waterproof mascara and summer.

My girl graduated from preschool this morning.
I've been through two of these graduations before,
so I knew it was the right day for waterproof mascara.
Her preschool - which was also the preschool the boys attended - always puts on a slideshow of all the kids.
They play horrible songs like 'Let Them Be Little' and 'It Won't Be Like This for Long'.
Have you ever listened to the lyrics of that second song?
Terrible.



She was so happy and confident up on stage.
She was singing so loud we could hear her in the audience.
Miss was proud of herself.



And now I'll never be the mommy of a preschooler again.
I'm going to miss weekly art projects
and her coming home with playdoh in her hair
and singing songs about slippery fish.
And when I think about the fact that she won't be home with me
during the day I can't even handle it.

Tonight the kids were outside on the trampoline
and riding their scooters
and I was making pancakes for dinner with all the windows open.



Summer {for us} is officially two days away
and I can't wait.
This summer I'm going to enjoy having all three kids around every day.
Yep...even on those days where they are fighting and driving me bonkers.
{because i know we'll have those days.}

To do tomorrow: finish our summer list, v.2012.
Also tomorrow: spend the entire morning at the city pool with 200 fourth and fifth graders.
Eeek.

insta friday on saturday.

Well looky there.
Picmonkey's finally got a collage function!
The Picnik-sized collage void has officially been filled.
{have you tried picmonkey yet?  easy.}

Here's a little instagram catch-up action for you.
And...please tell me you've caught the instagram bug?
I'm @foreverfoldinglaundry if you want to find me.
Instagram is so fun.
I broke up with twitter for it.
{{scandalous!!!}}



1. i heart urban ears and justin timberlake for helping me mop.
2. colin sold shirley temples in his class store.  he raked in the cash, trump-style.
3. my love.
4. coffee = longer life.  i'm set.
5. the boys weren't scared watching pirates of the caribbean. really. not one bit. i'm serious.
6. happiness = country living + a diet coke on the patio.
7. strange, eclipse-inspired behavior.
8. book worms unite.
9. bye, sun.
10. post-op drug fog.
11. rock star for a day.
12. mom making dinner, dad doing a crossword. all is right with the world.
13. cherries and trash tv.  it's a nice way to spend an evening.
14. i heart friends who bring jamba juice for lunch.
15. sunroofs are fun.
16. pencil in the bun. standard.

Happy weekend, friends.
They all should be three days long, shouldn't they?

perks.

So I've figured out the one good thing about
being laid up on the couch after surgery:





my mom comes over and does my shopping
and cleans my kitchen
and my bathrooms
and makes two nights' worth of dinner
and peach berry cobbler for dessert
and does every last bit of my laundry.

That's the part of surgery I like.

always, no matter what.

Hey there.

I sure am happy that it's today and not yesterday.
Yesterday was not my favorite day.
And not for the typical "i hate mondays" reason.

Yesterday I had my cardiac ablation.
To make a long story short,
I have an arrhythmia,
which the doctor felt he could correct by
running catheters through the veins in my groin to my heart
and burning away the spots causing the arrhythmia.
That was the plan.

But things didn't quite go as planned.

I woke up during the procedure...three times...
{turns out i was "highly resistant" to the anesthesia...who knew...}
I remember things I wasn't supposed to remember...
it took longer than was planned...
there was pain...
they had to go through an artery in addition to four veins...see above...
and...it was all unsuccessful.

My heart's still got that super bass.

I can't really describe how I feel,
other than extremely disappointed.
Really bummed.
I don't know if it was the meds yesterday
or the hours and hours spent lying on my back in the hospital,
but yesterday I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.
I felt like I went through everything I did for nothing
and I should have left the hospital with the "Sucks to Be You" award.
I cried.
A lot.

But then today I've been on the couch thinking.
I thought about my husband who didn't leave my side once yesterday
and who had to help me to the bathroom and feed me and is
taking care of everything here at home while I'm recovering.
And making me laugh even though I tell him to stop because
it hurts my dang groin to laugh.
I thought of my kids who are happy and healthy and told me they had prayed for me while I was gone.
I thought of my parents who took care of my kids all day until late in the evening.
I thought of the many phone calls and texts from family and friends and blog friends
{who...for the record...are real friends too}
and for the friends who brought dinner last night and lunch today.
And I thought about how the prayer I prayed the most was answered:
I prayed that God would allow me to come back to my family,
and He did.

So technically my procedure was unsuccessful.

But I'm still blessed
and God is still good.

{source}

And a million thanks to those of you who told me you were praying or thinking of me.
I felt them all.

i got that super bass.

Wow - a bit of a blog absence over here.
I blame a nasty cold that knocked me on my bee-hind all week.
It was one of my mother's day presents from Gary.
Yay.

But I'm on the mend.
And we've been laying low this week.

I made granola one morning before all my energy ran out.



With milk...over yogurt...eaten by the handful...yum.

We had our first watermelon this week.
Watermelons make it feel like summer.
{which is coming up super fast.  whee!!!!}



Did you see these bowls at Costco?
They're melamine, and come in a pack of four different colors and sizes.
And they have lids!
Awesome.

I'm going to keep it very real
and show you what my kitchen looks like a lot of the time.



Groceries I bought hours earlier that hadn't been put away...
school paperwork...
that morning's coffee cup...
and a roll of toilet paper I carried everywhere since I had run out of kleenex.
Good stuff.

Our hummingbird babies are about to leave the nest.



Aren't they cute!  And...I almost killed them last week.
I went out to peek at them and one of them jumped out of the nest.
I didn't know what to do!
I waited an hour to see if he could fly.
He couldn't.
I put on my gardening gloves and picked him up.
I know: I got to HOLD a BABY hummingbird.  Sweetest thing ever.
I went to put him back in the nest and the other one jumped out!
Drama.  The kids and I were freaking out.
And Riley managed to record it all on the iphone.
{i'll spare you the histrionics.}
But it obviously has a happy ending.  I got them back in the nest.
:)
But...now I think they hate me.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>


And...I have a big favor to ask.
I mentioned it before,
but I have a heart arrhythmia.
{does my title make sense now?  nicki minaj?  boom badoom?  anyway....}
Monday I'm having a cardiac ablation.
They're going in and zapping my arrhythmia away.
I'm not going to lie...I'm nervous...but I'm trusting.
I'm trusting that God has a plan for me and my family that is perfect.
And I'm repeating Psalm 94:19 (good news translation):
Whenever I am anxious and worried,
you comfort me and make me glad.
I know I can have a peace about this
impossible without Him.
And I know He's got it all covered.

So...if you think of me Monday morning around 7am cali time...
would you say a prayer?
I would surely appreciate it.

And...I'll see you Tuesday.
Minus the boom badoom.

xo.

curtains. finally.

Remember last month when I was painting the dining room
and briefly mentioned my hatred of my vertical blinds?
I don't even think I have a proper picture of them.



You can just barely see them there.
When I took them down to paint I knew they weren't going back up.

I bought some simple white curtains from Target
and some linen from the fabric store that compliments the new paint color.

Some simple sewing and voila - curtains!



In reality the linen matches the paint more closely.
And in reality my window really is that dirty.



Those plates on the cabinet are eventually going to be a part of my plate wall.
I'm still in the planning phase of the project.



I like the soft look of curtains.

And can someone tell me why my dog insists on following me
every.where.i.go.



I finally put her outside because she was driving me batty
and I almost tripped over her.
You can't really tell, but that's her head just poking up out of window at the door.
Stalker.



{i know...that hallway is ridiculously long.  it's weird.}

We have one more slider with vertical blinds,
and I'm on a mission to find curtains for it.

I love this one
from Urban Outfitters.


I wish it was longer.
But I can fix that.
:)

hello, monday after mother's day.

Hello, Monday.
You're following a pretty cool weekend.

Hello, little family.
Let's go have some lunch.
Mom doesn't cook Mother's Day weekend.



Hello, Mom.
You're the best.



Hello, rope swing.
The kids love you
but you make me just a little nervous.



Hello, toad.
You're about as ugly as they come.
And hello kid with no fear.



Hello, eye candy.
Hello, walking around anthro...alone.
{happy mother's day to me.}



Hello, best mother's day lunch on the planet:
deep dish chicken special.
Zachary's...you never disappoint.
I'll take it over a champagne brunch any day.



Hello, coming home to some quality time with my sewing machine...
while listening to the vacuum running upstairs.
Hello, awesome husband.
And...hello dining room curtains that I finally finished.



Hello, Mother's Day goodies.
You're fun and pretty.



Hello, my favorite little people.
So blessed and thankful to be your mom.



Hello, happy.

{say hello with lisa leonard too.}

insta friday - the 'mom prom' and more.

Last Saturday we got all dolled up for the Mom Prom.
Technically it's our kids' school auction,
but it might as well be the mom prom.



I got a manicure...and it's still going strong today.
That's a first!

I'm bummed because we didn't get a picture of Gary and I together.
But I loved my dress.



This was a shot I texted my mom before,
asking her opinion of the dress.
{better pics here, from anthro.}

Gary stole my phone at one point and got a little camera happy.
Here's his picture of someone taking a picture of us taking a picture.



And....another picture I found on my phone from that night.



It was a fun night.
And even though we didn't win anything,
my girlfriend won tickets to a Dr. Phil show for $9.
Woohoo - girls trip!

Sneaking into our bed...it's now standard.
She won't do this when she's in high school, I'm sure,
so I'm not going to obsess about it.
Even though the bed feels pretty crowded some nights.



But the skating rink wasn't crowded.
The girl loves her skates.



Discovered on the cereal box one morning:



Boys...I tell you.

New favorite lunch:
1/2 avocado
1/2 mango
garlic salt
quinoa
black pepper
and a tiny bit of olive oil.
Soooooo good.



I love this church in our town.
I think it's the steeple that gets me.



And a little emergency chocolate stash.
Don't tell my kids.



Happy Mother's Day tomorrow to all of you mommies.
I hope there's some chocolate in your very near future too.

milkshakes and the truth.

This week I've spent a lot of time with this guy.
Some of it on the couch with him watching every Lego Ninjago video ever made,
and some of it in the ER.



The ER is not my favorite.

Today he is doing good and sporting a nifty little heart monitor.
So, naturally, when you wear a heart monitor, you get to pick a special dinner.



In-N-Out, of course.

And...because God just knew I needed it,
Proverbs 3:5, right there underneath the vanilla milkshake.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;"

This verse means so much right now.
And I love that God were reminded us of this truth with a milkshake.
How awesome is that.

hello, monday.

Hello, baby hummingbirds.
You're so, uh, cute?



Hello, dishwasher.
Unload...reload.
Repeat.
{times a million, it seems.}



Hello, running in shorts on this super hot morning.
Surely I sweat off a pound or two from the sun alone.



Hello, lazy dog.
I want your life.



Hello, number 1 of 4,957 loads of laundry.
Today I am paying for not doing any loads since Thursday.



Hello, new pink sparkly Toms.
And goodbye, new pink sparkly Toms.
She wore you once, and you're already losing your sparkles.
Back to the store you go.



Hello, lunch.
I wish you were a cheese enchilada.



Saying hello with Lisa Leonard today.
And off to do laundry load number two....
Happy Monday.

i love my iphone alarms + insta.

Because if my alarm hadn't gone off at 2:40 this afternoon,
my boys may still be waiting at school for me to pick them up.
I didn't plan on falling asleep,
but Avery was going to rest and I was just going to lay down with her for a minute.
You know how that goes....

This weekend is the boys' elementary school auction.
aka: the Mom Prom.
I did buy a dress and I really like it,
but it's cut a little lower under the armpits than normal.

Hmmm.  That sounds weird.  I don't know a better way to describe it.
Basically, if I wore a regular bra, it would show.
So I bought these to wear
because a normal bra won't work.
I'm a little nervous about them,
but at the same time, they're kind of cool, right?
{sometimes I guess it pays to be, um, not very well endowed.}

Hi, Dad.  I'll stop talking about bras now.

Onto some insta pics of our week.
This was her the other day.
Apparently Sneaky McSneakers sneaks into my bed not just
in the middle of the night, but for naps too.



Someone should probably tell these two that they are actually dogs,
and won't waste away if they have to spend a couple of hours outside.



Operation Scary Snake Rescue.
This guy crossed the road next to us, and then was promptly run over.
Gary got out of the car and moved him off the road,
but he unfortunately {i guess?} passed away.
Alternately titled: Operation My Husband Has Watched Too Much Crocodile Hunter
and Thinks He's Steve Irwin.



Sushi take-out on a random rainy Wednesday is a beautiful thing.



So is the fun and craziness that one little balloon creates.



Last Saturday...how do you say??...sucked.
It was the day I felt like crap.
{and thanks to all of you for the migraine advice}
Ice cream after the kids were in bed was definitely a must.



And the next morning I was determined to make it a better day.
I started with a little fun sewing.
I think it did the trick.



Sunday was a better day x 1000.



In my dreams: on the beach in Kauai looking up at this palm tree.
In reality: in Riley's piano teacher's driveway looking up at this palm tree.



In other news: a bunch of bathtub animals got married this week.



And I love peonies.
I bought this bush at Costco.
I hope they like my yard.



I think yogurt for lunch is perfectly okay sometimes.
Today was one of those days.



And Thursday means drum lessons and the farmer's market
and strawberry juice-stained faces.
I love Thursdays.



Happy weekend.
I've got a recipe for you soon.
Think potatoes + leeks + crockpot.