=sum(M3:Y0)

Um, I know that doesn't make any sense... I was going for an Excel equation that had a 'me' and a 'you' in it... or at least maybe sortof looked like it might.

Why? Because I have a long lost, and recently rekindled, love affair with spreadsheets. I love them. I love making them. I love updating them, color coding them, complicating them.... I would marry them! And since my days working in an accounting department have long been over and my funds to purchase my own copy of Microsoft Excel have diminished (and my attempts to beg borrow and steal copies, real and fake, have failed) I have missed my spreadsheets so so much. And then I was told of a program I could download that would replace Microsoft Office. Oh My! And it was free! And it works. I can even save the files in MS formats and open old docs and spreadsheets from the good ole days... It's like I'm whole again! (it's OpenOffice.com by the way)

Why am I gushing on and on about spreadsheets? Because I love them. And because now I have a spreadsheet for everything I've been meaning to keep up on lately... Bills, budgets, projects, plans, etc. And I think I'm actually being more productive. To me a spreadsheet is like a list having an orgasm! And I love love love me some lists... so spreadsheets are kinda like my wildest dreams come true. (I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one out there with these feelings.)

So I have a Project spreadsheet. And one of the pages, or sheets, is for photo projects. And my largest project is my kids photo albums. I haven't kept up n them in a very long time. I have an album for each, four pictures for each month of their lives. Logan's are all in black and white and Nola's are all sepia tones. I've been working for about three days on getting caught up. And today I finished! Seventeen months worth of photos, four per month (roughly) per kid... I ended up with 136 pictures selected, edited and uploaded... and yes, there was a check mark to be made for the completion of each of these steps on my spreadsheet. Of course I won't be ordering them now because I have no online deals for Shutterfly at the moment. I tend to get 50 free print emails from time to time, so I will wait for one of those if I can stand it. But here are some of them for you to see....
























Oh! And on a side note (seeing the pull-ups in the picture above reminded me), Logan is now being potty trained and is wearing big boy underwear! Or little boy superhero underwear. It's only been about a week but we've already had a few accident free days!

March On...

So March was lame. Nothing much happened. We did go to Indiana to visit Grandpa and entertain the idea of moving to Effingham, IL. Kirk was offered a job there and we went to check it out on the way back from IN. Ummm, that would be a resounding Hells to the No! No offense Effingham, but I'm just not a country girl. And it's called f-ing Effingham. For those of you who've driven through the middle of America a time or two, it's the Illinois town with the big, giant cross on the side of the highway. That's the main attraction I think. And possibly the only attraction.

Anyway... that's about the extent of my news from March. (I've lost 15 pounds, but that's not very exciting.)

While visiting Grandpa, the kids received Easter stuff, including a gingerbread bunny house. Here are some pictures of that and Alyssa, the over-sized dog that my in-laws own...

Just a Few

I still haven't really caught the photo bug yet... but I did take just a few pictures of the kids yesterday playing outside... So here you go:

Beany & Buster

I've been working my butt off trying to finish this photo book for the kids by tonight. It's now 2am and it's DONE! Uploaded, put together and ordered! And FREE! Woo Hoo! The name of the book is:

Beany & Buster
The Adventure of the Magic Wand

Here is the link to the book on Shutterfly:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2ActHLFm3asmVL


Enjoy!
I'm going to bed...

Hey Sweet Cheeks!

So I was sitting in the living room and in walks Sweet Cheeks. Cute as ever, diaper hanging a little low, hand on hips (you take for granted that we automatically know how to stand with our hands on our hips... apparently it takes a little guess work).
So I said to him, "Hey Sweet Cheeks!"
And he quickly spun around, hands still on butt and scowl on face and said, "My NO Sweee Keeks!"
And when he turned back around in toddler anger, I took his Sweet Ass Picture!
Take that little boy!



And like a good mother, I didn't rush to pull up his diaper or fix his shirt. I sat there with my camera hoping for another good photo op! He found his construction hat and added that to his Sweet Ass costume - perfect! If only he had a tool belt... oh well.
At some point he turned and got entranced in the television. He had this stance that just screamed Construction Worker! Shoulders back, hat hangin' to the side, legs apart, butt crack peekin' out - Fabulous! So I took myself another picture. I'm working on my Mom of the Year Award....


So, from Logan to you: "Hey Sweet Cheeks!"

Flora & Fauna

We went to the Zoo the other day. And here are a few pictures of some animals...
I must say, the Okapi and the Zebra are my favorites but I can never get a good picture of the Okapi - they're always hiding in the back. Oh, if only I had a telephoto lens.... But the Zebra showed me his true colors.

Even their butt stripes amaze me. The patterns of a zebra are impressive, even the bootie ones!
And then we saw a lioness in a tree - first time seeing that at the zoo.


And we visited the Stingray Exhibit. Those suckers were big!

And you could touch them and feed them. They were so slimy! I was shocked, even though I have no idea what I expected, of course they would be slimy! But it still made me say, "Eeewww!"

The kids were somewhere between awed and bored. But they talked about it later like it was really cool.


And the classic Saint Louis Zoo shot - kids in front of the Giant Gorilla Statue.


And this year is the 100 year anniversary of the Zoo - so we had to get this shot... Look how adorable they are!


And moving on to the Flora...

My Fairy squash! I have about six so far.


And the yellow one is a One Ball, and the tomatoes of course... the garden is being good to me so far. My window sill is full!


The one ball was yummy - and so were the Fairy squash.


They taste like acorn squash, if you've ever had those. And you cook it the same as well.
So that is my flora and fauna for now... hope you've enjoyed it.

Coloring

We color around here just about every day... which means I pick hundreds of crayons off the floor just about every day... We have moved on from crayons to markers. And then back to crayons after I found Little Man with his arms colored from fingers to elbows in hot pink marker... But how else am I going to teach them to be little artists unless I let them make a giant mess once in a while. And every so often I get a reward.
Here is one of Nola's marker drawings:

Explanation from the artist: This is the sun (in orange) drawn first because it was a sunny day. Then a rain cloud came (gray blob at top) and made it a rainy day. Then the rain droplets (blue circles in front of the sun) came down and it rained ALL OVER the grass (green squiggle at bottom).
I think she's the next Van Gogh!

And here is one she made just for me:

Mama & Nola
I have no idea who is who, but we both look fabulous, don't you think!


And from time to time I have to bust out my skillz and color with the chillins too. What usually happens is that we all sit down to color. I start some drawing or whatnot while they whip out four or five drawings a piece. They're done and take off to do other things and I am left alone at the table coloring with crayons... happy as can be, I might add.

Here is a crayon drawing I did of Nola. She was pouting about something and when else can I get her to sit so still? So I drew her.


I also usually take requests while coloring... This one is a request from Nola for an Apple Tree:


And what else can you do when you're done coloring, have no pants on, have thrown all your crayons and markers around the room?
Table surf. Yep, that's right! Climb up on the table, lay on your belly and ride the wave.


I swear I have a handle on my kids... really I do!

The Face of Genius

I think that Logan might just, may be, possibly is... a damn genius!

He's the cutest thing in the world, most of the time. And overall he has a very good nature about him, mostly smiley and giggly. Lately he's started showing signs that his giant head may be of more use than just throwing off his balance. He's always been a good communicator. I've known what he was trying to say for a long time. As expected, he's been picking up new words every day. He puts two words together, rarely but sometimes three... usually it's just tacking a name to the end of a command or request: Nigh-Nigh Mama... Bye Bye Papa... Sauwwy Noah (sorry Nola)... etc.

And recently I've noticed his knack for retention. I tell him something one time and he remembers... like letters and numbers. He was sitting on my lap the other day and making noise, I wasn't really paying attention to him. Then I realized what he was saying: letters.
"Oh. Oh. Gee. Dee. Oh. Oh." My shirt said GOOD JOB on it.
He was reading the letters from my friggin shirt! And subsequently I've tested his ability and he has continued to impress. "El. Oh. Gee. Aye. En." LOGAN! Frankly, it's freaking me out.

I'm not sure he's supposed to be knowing this stuff yet. Maybe he is... I honestly can't remember when Nola started reading letters, or counting... (I know! I KNOW! You're not supposed to compare children to each other... blah blah whatever!) So now, little smarty pants has started counting. Counting! He can't speaking in sentences, yet he's counting. In the backyard the other day he was counting. Of his own accord he was running along the posts in the chain link fence and as he ran by them he would count (not always correctly, but neither does my 3 1/2 year old). "Two. Two. Free. Four. Five." ...running running running, all by himself along the fence... "Ayyy. Nigh. TEN!" Holy Crap. Holy Shit. He just counted to ten. COUNTED TO TEN! Freaking me OUT!

My Little Genius. He'll be the smartest player Da BEARS have ever seen!

Over the River & Through the Woods

To Grandmother's House We GO!

Went to my mom's on Saturday with The Buster & The Beans. They had so much fun. My mom's new house is over the river (the Missouri River) and through the woods (the remaining suburban woods of St. Charles) from my house. When we got there we had to go check out the pond, or as Buster calls it, the Wa-Wa.



We were hunting froggies!



Then they picked dandelions for me while Mom and Ron worked in the yard.



The biggest thrill was the hill. It took Logan a while to get the hang of it but eventually they were both going UP the hill....



Then DOWN the hill...



Even falling was a blast!



It had rained, so I was on a mission to get some good droplet photos...
Raindrops on Hosta:



And did you know that Peony buds won't open unless ants eat off the sticky layer on them? I did not know that until I was informed by my mom, who probably was told by Ron... Interesting info. Here are some little ants at work on a peony (see the one underneath?):



And then I found the best raindrop photo-op! I went to just take a picture of the one Iris remaining intact after the storm and found it was holding a raindrop right in the center. Isn't that perfect?






Then Nola Bean decided to climb a tree. She didn't get very far, but her feet did come off the ground. And to her, that's climbing a tree. Even though it looks more like she's just hugging it.



And one last shot of the kids by the tree at the top of the hill. Logan kept knocking on it saying, "Nah-Nah. Nah-Nah." Probably about 50 times... I guess he thought someone might come out, who knows. They look so small by the big ole tree.



Fun day. Kids were asleep by the time I was out of the driveway. Good times!