Three for Thursday: Having Kids is Like being Pecked to Death by Ducks

It's been another long week. Any week that Joe is gone and I'm single-momming it is long. My patience has been shorter than the fingernails my son nibbles on incessantly. I'm afraid Fun Mommy was killed, stuffed, and mounted on the wall by Angry Mommy. Therefore...my Three for Thursday is not the most fuzzy, warm, positive post. In fact, it's more of a mommy rant. Ahh. Such is life.

Three things I used to like before I had kids:
1. animals
2. long drives
3. swimming

Three things I like now that I have kids:
1. Halloween
2. short haircuts
3. bedtime

Three things I gave up when I gave birth:
1. the ability to be on time
2. Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken (gag)
3. TV

Three things I can't get under control no matter how much I try:
1. the neatness of my craft area
2. my girls' drawers (It never fails. Dirty clothes in the dresser. Clean clothes on the floor. EVERY SINGLE BLOODY DAY!)
3. my insomnia

Three things I don't understand:
1. things that end in -ics: politics, economics, statistics, quantum physics, psychics, bulimics, lunatics
2. Firefly (what's the big deal?)
3. my third child

Three pictures:

I was about ready to auction this kid off the to the highest bidder. And now look at her...Geez. I love being a mom.

Did I ever mention that we had our first Tamalada (tamale making party)? And that it was muy fantastico! Not to mention muy delicioso!

My parents have new neighbors. And their little boy (can you spot him?) likes to come hang out with all the kids when we gather at my parents' house. Somehow he's ended up in almost every picture of the kids that we take during holidays and special occasions. May the red headed step child jokes ensue. 

P.S. Remember my Super Mario Party Pack Giveaway! It ends Monday at midnight!

Nine Years of Wedded Bliss

Today is our ninth wedding anniversary!

Wowza! Where does the time go???

While nine years of wedded bliss is something to celebrate...there's no one here to celebrate it with me. Well, except for four kids. Three of which have snotty noses and gunky coughs and one of those which has yet another ear infection. Super.

While I nurse all the sickos back to health with some homemade chicken noodle soup (so what if it's over 100 degrees outside?!) and a few uninterrupted hours of Netflix, husband Joe is once again off on another business trip.

Sigh. So typical.

Even though he may be absent, I'm so grateful for the hardworking man he is and the dedication he gives to providing for our little family. I love the good, good person he is through and through. He is gentle and kind and sensible. He is calm and down to earth and has managed to balance my wild, erratic side out a bit over the our marriage. He has a sense of humor that sneaks up and attacks you when you're least expecting it and he's managed to keep me laughing for the last nine years.

I love you Joe! Thank you for marrying me and staying married to me through the thick and the thin.

And to celebrate, albeit solo, why not take a walk down memory lane? Here are nine memories and nine pictures from our wedding day back on July 11th, 2003.

1. I didn't sleep very well the night before our wedding. I woke--wide awake--at 3 am and couldn't fall back asleep. I decided to go ahead and start the beautification process for the early wedding ceremony. When I swung my feet over the side of my bed I heard a loud squish. Or was it more of a subdued splash? Either way, it was quickly apparent that my parents' basement had flooded during the night. Side note: the reception was held in my parents' backyard that evening.

2. Joe cried, nay, bawled through the entire temple sealing ceremony. I was really hoping he did so because he was overwhelmed with my beauty...And not because he realized there was no going back now.

3. For LDS couples that marry in the temple, it's rather a big moment when they exit the temple doors as a newly sealed couple. The family and friends gather around the doors and wait for this joyous moment. I didn't realize this and kind of made a hasty exit from the temple...sans new husband. I was quickly corrected and rerouted, reentered the building, grabbed the hand of my newly attained eternal partner, and then made a more graceful exit...this time with husband in tow. 

4. My dad owned a small limo business at the time and insisted on driving the newly married couple home from the temple. All 104 miles. With the privacy partition rolled completely down the entire way. Thanks Dad. Thanks a lot.

5. On the way home from the temple we stopped at a Sprint store so I could pay my overdue cell phone bill.

6. Our reception started at 6 pm. About 5:56 pm I realized I was so exhausted that I really didn't want to stand and smile anymore. But the show must go on, eh?

7. In an exuberant (translation: stupid) moment I jumped up into my groom's arms with a passionate (translation: awkward) embrace...and ripped the zipper out of the entire length of the back of my wedding dress. I spent that last hour of our reception held together with nothing more than two dozen safety pins and a prayer.

8. My dear sweet husband was so proper he wouldn't even kiss me "enthusiastically" until after the reception.

9. Confession: For all my teasing about his propriety...I was kind of--okay, really--nervous to get in the car and drive away from my family and friends and childhood home with nothing but my new husband and ZERO physical boundaries.

So, as I reminisce about our wedding day I'm realizing there was an abundance of clumsy, awkward, and calamity. And what a beautiful, awkward, magical, exhausting, calamitous, cherished day it was!

Getting Back my Groove with a Giveaway!

I'm trying to get back into my blogging groove again. It hasn't been easy; I still feel like I'm recouping from the cowgirl birthday party we just had for my (brand new) four year old Elle this past weekend. It was a fantastic party, but I have vowed to never do that again. I've realized that I am turning into one of those Pinterest Moms that I despise. You know the kind...The mom that turns their kid into a brat because of loads of overdone parties (as well as lots of other overdone stuff too I imagine).

I didn't used to be like this. We used to just to do cake and a few presents with our little immediate family. I'm not exactly sure what sparked the party planning passion this year. Remember the Super Mario Bros. Party I did earlier this year for my son? And then there was the Rainbow Party for the youngest, Cee, when she turned one (I'm not sure I ever posted pictures for that one).

Now this Cowgirl Party has pushed it too far. At least that's what my husband says. I hate to say it, but...he's right. It's time to tame it down. We can't afford the time or money to do this every year for all four of our children. And if each party has to be bigger and better than the last...where will it end? (Bankruptcy, juvenile detention, or a psychologist's office, that's where.)

I know there's a happy medium in this somewhere...

But look at me. I have wandered far from the post I had intended to write. Ahem. Pardon me.

What I meant to say here is...

Yeah! for blogging! And to celebrate a (hopefully dedicated) return to blogging I wanted to host a giveaway! The Party Works, a website that offers a multitude of party supplies, stumbled upon my Super Mario Bros. party post and has offered to give a Super Mario Bros. Party Pack for 8 to one of my readers! Pretty cool, huh?

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below telling me just why you like to read Hanging by a Silver Lining or what one of your favorite posts of mine were. Shameless I know, but we could all use a little ego boost every now and then, right?

For extra entries, share this giveaway on Facebook or your own blog. Make sure to leave a new comment along with a blog link and your email address for each thing that you do.

The giveaway will close Monday the 16th at midnight and the winner will be announced on Tuesday the 17th.

P.S. Sorry to any international friends but this prize can only be shipped within the United States.

Jar Love #91: Candy Bar

This one was on my bucket list.

I saw a blog years ago where a mother of 4 little boys had her very own homemade candy store in her kitchen. Jars upon jars of bright, beautiful, colorful, sweet, tempting candy just sitting on her counter top! 

GASP! Isn't that against the Code Book of Momhood or something?!

But I couldn't shake the image from my head. I'm not the biggest candy fan. I mean, come on, I'm not crazy. I won't turn down the occasional cinnamon bear or Bit O' Honey, but I'm more of a chocolate kind of gal. All this sweet, sticky, sugary stuff isn't all that tempting to me.

But isn't it pretty? Candy is my favorite decoration for parties (which by the way is the reason all this candy came to be in our house. Elle's fourth birthday was just last weekend. She picked out most of these from the bulk section of our local Winco grocery store. This is a new favorite birthday tradition in our little family.) It's just so appealing to the eye. And in jars?! Good gracious green gumballs almighty!

My kids surprisingly haven't gone hog wild on it. I had a friend in elementary school that had loads of candy at her house all the time. I remember being so shocked by it. My mom would NEVER have done such a thing. But her mom felt that if it was in the house all the time, it wouldn't be a temptation. She might have had a point in that my friend and her sisters were some of the thinnest girls I knew. *shrugs shoulders*

P.S. All jars were purchased at local thrift stores.

P.P.S. The candy was not. Purchased. At local thrift stores that is. Eww.