tid bits...

I finally got around to setting up my blog a little more to my taste as you may have noticed. I found it befitting to have a fall like theme since we are in that season after all. The header picture is actually of my brother and my two boys taking a walk. You may have recognized it from the original...

I needed to crop it though, to make it work, and I got this...

It happens to have my favorite tree in it, along my favorite path, with some of my favorite people!

This week has been crazy busy with homework but thankfully most of it is done. I'm stretched thin though. Eli has been making it difficult to get any good sleep. I feel like I've been a walking zombie the last few days, and I probably look like one too! I'm looking forward to bed tonight :)

Autumn

Autumn is here, and is sadly, almost gone. Soon, maybe even as soon as Tuesday, it's going to snow and the cold winter months are going to settle in. I'm not looking forward to it, and that's coming from a girl whom loves snow. The older my kids get, the longer I want summer to last. So we've been soaking up the last few warm days while they last!

Gabriel fell out of his first tree. He fell out shortly after taking this picture. He loves to climb trees though, so I'm sure it's not going to be the last tree he will fall out of. 

best pictures ever

I got the best pictures of Gabriel the other night and I had to share!

Isn't he great?!?! I think so!

Mama's in trouble!

Glimpse into the future?

Oh dear...

before and after

Before I started school, my week looked like this...

Well, it was usually a little more eventful then that but I didn't have to write anything down or need to use my daily planner.

Now that I've started school, my week looks like this...

Full of homework and due dates and everything has to be written down or it's not going to get done. And believe it or not, this schedule will look even more crazy by the end of this week! It's a big change as you can see, but it's a good change, even if I'm still getting used to it.

Missing!

Missing: Elizek Oliver

Last Seen: His high chair... he was getting his hair cut. 

Oddly, this boy took his place. I don't know what to think of him. He just kind of appeared. 

But guys! My baby is missing! I need him back! All the sudden I have this toddler in his place and it's just not ok. Help!!!! 

Allergy

This next week is going to be busy. I have lots and lots homework to do and exams and projects. I also have lots of other things to do! So before the madness begins, I'm going to pump out a few blog posts that will publish from a schedule time thinger majigger:)

So remember awhile ago when I had those really awful stomach issues? So I figured out what it was, kind of. Apparently I'm allergic to whole wheat. Not all wheat, just whole wheat. I can eat white bread but not wheat bread and sometimes I mess up and eat something whole wheat-ish and a lot of times I get sick, but sometimes I don't... it's messed up, but I try to avoid whole wheat non-the-less.

So that means I have to be creative sometimes when it comes to eating. Like tonight, we had brats. So everyone else got to put their brat on bread and I ate this...

It's brat, wrapped up in lettuce leafs. I know it sounds kind of odd but back in my South Korea days they had this thing called Korean BBQ, and it was meat, wrapped up in lettuce leafs and it was really good! So now that I have this funky allergy that came up out of the blue, I get to eat things like this... it's not so bad though :) And, interesting fact that I learned in my nutrition class, meat should always be eaten with leafy green veggies and should never be eaten with starch... so I guess I'm ahead of the pack though not exactly by choice :)

Gabriel and Eli!

You know how sometimes Mom's brag about their kids and go on and on about how wonderful their kids are and how gosh darn cute they are and it can be kind of annoying sometimes especially if your child just threw up everywhere and pooped all over your house? Yeah, I know, I totally know what I'm talking about, I have so been there... But, that's not going to stop me! I love my kids. So much! So excuse me while I gush about them for a bit! I just happen to think they are the greatest thing in this world and can't help but talk about them right now!

Gabriel is such a wonderful little man! He loves to laugh and does so all the time! He's always joking around. He may get himself into trouble a lot of times from joking around but secretly, inside, I think it's rather funny too. Gosh, he is so great! He can be the sweetest little guy on two legs. If his brother is upset about something he will immediately go up to him and start singing 'twinkle twinkle little star' until Eli stops crying, and many times accompanies it with a great big hug and kiss! And most of the time, he knows if you are upset or sad too and will just walk over to you, give you a hug, and sing you his version of 'twinkle twinkle little star,' and trust me, it always makes you feel better!

He's got a fiery attitude too! My word! I swear he's a red head at heart. He's got a temper and he is very determined. He's a perfectionist more then I am, and that's saying a lot! He's a great helper, like beyond great! He loves to work and he loves loves LOVES to bake or cook. He's gonna be a little chef someday if you ask me :) He also thinks that his birthday happens every single time there is cake around! Some of our funniest times are when we're laying in bed together and he's supposed to be taking a nap but I know he's not sleeping yet. He looks so cute laying there pretending to sleep that I just have to kiss his chubby cheek which makes him giggle and then we get into kissing wars until we're laughing hysterically! Nap time might be far from possible at this point because of my urge to kiss his irresistible cheeks but it is so worth it! He makes me laugh every single day, he is so great and funny, I love him to bits!!!!!

Now Eli, oh dear me. If you want to hear the cutest thing on the face of the planet, just listen to Eli say cock-a-doodle-doo! It's the funniest and cutest thing EVER! He even makes this high pitched noise when doing it and it sounds more like 'cock-a-duck-a-ooo'! This also means that I literally have my own rooster to wake me up in the morning because it is one of the only words that he says and he knows it's cute, so he does it all the time! He is such a ham, seriously. He loves to smile and have his picture taken and will get all cute whenever someone talks to him. If Eli likes you, he LOVES you and will want you to hold him all the time! He's got his favorite people he likes to see while we're out and just goes running up to them and throws himself at their legs. Pretty much saying 'I love you! And you have no other option but to pick up my cuteness right now!'

We cut his hair though:( I'm very sad about that! I'll post pictures of that another time... you know, after I have accepted the fact... which I haven't yet :) Anyway, Eli wants to be held all the time, especially if you are in the kitchen. He's a cheeky little man that one! He cracks me up all the time! He loves to jump on me if I'm laying on the floor and give me raspberries which usually gets us both laughing hysterically by the time he's done. He loves to tickle and be tickled and he LOVES to hang upside down. He's gonna be a little piano player one day too. He get fiery mad if you pull him away from playing piano too early, along with playing with play-dough... He could (and does!) read books all day long. Unlike his older brother whom if is being too quiet I know he's up to no good, if Eli is oddly quiet I know that he's settled down in front of the books and is slowly flipping through them one by one. But let me tell you, there are some books he is not a big fan of and just flat out walks away if you start reading it to him. I love his kisses and hugs and I love love LOVE it when he cuddles with me! I love my baby!!!!!

Alright, I've gushed about my kids enough to satisfy my motherly pride for now! What can I say, they are just so great!!!! I just pray that God give me the wisdom on how to raise these precious little boys! I want to be the best mother I can be to them!

And the blonde shall dye...

... or be dyed, I should say :)

Anyway...

I dyed my hair!!!!!

I actually dyed my hair like two weeks ago and then I just fixed it today because apparently, I need two boxes of hair dye, not just one. So you know, the first time it turned out a little uneven because I didn't have enough dye :)

Not that I would mention that my hair has been two different colors for two weeks on my blog or anything...

Ahem...

Anyway! So here it is!

What do you think?

Eli's Quilt

I finished Eli's Quilt!!!!! Wooohoooo!!!! I finished it this last weekend and Eli absolutely loves it! Check it out... You will have to excuse the lighting, it wasn't the best! 

Yes, I cut, pinned and hand stitched every last patch on this quilt...

You can officially call me crazy :)

And when the main part was done I hand stitched the back on and put the ties in the quilt! 

My Monkey Man!!!

And Gabriel loved it too and insisted on pointing out everything to Eli but he made sure Eli pointed to it too! So cute!

There it is!!! What do you think?

Sales, School, and... Chaos!!!

Life has been a chaotic mess lately. Josh lost his job which resulted in packing up and moving everything out of the apartment and having an apartment sale in a matter of 4 -5 days. Yeah... it wasn't so fun. We found out on that Thursday what was happening and by Tuesday of the next week we had most of our stuff out of the apartment and the place set up for a sale.

This is actually a picture on the second day of the sale, there is a lot missing that went the first day!

The apartment sale actually went pretty well. On the first day I only had to bring Eli in with me and he did surprisingly well. He slept for his two naps (in the closet) (and yes, he still takes two naps!) and played outside or was in our arms the rest of the time. On the second day I had to bring both boys with me because I had an appointment that I couldn't miss in Duluth for which I had to bring Gabriel with me, and I had no one to watch Eli, so they hung out with us while we had our sale. Josh had a dentist appointment that day so that left me with the two kids all by myself for 2-3 hours which was a challenge. They kept trying to take stickers off of everything, play with everything and escape out the door while I was trying to check out customers. Poor kids! There is not much to do at a rummage sale when you are just a little squirt! But, teddy grahams and a laptop with Toy Story saved the day...

...and my sanity... :)

After the sale all I wanted to do was spend time with my kids. I felt like I hadn't seen, especially Gabriel because I ended up taking Eli with me a lot of the times, in days. I even cried one night because I missed him so much! And then I cried even more when I heard that he was really missing me! It was hard. I didn't really see much of him at all from Thursday night to Wednesday :( And I didn't really get to spend as much time with them as I wanted too in the days that followed the sale. The day after the sale I had yet another appointment and spent the next few days just trying to organize the chaos of boxes and beds and just *fluff.

*I call stuff 'fluff' when there doesn't seem to be one specific purpose for something, it's just stuff that fills up your life and sometimes you really just don't need to have it. It's stuff that fluffs up your life... get it? I know, I make up things all the time, I'm ok with that :)

On Monday school started for me and it's just been crazy. Mostly it was crazy just trying to sort through the online classes and figuring out how everything worked. It was also crazy because the online courses weren't working properly. And it was even more crazy because I was trying to juggle a full time school load with two children whom haven't really seen me for over a week and were hanging all over me. But, I'm getting used to it and I'm sure soon it will feel like a new normal for me. Or so I hope. I have been out of school for 5 years so it's a little awkward getting back into this whole thing again.

On a side note. I found the time to bake a cake this weekend. Not a fancy cake, mind you, I didn't have the energy for that! Just a normal cake. What can I say? Gabriel wanted me to bake something and it required a box of cake mix, 3 minutes to whip it up and 30 minutes to bake it. And my result? One child whom absolutely loves cake and one child whom...

... didn't find it that fantastic and played with the cake and rubbed it all over his body and face! LOL! Oh it was quite a sight! Such a cheeky little man! Love it!

As of 30 minutes ago I have all of my homework done for the week so I can take the weekend off!!! Or start preparing for next week to get ahead... you know, if I'm ambitious... but most likely, I will just spend the time loving on my babies. I think they, and I, are definitely in the need of that!

Oh, and I'm going to try to finish Eli's quilt. It was my goal to finish it before school but because of how that week before school turned out, I wasn't able to even touch it! I'm so very close to being done with it so hopefully I will be able to finish it sometime this weekend! I can't wait to show you a picture of it!

books...

For the next 12 weeks, this...

is my life...

Let the madness begin!