Hey! Remember That Blog I Used to Have?

What could be a more perfect way to come back than with the first item on Evelyn's Three for Thursday prompt list?

Three excuses...
I'm tired.
It's summer "vacation."
I have four monsters who kept me INSANELY busy between the middle of May and the end of June. Perhaps we'll cover all that another day... And then I took a week, or two, to try and recover and instead of relaxing I got sucked into some furniture refinishing/decorating projects. The results of which are AMAZING.

See...

 

And... (x3)

Pretty dang snazzy, huh?

Three favorite children's books...

Any of the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems

17 Things I Am Not Allowed To Do Anymore by Jenny Offill

Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr. Suess

Three Decorating Styles I Like...

Ummm...

Good Looking & Inexpensive. My living room furniture came from Big Lots. We paid less than $800 for the sofa, loveseat, and rocker recliner combined. I have kids. Four of them. There is no point in shelling out big bucks for stuff they are just going to ruin. This looks decent and it won't hurt as much when we throw it upstairs with the kids when we get in a new place.

I like clean lines and simple patterns. I can't stand over done, ornate, carved and blinged-up, crap. It's just gross.

I want my house to look like the kind of place where real people live comfortably. Not some catalog picture or Parade of Homes type palace.

Three Things I Do Differently Than My Mother...

I sleep in. My mom in an awesome nurse/nursing instructor and she gets up at all kinds of ungodly hours for work and school things. Aside from all the blood and other nasty crap, "early" is another reason I could never be a nurse.

I turn the thermostat down and I leave the ceiling fan on high year round. My poor Mom is always cold when she comes to my house and I'm always melting when I go to her house.
I eat meat and drink milk. A few years back my Mom was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes and after some time on meds and being unhappy with how they worked and didn't work, and how she felt while she was one them, she decided to try adopting a mostly vegan diet. It worked and her blood sugar has stabilized and she's gone off all of her diabetes meds. She has a lot more willpower than me.

Three Things I Am Waiting For...
5pm. When Dad will be home.
Ed McMahon to show up at my door with one of those big checks.
August 22, when my house will be significantly quieter during the day.

Three Things I Want To Be When I Grow Up...
Skinny
Well Rested
Content

Three Things I Do Because They Are Good For Me 
and NOT Because I Like Doing Them...
Give up caffeine... again.
Floss. It's just gross.
Wear fancy flip flops that don't make my feet hurt and never wear cute shoes anywhere any more. (I can't even begin to tell you how sick it made me to spend that kind of money on flip flops but they are one of 2 pairs of shoes I own that do not make my feet hurt so bad I can't stand up in the morning. Yay for Plantar Fasciitis!)

Three Things I Appreciate About My Middle Child, 
or Middle Sibling...
I have no middle child. But I have a brother who is the middle of three and the only boy...
He is HILARIOUS. With a capital "H."
He works really, really hard.
He's one of those easy going, easy to talk to type guys and it's really cute to watch him interact with my kids.

Yeah, he and his girlfriend Maren are those annoyingly photogenic type people. Seriously. Every picture they take is this cute.

Three Truths About Me...
I care what you think. But not enough to change me.
I'm not one of those people who think all children are adorable. I love mine, I like yours, but the rest of them...
I'm largely unmotivated. Which is why my house is always half way clean and my laundry is always half way done.

Three Pictures...

My monsters with their adorable cousin Kayli.

 Booger Head at the sprinkler park.

 

We had some new family pictures done the beginning part of June and this was the winner in the "Shot of Monsters Together" category. We bought these stupid balloons thinking, "We can pretend to be those people! Sure bring on the balloons!" Before we had even taken a picture Stinky had lost two and popped one. So here you have...Pinky watching the two balloons floating off into the atmosphere while mourning the loss of her favorite orange balloon, Stinky pouting because he lost his balloon holding privileges, and Ralph trying to keep Booger Head from stealing his balloon. Booger Head's balloon was tied to the back of his overalls. Awesome. The amazing Keli White captured them perfectly.