HFM, TIMES 3!!

That would be Hand, Foot, and Mouth times three people in my house. All of the Dunbar men have this virus right now and I have the Mommy version of it; exhaustion. We didn't realize it until Saturday but Bogie and Mr. Dunbar had been fussy since Thursday, Monkey although he has it the worst on his feet has been the least put out. And, although, this is predominantly a childhood virus (10 and under) Mr. Dunbar does infact have this virus as confirmed by the doctor. Most likely from sharing bar soap with Monkey. I hate bar soap. If the boys got it from church, which is the only kid populated area my boys have been to in the past 9 days we should be over the hump and on our way to rebound. Did you know that this is mostly a summer and fall virus? Just our luck. We'll survive and be back to our normal selves soon.

Normal blogging will return most likely next week when, hopefully, our lives return to normal.

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your dog days of summer.

Almost WW- Our Summer This Week

Strawberries ripening

Playing, can you guess the toy?
Laughing with all you've got

Snuggling, the boys way

Strawberry Margarita

In the spirit of summer I thought this was the perfect flavor...

Picture courtesy of: Flickr

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:10
Timestamp: 2009-06-22 21:55:24 UTC

Congratulations Erin!! Perhaps now this gives us a reason to finally get together!

Doing summer right

We are going to laugh.

We are going clean.

We are going to savor.
We are going to church.
We are going to play.
We are going to snuggle.
We are going to watch sunsets, and probably sunrises.
We are going to race.
We are going to paint.
We are going to baseball games. Dodger baseball games.
We are going to swim.
We are going to visit with our grandparents and the lil lads great-grandparents.
We are going to play in the sprinklers.


We are going to build.

We are going to be a family who leaves a legacy of doing summer right.

Decorraging- Adding a little red

Here is a small peak of what I've SLOWLY been working on in my office/living/play/greatroom. Yes, we have an all- in-one room. Something about two kids taking over our house and needing bedrooms. Anywho, these are my little red accents, thus far.

Birdcage, courtesy of Mom's garage, it was some awful forest green.

I bought this Waverly toile, totally overpriced (even with the coupon), but it was one of those wide ones so I have enough left over to make a pillow. If only I knew how to turn that sewing machine on...

This shelf is another swipe from Mom's house. I love it.

And that is about all of the red I've added. Now that Mr. Dunbar is home I'll have more time to spend on making things look pretty rather than just trying to keep kids fed, bathed, and entertained.

Have a happy day and if you haven't already, take the typing quiz below.

I want to send someone some shiny OPI nail polish for their fingers or toes.

Typing

When I was in the 8th grade we had the opportunity to take an exploratory class. Basically, you could choose a fun non-academic class. Most of my friends chose to TA, oh how I wanted to TA and sit in a cool teacher's class for an hour each day and do nothing but pretend like I was important because I was grading some lousy 7th grader's quiz. Or if there was more than one TA in the class you could run errands for the teacher or make copies or something, I don't know, I'll never know.

I wasn't allowed to TA.

My parents said it was a waste of a class. HUH? So not the words I wanted to hear. Instead, I begrudgingly had to take "Computers," it really wasn't a computer class it was a typing class.

Probably one of the most useful classes I ever took, ever.

63 words

Speedtest

I could probably type faster if I practiced.

How fast can you type?

Take the quiz.

And if you do (and let me know what you scored) there might be a little

OPI prize for your pretty nails. I most dutiably believe pretty nails help you type faster.

Free At Last

Mr. Dunbar graduated last night.
We had a wonderful afternoon surrounded by family and close

friends.

Here are some random shots that somehow I deleted from my original post.

(Hooray for Chris and Jamie who turned into impromptu childcare and she was in like 4" heels.)

Congratulations, Mr. Dunbar!!

The celebration started with an early dinner at the Claim Jumper, they serve SO much food. We haven't been there in a few years and I had forgotten how big their servings are. WOWZERS! Jamie ordered the Widows Burger and her husband's face was priceless.

Bogie just people hopped to whomever's plate looked the most appetizing.

Afterward we all headed over to the graduation ceremony. Monkey was not too pleased that Daddy came down the aisle and then kept walking. Thankfully our wonderful, and I mean wonderful, friends took our rambunctious little lads to run around outside for the ENTIRE ceremony.

Bogie is watching the large screen.

Almost two years, and it is finally over. My husband woke up at 4:45am 4 days a week, worked full time and went to school full-time. His graduate program, hands down, had more work than any program I have ever seen, and every single day he came home with a smile on his face and played with his sons and graciously let me complain about how "I couldn't get anything done." He is the best!

And now he is officially an M.B.A.

What a day

Let's briefly re-cap shall we?

Starting with last night, we couldn't go to our first (well second for me) night of Small Group because Bogie got sick yesterday afternoon. By last night at 9pm his temperature was up to 102.7, so Mr. Dunbar called his brother (he's a super smart Medical Professional). He said to just give Bogie some Motrin and monitor him all night. So that's what I did. Guess how much sleep I got?? Yeah, not too much.

Then this morning Bogie woke up at the crack of dawn, literally, he was screaming his head off. I was praying for patience all ready, and of course through all Bogie's screaming Monkey woke up. (My child who can sleep through pretty much anything.) Great, how about some TV at 6am? How's that for parenting? Mr. Dunbar went to the gym and I listened to Clifford and Bogie for 60 minutes straight.

8am We are riding bikes on the driveway in our pj's when Bogie decides to faceplant the concrete, now his nose is scraped and he's got a bruise and bump right in the center of his forehead.

9am After scrambling to take a shower and make my bed, I am trying to dry my hair. So I set Bogie on the counter to brush his teeth, he drops his tooth brush and as I am picking it up he decides to grab my flat iron. FOUR fingers grip the HOT part of the iron for like .02 seconds , but that was enough to feel the burn. We ran to the kitchen and I squirt mustard all over his hand. It must have worked because he stopped crying almost immediately and there is very little burn.

11am We head to the mall to find some thing to wear for this weekend and get Mr. Dunbar a new tie. That is priority number one. I am in the Men's Furnishings Department along with like 6 other people and one employee... this is Nordstrom people!!! Not JCPenney. I grabbed 7 ties cut my way to the employee and asked her to hold them, grumpy children are not good background noise while trying to buy an expensive tie. Monkey is whining for snacks, I reach into the diaper bag and "WHAT?!?" No snacks. (They of course are on the kitchen counter with sippy cups.) Great. Let's go spend $5 bucks on a cup of strawberries from the Coffee Bar. At this point I'm thinking I'll just go get myself something to wear... an hour and a half later and a dressing room full of clothes, I buy something. And it is just something... nothing spectacular folks. Oh did I mention Bogie pooped so I changed him in the dressing room. (Sorry ladies, if you were trying to try clothes on at the same time as me today and my kid blew up your stall.)

Whining kids... again.

Home for lunch and NAP. Guess what, Monkey doesn't fall asleep, he just plays games in his room. One of which was to put Ernie (his elephant in the lampshade= that was on.)

So when Bogie wakes up, they snack and we... yup, go back to the mall. I try to buy a tie again. My question is, "WHO is hiring the Nordstrom employees these days??" The guy was totally unhelpful and not knowledgeable at all. I threw out a couple of brands I was thinking of, what the tie is for and why I needed it and all he saw were dollar signs... and he kept bringing me the ugliest ties. So I finally just put two on hold told him I'd be back, my kids wanted to go to the Disney store. Afterwards I went to like 4 more stores to just maybe find something better to wear or those perfect shoes that will make my outfit complete... and it was a waste. of. time.

It's now almost 6pm, we leave the mall head to Von's (the MOST expensive market ever) but also the nicest most gourmet place and closest market to our house. Have a sandwich made at their deli, grab a few more things and head home.

Dinner, baths for the boys, pj's and just when I am about to put them to bed... all you-know-what breaks loose. Monkey is screaming in his room, I run in there and Ernie is ruined. Yup RUINED!!! Part of his inside melted and fused together from the heat of the light bulb earlier in the day, so there is now this hard blob on his rear. I tell him "Monkey calm down, I'll just get the other Ernie." (Because a prepared mom has at least two of the favorite Lovie right?) More tears. He says the other is ruined, he chewed on his trunk. Okay, well, I'll just pull out my secret Ernie number three (thank you Erin for the original two) But this Ernie has a rip in his ear from when Monkey was a baby, he freaks out again. Screaming, bloody murder. At this point I'm ready to start crying too. But finally, Monkey pulls it together and says "We have to go to the store to get a new one." Umm, sorry babe, stores are closed.

Bogie wakes up crying now because Monkey is crying and their rooms are right next to each other. I end up holding BOTH boys in Monkey's bed for 40 minutes until they both fall asleep.
As I was reaching to get up, holding Bogie, I twisted my neck and now I have a kink of some sort and a pain going down my shoulder. Just what I needed.

As for tomorrow, I'll be purchasing at least two more Ernies, if I can find them. Of course, I have to go back to the mall A-gain, I never purchased that tie or shoes... wish me luck, I think I'm going to need all I can get.

WW- Fun with Bubbles and The Neigbors Have a New Meter Man

While Monkey was doing this....
Bogie climbed through the bushes to do this...

One down, One to go

Last day performance

This is the first year in pretty much my entire life that I did not have a "first day of school" for myself. From the start of kindergarten through graduate school and six years of teaching, school of some shape or form has been a part of ME.

Instead, this year, Monkey had his first day of pre-school and Mr. Dunbar had a first day of school for the second year of his MBA program. (Sorry no picture.)

This school year, I have been surrounded by all things school without actually being in school (as the real teacher or student.) Thank you to all of my girlfriends who let me stand in for them a day or two here and there as the Sub. What a turn around, I used to take "mental days" to get away from my students, now I have "sub days" to get to see students.

Instead, this year has been about me being on the sidelines. Me being the parent, not the teacher. Me being the supporter, not the student. I miss teaching. I miss the classroom. I miss my girlfriends. Let's be honest, I miss the clothes. But this year is not about me. I guess most of motherhood and wife-ism, isn't, is it?

My men have grown and surpassed me with ooobles and goobles of knowledge. (Do you like how I'm making up words?) Mr. Dunbar has studied countless hours. Do you know what epidemiology is? Me neither, but my husband could tell you. Monkey sings with the best of them and can tell you all sort of random bits of information. Including the Pledge of Allegiance and every Nusery Rhyme known to man.

Mr. Dunbar turned in his thesis week. He kept calling it a project, the final product was pretty amazing. All professional looking with lots of big words. I was pretty impressed.

I am very proud of you, Mr. Dunbar.

One more final on Thursday for him and then hallelujah, he's done. Two years of craziness, will come to a close, I am so excited.

Delighted

I am so delighted you are here. Thanks for visiting this blog. I appreciate your comments and your emails. The Dunbar's have a crazy few weeks planned as school comes to a close and summer will finally begin for us.

I just checked my "posts" list and I have 6 drafts, but have published none. Too much going on in my life to actually finish something other than saying

"Thanks~! For hanging in there with me."

Have a wonderful weekend. Spend some time with your family and friends.

WW- Future Picasso and Laundry Time

What's missing?

In the photo below, I have emptied out my handbag and its contents...
Can you tell what is missing?

Yup, no make-up bag, don't really carry one of those any more, so that's not it.

Money, don't really carry cash, so that's not technically missing.

.

.

If you said cell phone, you are correct.

Lost it, gone, done-dada.

Need to order a new, Mr. Dunbar said it better be FREE.

Are IPhones or Blackberries free yet?

Don't think so.

Anyhow, at least you know not to call now.

Good luck with the home phone, too.