This week, hosted by Hallie at Betty Beguiles.com.

Good morning! Matthew just fell asleep and the boys are watching Cars 2 and re-enacting scenes from the movie so I have a small window to write before I have to tackle a long list of To Do’s so let’s get going!

I’ll Have A Scoop of Chocolate with Nuts – Remember the car accident I was in a few weeks ago? The lady involved has gone above and beyond to make sure we get our car fixed and that she covers any expenses we incur. She even offered to pay for a babysitter to watch the kids while I have to get the car fixed etc. Thankfully the damage was minimal and the only inconvenience was being without our minivan for 5 days and having to squeeze three car seats in the back seat of the rental, but we survived. Yesterday I got a letter from the lady with a check to cover some last expenses that her insurance didn’t cover. She also enclosed a $50 gift card for Cold Stone Ice Cream for the kids (I assume to ease their emotional distress.) How sweet is that? So thanks, Ms. X! If I had to get hit from behind in the rain, I’m glad it was you. LOL. 🙂

Toonton Abbey – Yesterday I had to go through my DVR and deleted a bunch of stuff since we were almost full. Even the kids had to go and trim their saved items. For Bella it would be Good Luck Charlie and Austin & Allie, although I let her keep Radio Rebel. For Andrew it’s Team Umi Zoomi and the Octonauts (did I spell those right?) and for JP it is Pocoyo and Max & Ruby. Last night Brian and I only had 45 minutes to watch TV so we caught up with The Middle and Modern Family. My two favorite lines of Modern Family were both by Mitchell. First: “Everybody’s looking at us. I haven’t been judged by this many people since I forgot my canvas bags at Whole Foods.” Hahaha!! The Second: “Okay, it’s Toontown, not Toonton. You’ve been watching too much PBS.” This was funny since I used to think Downton Abbey was Downtown Abbey when it first aired. LOL.

Next on the Reading List – I saw a post on Catholic Mom.com last month about a new book called Lessons in the Journey by Patrick Dawson. Despite the fact that Hallie is suspicious of books about women written by a man, I’m going to give it a try since the Kindle edition is only $2.99. I’ll let you know how it goes.

What Kind of Nap Was That? – Unfortunately, Matthew just woke up but he only slept for 15 minutes. I think he has a tooth coming out because he is drooling again like crazy. I picked him up and he fell back asleep in my arms so I’ll just hold him for now. But if you see more typos than usual, forgive me since I’m typing with one hand.

Put to the Test – As I am sitting here I can see that some guys from the C.A. Wastewater District have arrived at our house. They stopped by yesterday to let us know that the neighbor below us (we love on an inclined street) believes that water from our drainage system is leaking into her yard. They said they’d come by tomorrow to test it out and see if there is a fault in our drainage. I certainly hope not. They are running the tests now so we’ll find out one way or another shortly. Oh, wait! The guy’s knocking… Okay, that was timely. He said everything looked fine and the overflow of water is not coming from our house. Phew. (And thanks to the burly teddy bear of a guy for whispering so he wouldn’t wake the sleeping baby in my arms. 🙂

Mama’s Day & Gift – Do you have any special plans for Mother’s Day? I want to do something outdoors so I was thinking either the beach or Point Lobos but if the weather is too cold and windy (since we have runny noses in the house right now) we may stick to a walk where it is a little warmer and maybe pack a picnic lunch as well.
As for a Mother’s Day gift, I just ordered it this morning. (Brian can take a cue from Fred Mertz: ‘What did I give you?.. (cough)… I mean, how do you like what I gave you?”) I have been working on putting together a home management binder but it is taking me forever to first, find the time to work on it and second, figure out what to put in it and third, create the spreadsheets on my computer. I finally gave up and went to my favorite organizing girl Jen at i heart organizing and ordered her Personalized Household Binder “Everything” Printable Kit. I have already used Jen’s printables before (as seen in Operation Clean & Organize) and they are perfect for what I need. I mentioned with my order that this was a mother’s day gift so she rush ordered it and I have the order completed already! I’m so excited. I’ll post about it later!

And the Winner Is… – Okay, the last take is the moment you have all been waiting for! The winner of the RoL Birthday contest! We put all the names in a hat and Andrew did the honors. (He even closed his eyes.)







He picked …..



Congratulations to Laura S. of MS! Your RoL care package will be on it’s way soon.
Now, I must say that John-Paul was upset that he was not able to pick out a winner so I told him that I’d let him choose a name and that person would get a smaller RoL care package. So he picked his name…



And the winner is…



LOL! He picked his own aunt, my beloved sis EML. So a smaller care package is on your way too!
That’s it for today. Thanks for all who entered! Have a wonderful weekend!!