Have We Met Before?

Hi, my name is Mandy and I have a blog. It's called "Outnumbered", because I am basically an island in a sea of small, yappy little people who call me "Mommy" and want me to feed them dinner. My husband shares the little island with me, and he helps me rinse the dishes and locate my misplaced sanity on occasion.

Sometimes I stop by here and write a little something and post a picture or two that only my parents are interested in, but since it's been ALMOST 2 WEEKS since I have posted, I thought I would take a moment to re-introduce myself.

Whew. That's out of the way.

These past few days have found me working late shifts and waking up way too early. There's no sleeping in when a little three year old girl is standing at your bed speaking (very loudly and insistently) in half-English/half-Mandarin, telling you about a very naked Harper who is standing in her crib throwing a poopy diaper across the room. Good morning, Mandy. A couple of highlights* from the last week or so that do not involve poop:

Aidan got a handmade Valentine in the mail from a girl at church who also goes to school with him. They have been pretty big friends for a couple of years now, and he was psyched to get actual mail that had been "cut into a heart". We're going to make something special and put it in the mail it to her this week. My Aidan has a certain enthusiasm for life that I wish I could bottle up and spike my coffee with in the mornings. He gets over-the-moon excited about everything from footy pajamas to handmade Valentines to rolled up sweatpants. (Sidenote: for the past few months I have been spiking my coffee with Gingerbread Latte flavored creamer, a seasonal treat that I stocked up on right after Christmas. I have several bottles left, and will soon be risking food poisoning because they all expire in March. But it makes my coffee so yummy that I think it may just be worth the potential samonella infection.)

Dane has his first ever science fair this week, and Brandon has been slaving away this past weekend using every ounce of creative energy he has on his quest for the most ridiculously elaborate display known to the first grade. Fortunately for us all, procrastination will limit him to only what he can get done on the Sunday evening before the project is due on Monday, even though we have known about this assignment for two weeks.

I worked four days in a row this past weekend and Brandon was with the kids for the whole time. I came home one night to find that Emerson and Harper had gotten ahold of a four-color pen and spent some quality time covering their feet and tummies in four colors of ink. They've had a couple of showers since then, and the artful scribbles are still there! I guess I should be glad it wasn't on their faces, and thankful that it was an ink pen and not a Sharpie marker. But Brandon should still get Dad of the Year Award for taking all of the kids to Dane's Valentine's Day party at school by himself last Friday. I don't even like to go to the grocery store if I have more than one child in tow.

Brandon was put on this earth to be a high school youth minister. Last night his job involved having Aidan pee into a 2-liter bottle of Dr. Pepper. He took the 2-liter to church today, and used it as an illustration when teaching about purity to a group of high school boys.

No high school boys were traumatized during this illustration. And one five year old boy thought it was the greatest day of his life.

Attention anyone Brandon sees this week: if he offers you Dr. Pepper, DO NOT DRINK IT.

(*I use the term "highlights" very loosely here. I realize it may not be the highlight of your week to hear of my daughters' artistic endeavors or my son's mail. Welcome to my world.)

I hope your week was just as fun, and slightly less filled with pee-contaminated Dr. Pepper bottles.

And on that note, Happy Valentine's Day.