Names

When I was growing up, my name was Jonna-Beth. It's a combination of Jonathan and Beth. I always thought it was kinda weird. I mean, obviously, I am a girl and my brother is a boy and we are 5 years apart from each other. Very different kids.

But, totally adorable, right?

Now, I am a mom. I totally get it. You are frantic most of the time and you are lucky to just remember part of your kids' names. You might think you know where this is going. That I call them Mag-Pat or Pat-Moo or something, right?

Nope. That would actually be a step up. I usually call Maggie the right name.

I mix up Patrick and Willie (the dog).

They get called Pat-Willie most of the time.

I hope he doesn't need therapy when he gets grown. I think Willie will be able to get over it though.

Granted, they are best buddies. Patrick gets so excited when he sees Willie after we have been gone for a while. He always kisses Willie's head when he leaves and yells, "bye woo-w00" at Willie when he leaves. He calls Willie "woo-woo". It's his name for most dogs. I guess because it sounds like woof woof.

So, yeah, there's my mothering confession for the day. I can't remember the names of the 2 of my kids.

Pat Pat

As soon as Patrick came to our house, we started calling him "pat pat". I think I started the nickname, but Maggie really loved it.

It has really become his name, kind of like how Maggie was "Maggie Moo" when she was a baby. It always catches me off guard when I hear someone call him that who is outside our family.

Like last year when we were walking to pick up Maggie and Miss Corrine said, "hey, Pat Pat" to Patrick.

Or the kids who met him at kids camp at National Conference. We would pass them while we were walking around and they would say, "hey, Pat Pat". It just sounds funny to me to hear other people say it.

So, Pat Pat has been his nickname for a while. One afternoon, while Maggie was in Kindergarten, we drove to Sonic for Happy Hour. While we were waiting for our Route 66 Unsweet Iced Teas, a yucky smell filled the car.

Maggie:EWWWW....What is that?

Me: I think Poo Poo Patted.

Maggie started laughing and couldn't stop. I had mixed up my words.

She still laughs and says it sometimes when he has a dirty diaper.

Poo Poo Patted.

I've been on a roll..

I've been really blogging a lot lately. It almost seems like the more I blog, the easier it is to think of more blogs.

I was driving to Modesto today and thinking of blog ideas. They were just coming to me like crazy.

I thought of some really awesome blog ideas today.

Guess what? I can't think of any of those great ideas now.

I thought maybe if I just started writing some of those ideas would come back to me.

Hmmm.....

How about if we revisit the awesome deal I got on green beans from Amazon?



I reguarly read blogs about saving money. My favorite ones highlight deals on Amazon.

Recently, there was a post about a great deal on green beans. It was 12 cans of green beans for $7.67. Shipped to your house. That's a pretty good deal.

Steven gets all emails every time I order something from Amazon. He calls me and says things like, "why do we need 12 cans of green beans?".

I respond with good answers like, "duh, cause it was a great deal."

When the green beans arrived,a couple of them were dented. So, I emailed amazon and they shipped 12 more cans to me. So, I got 24 cans of green beans for $7.67.

That's awesome, right? I think it's like 31 cents per can.

Yes, these are the things that make me happy now.

It makes Steven roll his eyes. Especially when he gets emails from Amazon regarding my good deals.

Tonight, I ordered 6 glue sticks for a dollar from amazon.

The best part of this deal is Steven's in Colorado and can't check his email.

Our doorbell

I keep a sign on our doorbell that says:

Please KNOCK.

Baby is sleeping.

I have had one up for about a year now. I honestly, put it up because I order A LOT of stuff from Amazon.

I just can't resist their deals.

Remind me to tell you sometime about the time I got 24 cans of green beans for 7 dollars.

It. was. AWESOME.

Anyway, I get a lot of deliveries. There's also random people stopping by who don't know how to get in touch with Steven and will come by the house to try to find him.

Patrick naps from 1-3:30 everyday, so I keep the sign on the doorbell. I tape it next to the key basket (that Karen Freeman gave us when we got married) when he wakes up.

I had gotten away from the habit until last week when someone came by looking for Steven and rang the doorbell 3 or 4 times in a row until my mom got to the door. Patrick woke up early from his nap because of it and the rest of the day wasn't very pleasant. So, my mom made a new sign and even put a picture of a baby on it, in case the person at the door couldn't read.

Since then, two funny things have happened with the doorbell.

1. On Sunday night, the pastor who uses our church brings money by to Steven. He came by around 8:30 that night and rang the doorbell. Patrick was already asleep. When Steven got to the door, the pastor said, "Hey, there's a sign on your doorbell. I moved it so I could ring the doorbell."

2. On Monday, I was getting the kids inside the house after we ran some errands. I was about to put Patrick down for his nap when I heard a knock at the door. There was a couple at the door who were looking for Steven. The lady looked at Patrick and said, "he's not asleep. There's a sign on your door that says he's asleep."

Nice. I think I'll just leave the sign up permanently to avoid answering the door. UGH.

Maggie overheard me talking about these incidences to my mom.

She came up with some great alternatives since no one reads the sign. Or thinks it's an odd sign.

Her ideas:

1. Disconnect the doorbell.
2. Write a note that says "doorbell broken, please knock".

I like the way that girl thinks.

Packing

Steven is going to Colorado on Thursday.

Tonight, I am sitting in the living room as he plans and makes lists and lays out the stuff he is planning to bring on his trip.

I asked him what day he was going on the trip. Maybe I was confused and he's leaving tomorrow. I mean, Steven has NEVER purposefully packed for a trip a day before he leaves. He's more of a midnight-the-night-before-a-trip-packing-kinda guy.

He confirmed that he was leaving on Thursday, but he had a lot going on tomorrow. He's also trying to pack for 5 days camping, but not check his bag. And packing camping stuff on an airplane is not the easiest thing to do.

Then, he said (sweet words to my ears), "I think that you are also rubbing off on me in this area."

WHAT?!

Ten years of being married and I feel a lot of joy from this conversation. My list making ways have finally rubbed off on him.

Just think....maybe ten more years and we'll start wearing matching outfits on Sunday mornings.

Unibrow

Maggie was talking to me tonight. Here's the conversation:

Maggie: Mom, I think I'm getting a unibrow.

Me: What are you talking about? You barely even have eyebrows. You have light red eyebrows that you can hardly see.

Maggie: Oh yea, I forgot. (laughing)

Me: Where did you hear the word unibrow?

Maggie: Spongebob. Squidward has one.

Me: Oh yea, I forgot. (laughing)

End scene

a great P.S.

So, as a P.S. to my last blog. After I set up the blog to post, I went to get the mail. We got an anonymous note in the mail.

It was addressed to Steven, but I couldn't wait for him to come home and read it.

I opened it up and it was a card from the lady that I wrote about in the last blog. She wrote us the sweetest note about how nice it was to meet us that day and how she was praying for us and wanted to send us something.

Isn't God amazing? I love it when he's not quite finished with a story.