal type. So, here we stand, two days from the big "C", when baby Andrew will make is debut. He apparently already has a mind of his own and has decided that his mom's tummy is a good place for him to stay. Nonetheless, we are very excited for the big day, but will greatly miss the big belly. It takes a long time to grow one of those.

Pumpkin Patch Happiness

That a Big No No Day

So it sums it up- a big no no day. The good news was that I was really coming along with my guest room project. I even brought in clothes from tupperware in the garage and was going through those, pulling out winter stuff, and getting rid of worn clothes. The bad news- Mya knocked over this tall black stand thing in the guest room, and it crashed into the window, breaking the first pane of glass. It is just a wonderful thing. Second big no no for the day- Mya decided it would be a good idea to dump cups of water out of the tub. (Not her first time doing this.) She made some pretty good puddles on the ground and when Jake went in, she said something about it being a "big no no". So if she knows that, why does she do it in the first place? I guess because she can.

Trapped Housewives By Day, Wild Mommies On The Loose By Night

The Sequel

Part 2:

Dorm room Freshman year at college

Homecoming Senior Year High School with my two best friends

Beautiful choir dresses

And, in fine fashion, saving the best for last...This is a page I pulled out of my old scrapbook. Got to love the work I did on this page. This is at my 8th grade graduation promotional ceremony. Don't you love how I'm not smiling in the top picture. I thought I was so cool! I remember being so embarrassed of my mom (I think it was my mom) taking a picture of me at one point that I held something up over my face. Oh I can't wait for my children to reach those adolescent days. It will be loads of fun.

The Good, The Bad, and Definitely The Ugly

This was all it would let me post on this blog, but I have a couple more to share. Stay tuned.

The new Mrs. Gruwell

My family at the Big Day!

Our first Christmas card picture in front of our Cambridge Court Apartment

New baby Elle in the Utah snow

High School soccer

Jake and my brother-in-law Bryan with my nephew Boston and chubby Elle

The budding soccer star (nice shorts, huh)!

The Wonderful World of... Me!

In an effort to keep things exciting in the blogging world, I decided to recap some known or unknown facts about my life. I was going to dig out some old pictures, but it got to late, and I'm too lazy. To some, it may not be all that exciting, but read on or play along if you please!

Life Pet Peeve: When people who have barely met me get confused and call me Summer. Oh it drives me crazy! I know it shouldn't because you can't fault them for trying, but it happens all too often! Some may say "Summer, Sunnie, what's the difference??" But they are two distinct names. I don't call you Liz if your name is Lisa.

Unusual Fears: I have an abnormal fear of deer and seals. I'm not lying. Especially of deer. It started when I was growing up. Maybe I need therapy. And for that matter, I'm not really too fond of many wild animals when I am in their territory.

Commonly Used Household Item: My Little Tikes picnic table. Usually gets used multiple times a day. I drag it in and out of the kitchen almost daily. It is one of the best Christmas presents we ever got and makes a pretty nice substitute for a coffee table!

Funny Family Memories: When I was growing up, if you burped at the dinner table, you had to get down and do 10 push-ups.

Girls Camp Memories: On an overnight campout, one of the sides of the tent next to ours got completely sliced open along the bottom by a bear. That bear went into another tent (the girls had decided to sleep outside) and got their backpack (which I'm pretty sure had candy in it- how dumb can you be!) and took it away. I think it was found the next day.

Recurring Dreams: Lots of times, if something bad is ever happening to me in my dreams, I try to scream and not much of anything comes out. Often I dream that I am back participating in my high school sports, and I am not going to practice or I am late for a game or something. I also have had the common dreams about leaving the house partially dressed.

What You'd Have To Deal With If You Lived With Me: I am a night owl, I wear way too much deodorant (for some reason I always think I need to reapply!), and I blow my nose like an elephant (was that too much info???)!

Funny Pregnancy Story: When I was pregnant with Elle, I was at a gas station and was pumping gas. When it was finished, I all of a sudden couldn't remember if you had to squeeze the handle to get the pump out. So I did, and gasoline shot all over me. I smelled really good.

Some Things You May Not Know About Me From....

Elementary School: We loved to play four-square and wear socks over our stretch pants. I was the school secretary in fourth grade and the treasurer in fifth grade. I didn't get in trouble much, but I did have to sit in the red box one time at recess because blue punch spilled on my homework, and I didn't turn it in. Life is rough in the red box.

Junior High: I liked body suits (remarkably similar to baby onsies might I add). I had my first official boyfriend in eighth grade named J.T. We never kissed, but we did hold hands and play footsies under the table in math class, and we did go to the Valentine's Day dance together.

High School: I got to wear real mascara (not just the clear stuff!) I ran cross country and track and played soccer all four years at high school and got 11 Varsity letters. My first kiss was freshman year to a boy that is now married to one of my best friends. (Makes for a pretty good story, don't you think!) I sang in choir (call me a nerd- Jake does), and we got to go to San Diego, San Francisco, Arizona, and Hawaii.

College: We put an official ban on us ever owning and using glass top tables because I broke two of ours. When I was just barely pregnant with Elle, I sat on one and fell through it. Later in marriage, I dropped a heavy glass candle through another. And I never even had to get stitches!

Well there you have it. Hopefully I didn't bore you to death! It's nice to have a change of pace instead of just blogging about all the mommy stuff. It's kind of fun to look back on and remember things from the past! And have a good day.

Laundry Help For Hire

They don't charge much for their services, and payment is cheap. Probably a pack of fruit snacks or a stick of gum would do. You know you can't find good help like this just anywhere! And isn't laundry a task we all dread at times???

Starting (Not Finishing) A New Project

On a day while I was feeling motivated, I decided to take on a much needed task in our home. I was looking for some sheets in the guest room closet when I decided it was time to reorganize. This was something that should have been done a long time ago. We probably always had intentions of organizing it eventually, just that eventually time hadn't come yet. Well, now I am somewhat regretting my attempt because the room is even messier now than what is shown in this pic, and I'm having a hard time getting myself to finish the task. It was much easier when the closet was basically bursting open. We could just throw more stuff in and forget about it. Now, I just keep the guest room door closed. Maybe someone needs to plan a trip here so I have to clean it!

The kids were helpful and played with the intense amount of bubble wrap I had stored in the closet (don't ask me why I kept all of this...Maybe I was planning to bubble wrap my entire house as a safety precaution). Mya also so kindly colored on the wall for me. But I did learn one important thing- Goo Gone takes crayon right off of walls. It cleaned up so easily! So does anyone else have some looming project hanging over their heads??? I know I can't be the only one that starts these projects in an hour of motivation, and then finds that it takes days, weeks, months to finish!