A blackberry situation and a.....

wet toilet seat.

These were the most exciting events I have experienced today. Other than the tickling wars......lunch at the beach......and a visit from some friends down south, that is.
The LEAP we took into parenthood has thrown us a few more loops. Nothing unbearable of course. It has afforded us quite a few more laughs around the McKenzie home! My little 3 year old man LOVES to put things in his pockets. Usually when I am doing laundry he comes into the room with me and helps me transfer clothing from the washer to the dryer. We have a coin jar on the laundry room shelf that holds any leftover moneys we find in pockets. The rule in our house is, if it gets left in the pockets, it's considered the "tip" for the laundry queen. (of course that would be me) So, 3 year old man has learned about this jar and each time we transfer clothes he asks, "Money please?" for him to put in his pocket. Naturally, this morning when he came running up to me to show me what he had in his pocket, I was expecting a dime.....maybe a quarter......possibly even a nickel. Much to my surprise, Uncle Bo was letting him eat some blackberries for a snack and what is the best place for a 3 yr old to put blackberries?! IN HIS POCKET of course!! I am just most thankful he wasn't wearing khakis. Thank goodness for dark wash jeans. :)

Now the wet toilet seat.....no need for much of an explanation there. It is what you think it is. And it's not pretty. Especially when one doesn't realize it is wet before using it. For my potty trained 3 yr old man, toilet cleaning (and wall and side of the cabinet and floor and....) has become a daily occurrence. Right now, I just smile and it warms my heart even more to have them in our home. My hope is that my smile never fades due to taking advantage of the adventure they bring into our lives.

My new Hobby.....

At the risk of sounding ridiculous, I thought I might let my Xanga friends in on my new hobby......
NAILS!!
Fingernails to be exact. For all the 26 years of my life, I'll confess it to the world (although it is no secret) I have been a nail biter. Shame shame shame. I even got caught once when I was driving, and I came to stop light. I was gnawing on them when I look over to the car next to me and there is a man kinda chuckling and he had the "tsk tsk tsk, no no" point with his finger going on! Honestly, I think this would have to be my most UN-ladylike feature about me. Seriously, who wants to see a woman chewing on her hands?! I tried every trick in the book....band aids around EVERY finger......hot sauce....yucky nail polish......even gloves! But to no avail...each of them failed everytime. So then I cheated for a couple years and started going to the salon to have nails put on. This still did not help me! I still found myself putting them in my mouth!
So....with the inspiration of a friend and the determination of my own will.....I set out 21 days ago to kick this thing and guess what....I DID!!! Wanna know the secret?! I would say I borderline obsession right now actually. I don't do things half heartedly. I'd rather not even do them at all then do it half way. So I decided to paint my nails (or stubs you could call them) a darker color so that immediately when I saw the dark color I would be reminded not to put them in my mouth. Sure enough...it worked! It has now become my new hobby to every night tend to my nails. I trim the cuticles so I don't have any loose hangnails that tempt me to bite them off with my teeth (ewww!!! I know I did it for 26 years and all but when you actually write it out, it sounds so disgusting!) I bought some growth nail polish that works like a CHARM and now I've entered the new world (new to me at least) of polished and pretty nails!!
My mom once told me when I was a little girl that if I could get them to grow long enough to where I could turn my fingers around and see the nail from the other side, that she would buy me whatever colr nail polish I wanted and I could paint them.....Is that offer still valid Mom?!?!? I'd like to wait another 2 weeks or so to get them all at a good length and treat myself to a manicure at a salon and have them shaped right. I have NO idea how to do that yet!
Ok.....enough of the silliness and my quirky little post......But, if any one has any tips for fabulous nails......feel free to let me in on them!!!! (I have already been told there is such thing as SCENTED nail polish!!!)

Are there veggies in this?!

I am quite proud. Even if I do say so myself! Tonight, I successfully made a meal that was both deceptive and delicious! hehehe. For any of you out there with children.....you know the kind I am talking about.....the ones that won't eat their veggies, yeah those ones.....I am relating to you right now. Our boys won't touch anything green! Boy # 1 is learning well how to try one bite and let us know "I don't care for this". It's a far cry from 2 weeks ago when the first bite into a vegetable was quickly followed by a chewed up piece of something resembling a veggie, spewed out onto his plate while "EW", and "ICKY ICKY ICKY", came soon after! They are both improving in LEAPS and BOUNDS!!!
So, fighting the battle of "you eat what is on your plate" will come a bit later....for now, since they are so new to us we are trying to get them back in GOOD health and get them more accustomed to healthy foods whichever secretive way that I can. Which brings me to my "special s-getti sauce" (that's kid talk for spaghetti). I make my own sauce from canned tomato sauce and this time I decided to try something new. I took my can of sauce, my spices, and chopped up carrots, cabbage and zucchini and pureed it all in our vita mixer. Added some ground turkey and whole wheat noodles and we had a SUPER healthy meal that the kids GOBBLED up!!! Little did they know that close to HALF of the sauce was actually purred vegetables. My hubby didn't even notice either! The strong acidic taste of the tomato sauce over powered any kind of veggie taste. Score one for me!!
A buddy of mine told me about a book that I am waiting to be returned to the library so that I can snatch it up and learn many more ways to get the good stuff into the kids. Have you heard of it? Anyone tried anything out of it yet? It is....

"There is lettuce in my purse"....

“We don’t show our boogers to people”…..”Please take that out of your nose” …..”Is that water on the floor or pee pee?!” …..

These sayings have all become regular in our home the past week. There are many circumstances involved that I’ll just be keeping to myself for now but the long and short end of things is…….for now, we are the “acting parents” to 2 precious little boys! How long you ask? That is still uncertain but we’re praying for God’s wisdom in the situation and asking for HIS WILL to be done.
In the meantime, it is now our responsibility to see to it that these precious boys (ages 3 and 2) get the most loving and safe environment and teach them about CHRIST and all the wonderful things HE has done for us. We pray that our impact on these boys will be LASTING FOREVER and will set a firm foundation to follow them throughout their lives.
Just minutes after packing them up in the car to take them home, we fell in love with them and we KNOW that God has ordained all of this in motion! So for now….it is time to HANG ON TIGHT!!! It is gonna be a wild ride!!

Video test...

Where's Cocoa?!

It was a success! We now have a shelf/bar in our closet that has been reassured to me (by my hubby) that I could do chin ups on it! Not that I'm jumping up for joy to try that one out but I surely am excited about having something secure up in there and I didn't HAVE to get rid of anything, though I took this opportunity to do a little bit of "purging" if you will. I'm very much a "when in doubt, throw it out" kind of gal. It is one of the benefits I gained from being a Navy brat. When you move alot, you become a pro. And what better time to throw things out than when you move! I had to face the truth when asking myself, "What does a girl do with 15 pairs of flip flops?", "When am I ever going to wear this" and, "Does this even FIT anymore?!" With those questions answered, I came out with 2 full trash bags of things to get rid of. The new organization in there just THRILLS ME! :) (Ok, so I am easily assumed, I'll admit that)

During the little "remodel", Cocoa was a bit stressed by all the commotion and just insisted on being close to my side throughout the entire night. She finally got a good idea of how to be close and still stay out of the way......can you see her?! hehe....silly puppy

Just had to share.....

I have been working on a new design for our tracts/invitations for church and thanks to a MOST AMAZING graphic designed who just happens to be a friend.....this is what we came up with. They will be printed in high gloss on a 4x6 postcard. Let me know what you all think!

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