The Coffee House.....where something's always brewing: family

No, this is not about a Mommy's LUNCHEON. This is about a mommy's LUNCH.

**Hey, but if any of my mommy friends want to get together -- let's do lunch! I promise we will have something better than what is described below! :)

I'm at home with my two precious littles. Today is laundry day (I think I hear the dryer beeping now....) and it never ceases to amaze me how quickly that stuff accumulates. I think.....didn't I just do this amount -- YESTERDAY???!!?? (actuality: 5-7 days ago) Time continues to fly and laundry continues to pile. That's just a fact.

SO -- back to lunch. The clock is nearing noon and I just begin to think about LUNCH. Spice is a little creature of habit. She eats "roll-ups" (a tortilla with some sort of yumminess inside; not to be mistaken for a fruit roll-up....I'm not completely against the idea of a fruit roll-up as part of lunch, but just wanted to get that straightened out) often with our babysitter. Therefore, she often requests roll-ups. Today Spice wanted a peanut butter roll-up. Out with the PB and tortillas -- no problem. My challenger is Miss Bean. She is a little rooty-toot these days. Doesn't want in her high-chair, doesn't want help, says she wants this, but when you get it that's not what she wanted....and the list goes on. After she pointed to fifteen hundred and fifty-two things, I decided to allow her to sit on the stool at the island (yes, I was right there with her, dad) and allow her to attempt to feed herself greasy taco meat (that's what she "SAID" she wanted to do, people). That was hard for me. MESSY is an understatement. AND the fact that she was able to get ZERO meat in her mouth with the spoon was difficult to watch. That combined with Spice tugging on my leg, crying and begging for me to hold her pushed me to the point that it was time to stop this fun activity and move on to the next.....NAPTIME!! Bean was pretty much against this idea initially. Can't say that I blame the girl. I took her away from something that she was really enjoying. She debated for a short while, and soon changed her tone to the sweet little sounds she makes before drifting off to zzzzzzland.

Back to Spice. She is taking her sweet time with the peanut butter roll-up. Bless her heart -- she didn't have much choice. Have you ever eaten a tortilla with peanut butter alone? (GULP) Not the easiest thing! I decided it was time for Mommy's lunch. Earlier in the day, I had dreams of a delectable salad with some sort of vinaigrette. However; after 5 loads of laundry, kitchen duty, and refereeing....I settled for leftovers.....a Mexican stack-up (fancy for chips, taco meat, grated cheese, tomatoes (that's thrown in there to prevent feeling like a total HOG), sour cream, salsa, and jalepenos.) I also ate a small amount of veggie fried rice. (Didn't want to waste the stuff!!) Mexican and Chinese....what a combo!!

I KNOW I'm not the only Mommy out there that when it comes time to eat, we either settle for crazy combinations to clean out the fridge or don't eat at all!!

As always......

At the end of the day........

wouldn't change a thing.

A few pics I would like to share...

before I forget, I want to tell you about these fabulous jalepeno peppers. They are made by Mezzetta and they are TAMED. They have the great flavor of jalepeno without causing the major pain and burn to the mouth (at least that's what regular japs do for me)! I recommend them HIGHLY! Love them!

this is my precious little that fell asleep last night LITERALLY while eating. And popcorn no less!! Yes, I realize this was a choking hazard -- but, had to snap a pic before removing the popcorn.

**No one was injured or harmed preserving this memory.

A few pics of my littles in their Halloween costumes. iPhone and unedited quick pics, but pics as promised!

Football season is here -- YAY!!

There's nothing better than going to a Razorback game in Little Rock. Well, other than the super-crowded stands where somehow your one seat becomes 1/2 or 1/4 of a seat, you're sweating and sticking to your child, the person behind you continuously knees you in the back........but I'll get to all of those details later.

This was our very first game with all THREE of our little ones.

And YES, we called for some extra hands. And we were so HAPPY she said YES (thanks so much Miss Makenzi!!)

Our goal was to leave Hope around 11:00. I think we left around 11:20 or so. Pretty good in my book. The Hubs was a little antsy.....if he sets a goal time of departure of 11:00 -- he would rather be leaving at 10:45. Yeah....good luck with that with a house full of girls!!

So, with the vehicle loaded down and looking like the Beverly Hillbilly's -- off to Little Rock we went. It was hard to imagine that we were leaving and coming back on the same day. How in the world can we look the same when leaving for one day OR one week. I haven't quite figured that one out, but it always seems to happen...

First stop: Arkadelphia. Doggy drop-off. That got rid of a minor bit of chaos.

Next target: War Memorial.

I'm very fortunate to have a husband who is a great driver. He can weave his way in and out of just about anywhere. You know.....he's the one that stays in the left lane as long as possible and then jets over right before the exit -- passing up ALLLLLL those people waiting in line. Oops -- hope that wasn't a secret.

We arrived at our lot and there were plenty of spaces left. We found a great place with lots of grass and shade so we could set up our canopy and the kiddos could hang out and run around. The extra shade was nice as well -- it was getting pretty toasty.

We met up with our friends, the Bobo's, and got things set up. The girls needed a little bathroom break, so Jill and Makenzi took them over to the zoo. (we try to avoid the port-a-potties at all cost) They were actually letting people in FOR FREE from 10-2. Pretty cool! The girls were able to see the new penguin exhibit and several of the other animals.

We also took the little ones to see Tusk. It was a little jaunt from our parking spot. We managed to get there and back in one piece.

We ate lots of yummy food and were able to visit with friends we hadn't seen in a while.

Time to go in......time for me to put on 25 yards of fabric and strap Miss Bean to my body. Time to sweat even more. The first quarter was somewhat calm, "cool", and collected. Bean was fine. Sugar was entertained. Spice was entertaining our neighbors by shouting out any and every phrase she heard (like "go hogs", "you can do it", "defense"). Luckily, we didn't have anyone shouting vulgar obscenities close by or we would have been in trouble!

Bean is our first and only pacifier baby. Sugar and Spice never would take one. My experience is lacking in this category. There are times I leave the house without one....BIG mistake. There are times I've wished I had one of those pacifier clip things that keep it attached to the child when it pops out of their mouth. THIS was one of those times!! Bean was getting ready to eat, a little on the fussy side, and the paci just wasn't staying like it should. My hand was cramping from trying to hold the paci in her mouth, while the other hand was in a constant battle with Spice to keep her from tumbling down the bleachers. We have great seats and I love them, but for some reason, OUR row was the up and down row. We are on the outside seats, so up and down we went each time as well. One time I thought I would try and make it "easy" and just swing my legs around to the side. My hands dropped down for support and OUT popped the paci!

GASP!!

Down below it fell........the poor guys in front of me!! I had them all looking in desperation for the beloved paci (did I mention this was the ONLY one we had with us?) Where we sit, the area below the stands is slanted -- everything rolls to the bottom......or somewhere. SO, I found our nice gentlemen helper wearing the yellow vest -- batted my eyes in the best mommy-fashion I knew -- and had him asking the guy on the other side of the fence if he saw our neon yellow and red pacifier. After a few strange glances -- THE PACI WAS FOUND!! YES!! (and yes, I cleaned it off best I could).

That bought us a few more minutes. Oh, and during this time, we discovered that we left the one BOTTLE of mommy milk out in the car. NCAA no longer allows you to leave the stadium and return. In this case, there was no way I could feed Miss Bean in the stands. Hooter Hider or no Hooter Hider. It looked like an early exit for us (which....at this point in the game -- the Hogs had it made in the shade).

Bean let me know it was time to exit. We headed out and were waiting on the others. Meanwhile I see the INFORMATION booth. I decided I would take a chance and see if they had an "assigned" place for nursing moms (I didn't think there was much of one either....War Memorial is pretty old). The man I spoke with said "no" pretty quickly. Then he thought for a minute......"oh, we do have a seat in the bathroom". At first I thought it might be possible. THEN I understood him to mean the ACTUAL POTTY seat. After almost gagging -- I politely told him NO THANKS! He thought once more -- and brought me into the office to feed Bean in what I think was one of the box offices (the blinds were closed at this point). SO, I told the situation to the fam once they came out, they voted to stay, and off Bean and I went to this tiny narrow room. After unweaving this super-long piece of fabric and getting us untangled -- mission accomplished! Only one or two people walked in on us......it's funny how embarrassed people get and they can't even see anything!! WHATEVER!

We were good to go! W enjoyed the rest of the game -- cheering the HOGS on to victory!!

Other highlights of the game:

first cotton candy (and they didn't really like it -- YAY!)
skittles
popcorn
losing the paci down the slope of the stands once more
meeting the Hog mascot
going down front to watch the cheerleaders
slapping the hands of the players after the game

WHOOOOO PIG SOOIE!!! GO HOGS!!

a few pics from the evening.......

headed back from the zoo

burp cloth: totally cute gift from a friend; onesie: super-cute made by the talented Bebe (as in my mom....a designer, but not Bebe the clothing store -- ha!)