Big Sister

This post is a tribute to my older sister, Andrea.  Her Birthday was on Monday and while I told myself that I would do a Birthday post for each of my siblings on their special day, I also neglected to showcase my older brother Marty who's Birthday was a few weeks ago!   What can one do but make amends?  I will start with Andrea and turn this into a Happy-Birthday-my-sister-is-great-and-I'm-blogging-about-her-just-because post.  Marty?  Yours will come in time...I swear.

Andrea and I are stupid-close.  All the Patch kids are.  We just LOVE each other and love to spend time together.  Growing up?  Not so much.  Andrea and I shared a room and we rarely got along.  We had our moments of throwing things at each other or making the other one cry, but there were also hours of playing with our barbies (once for 3 days straight.  Seriously.  It happened.  Look it up), staying up late talking and her letting me borrow her cool clothes so I would look cute at school for a boy.

She has taught me so many things.  I call her all the time for the most random reasons -  a question about kids or what the best cupcake recipe is, she always seems to know.  We also call each other as soon as Halloween decorations are out, or when we're shopping and need a fashion sounding board (I should mention that I call her more for that).  She is hilarious, brilliant, beautiful and strong.  She's also totally unaware of how amazing she is.  She has a handsome husband who worships the ground she walks on and has 3 incredible kids who adore her.  

Andrea doesn't like lots of attention, but whatevs - it's my blog and I can do what I want.  Here is just a sampling of the trillions of things I love about Andrea.

- When Andrea was engaged, I told her that I got really sad when I realized that I wouldn't be her only sister anymore (Scott has two).  On her wedding day, she gave me a little gift with a note that said, "You'll always be my only sister".  

- We plan our Halloween parties together every year.

- We have a SERIOUS weakness for 18th century men.  Scarlet Pimpernel?  Phantom? (ok, 19th century, too), Count of Monte Cristo?  Hello?  D. Licious.

- She is healthy and fit and encourages me to be the same (I love/hate her for that).

- Creative much?  Andrea schools me in this department and she always down-plays it.  Every time I gush about how clever she is, her usual response is, "Oh, whatever...".  (I love/hate her for that).

- She makes me laugh SO hard.  

- The day that Cody and I went through the Temple, she was the one who packed my Temple bag.  She wanted to be sure that I had everything I needed.

- She can acquire any skill.  She tackles projects like nobody's business and she masters it like a pro.

- We love to quote 'Clueless' and 'Legally Blonde', along with a plethora of other movies.

- She has always looked out for me.  I remember many times when I was younger, she would include me with her friends and make sure I wasn't being left out.

- She is a master planner.  If you are EVER going somewhere new, you want Andrea on your team.  We went to New York together a few years ago and she had the subway system down in about 20 minutes.  She also planned my wedding.  No big deal.

It's easy to see that I love my sister with every fiber of my being.  My brothers and I look to her more than she will ever know.  And I already know that when she reads this, she will dismiss all her greatness and say lots of  "whatevers" and "that's only because..." and I will have none of it!  So!  To my beautiful, creative, amazing sister - I love you, my bestie.  Happy Birthday!!

Master Bath

When you have to clean your house, where do you start? Do you have a point of origin? For a good deep cleaning, I have to start in my Master Bathroom.
It's in the upstairs corner of our house, so naturally I feel that this is a good place to start. Now, I only wish that this is what my MB actually looked like, salmon ceramic and all (well, maybe not, but I do adore that anchor rug). Sadly, our bathroom is quite tiny, not much to see. But this is how my mind works - I clean the bathroom, then on to our bedroom, then the boys' rooms, guest bath, kitchen, ending up in the Family Room. A path to cleanliness, my own little adventure in cleaning travels.

This little plan of mine has it's drawbacks. Obviously, I don't always get to take the time to clean every room in my house in one go. I have to settle on cleaning the main living areas of the house - the Kitchen, Family Room, etc. I sincerely hope that I'm not the only woman who feels like she doesn't travel the cleaning highway as much as she would like. I do try! Life gets in the way and our fairytale schedules go out the window. And it affects everything! I will get inspired to go create something, but my crafting dreams get cut short when I think about all the other things that should be done first and I ALWAYS end up at the Master Bathroom. Everything comes down to that. Create = clean off art table = clean up basement = clean house = start in the Master Bathroom.

So what am I doing about it? I am doing a deep clean of my house and I am at the starting line. I cleaned out my bathroom drawers today, a daunting task that involved some high-pitched, "Oh, I do have a nail file!" and "why do I have so many bobby pins?". I have much more to do (Cole is napping, thus I am taking a blogging break), but it's official - I am on a mission to get my house in order. I will whip this house into shape so that when I have the desire to go down to my art table and create something, I can actually produce something! Not just a sparkling clean Master Bathroom.

Cry Wolf

Cache loves to play games on our cell phones.  Most of the time he will ask us first if he can play a game on our phone, but he also has a habit of just taking our phones and finding the game himself.   Normally this isn't a problem, but sometimes when I set my phone down I lock it so that the boys can't push tons of buttons and mess up my applications.  Safety first!  Turns out that if your phone is locked and you try to push a plethora of buttons, it calls 911.  Awesome.  I found this out a few weeks ago when Cache accidentally called dispatch once on my phone and Cody's phone.  We take the phone from Cache and humbly explain that there is no emergency, we are fine, confirm our address and wish the irritated dispatcher a pleasant evening.  About 10 days later he was messing with Cody's phone and did it again.  This time, however, it was my friend Whitney who called back from dispatch to make sure we were ok!  Whit and I had a laugh about Cache calling the Police Department, but not before verifying all the necessary info.

  

Yesterday my son called dispatch 4 times.  Four.  Times.  The first time she was really nice and understanding as I hurriedly explained the situation.   Later that evening Cache handed me my phone just as he had hung up on Dispatch.  "Cache!  You have got to stop playing with my phone!"  2 seconds later Dispatch calls and she was all kinds of unhappy with me.  "Hi, your phone has called us 3 times, are you alright??"  "Yes, I'm sorry, my son got a hold of my phone."  blah, blah, blah.  She was feisty with me and she had every right to be.  Cache got a talking to and I hoped that was the last of it.

Nope.  This morning in my groggy early morning state, I hear Cache coming up the stairs with my phone to his ear saying, "I'm sorry, I'm not supposed to call the Police..."  I grab the phone and explain the situation AGAIN.  She was extremely nice while she asked for my info.  We talked to Cache again and now know we can't leave our phones unattended.  Ever.  Hopefully I never have a reason to call 911, but if I do?  I sincerely hope the Dispatcher doesn't say, "Yeah, yeah.  You call us all the time and it's never an emergency..."

PGFD Year End Party

Monday night Cody and I went to the year end party for the Fire Department.  I LOVE this party - usually the FD events include the City Departments as well and while those gatherings are fun, it's nice to get together with just the FD.  I'm selfish like that.  I'm not a huge fan of this picture, but it's the only one of Cody and I, so whatevs.  Apparently the flash was too much for us.  We got to sit with the crew and we ate and laughed, got to see and catch up with everyone, it was a blast.  After dinner we got to watch a cinematic snack - Cody and his crew made a movie called "The Station Tour" that poked fun at every shift and it was SO hilarious!  We were laughing so hard, everyone loved it and copies are being requested.

Chase, Natalie, Jake and Cecily watching the movie...

The final hurrah of the evening is a HUGE white elephant game.  We all selected a gift and sat in a huge circle.  My friend Mindi said that I would want to end up with the gift she had brought.  As fate would have it, it ended up in Cody's lap!  I eagerly helped him rip open the paper, and what to my wondering eyes should appear...

My own dapper Edward!  To have and to hold!  Fantastic.  I kept him close to me for the rest of the evening and soon he will be gracing my bedroom wall.  Or ceiling.  

After the party we headed over to Chase and Natalie's for some Rock Band.  Quite possibly the funniest night ever.  Sadly, I don't have many pictures of us rocking out, but as soon as I get my hands on them they will be posted.  Here is Chase acting like a true lead singer.

C-shift girls!  Cecily, me, and Linsy with baby Gage.  Natalie opted to take the picture..

The girls and boys played separately and while the boys got higher scores, the girls were WAY more entertaining!  We were dancing like pros while I busted out "Livin' on a Prayer".  Although I will admit that Cody had some impressive scissor kicks... 

...while Chase swung the mic around like a pro.

It was a great night, we'll have to dual again and SOON.  Rock on.

Happy Birthday, Cache!

My little man is 4 today!  He is the greatest kid in the world and I just adore him.  Yesterday we spent the day getting things for his party and it was so much fun.  We went and bought him some Birthday shoes.  He was very particular in picking the shoes he wanted and insisted on wearing them out of the store.  He even wanted to carry his bag to the car.

Then we went to the party store to get things for his party.  As I was looking at the WALL.E stuff he would say, "We have to have wall.e plates" and "if we are celebrating, we need wall.e cups."  If we are celebrating?!?  He is so hilarious, his vocabulary is amazing.  Once we were done he said, "Ok, I think we have everything we need!" and he said it just like I would say it.  Love him. 

Cody's family came over last night for a party and Cache had so much fun playing with his cousins!  Here is his cake. 

The Eve cupcakes looked way better in my head, they turned out looking like blue-eyed ninjas, but whatevs - the kids loved them. It was fun having the family over - we ate pizza and watched WALL.E, we talked and sang to Cache.  It was low-key which was nice since Cody and I aren't entirely over our colds just yet.  Ugh.

Today we are having lunch with family and doing some shopping with my Mom.  I think tonight we'll go have dinner up at the Fire Station with Cody and the crew.  I am so thankful for my little guy, I love him so much.  In honor of his Birthday, here are some things that I love about Cache!

1 - That he can dress himself, and he actually dresses pretty well!

2 - How smart he is.  The kid is so clever, he'll out-wit me before I know it.

3 - He loves to play with Cole.  He looks out for him and includes him (most of the time).  He's a great big brother.

4 - That he loves Primary.  The first day I took him in he was SO excited and sat very reverently on his chair.  I walked out of the room and completely lost it - I totally started to cry.  He's not my baby, anymore!  

And finally, some Cache Quotes.  A few months ago, Cody and I decided to keep track of some of the clever things Cache says...

Laying on our bed with his head in his hand.

M: "What are you doing, bud?"

C: "Oh, just solving a problem..."

M: "Do you need any help?"

C: "No, I think I can handle it."

D: "Do you want me to make you some dinner?"

C: "Yeah, but mommy has to make it because she is the good maker."

D: "I'm a good maker, too."

C: "No, you're the good driver."

M: "Thanks, honey"

C: "Oh, it was nothing!" or "Anytime, sweetie"

After I told him to share is toy truck with Cole, 

"But if he chews on it, it will be lunch!"

Cache put his arm up on the table one morning, looked me straight in the eye, tilted his head up like a player and said, 

"So...how's it goin'?"

Happy Birthday, dude!  We love you!

Winter Warm

Are you familiar with that song?  It's on a car commercial - it's all retro sounding and the man sings, "The snow may fall, but I don't mind at all.  With you, I'm always winter warm..."  I have always loved it, it's so catchy!  And it has that 40's sound which I can't seem to get sick of.  Finally last night I got on iTunes to see if I could find it and find it I did!  There are some great songs on this album (which I could not find a picture of to save my life, let me know if you're interested and I'll send you the info), very posh 'Holiday Party' sounding.  The only problem is that now I want to throw a 1950's Christmas Party next year.  You heard me.  Have everyone dress up and serve cheese and crackers.  Don't worry, you'll be invited.

I am finally getting a wee bit better.  I still have a cough and my voice isn't all the way back, but I have energy and am feeling on the up and up!  Cody has been letting me take it easy and it's been SO nice to just rest.  Tonight we have a PGFD party that I'm really looking forward to!  What else does this week entail?  Tomorrow night we're having a party for Cache's Birthday and he'll be turning 4 on Wednesday!!  What?  4?  Since when?  Ahhh, cliche', but it goes by so fast.  He's coming with me tomorrow to pick up some party supplies, just him and me.  I'm excited to spend some time with my little man.  He wants a Wall-e party.  Yay, me.

The rest of the week seems pretty basic, but it's only Monday so what do I know.  I still have the Spring Cleaning bug and I'm excited to start some projects.  Cody and I even talked about putting an apron sink in the kitchen!  That would probably mean new countertops.  Cool ones.  Like cement ones. 

Home Work

My crazy life has caught up with me.  I am sick.  Burning the midnight oil no more!  It's not too bad, just a cold, but still I'm pretty worn out and I sound like a dude.  Awesome.

I don't know what it is when I get sick, but I always get super ambitious...and I can't do anything about it!  Maybe it's because I just lay there...looking around my house in a fuzzy-head stupor.  Naturally my mind wanders and I start getting ideas, I start thinking about how I want to redecorate my house.  Yikes.  See, we still don't know if we will keep the house on the market or refinance, but that doesn't stop me from coming up with all these plans to make this house wicked awesome.  It's already pretty great and there are things about it that I love.  I'm happy with the paint colors so thankfully there is NO painting in my plans.  But furniture, fixtures, art...that's what I want to change

Our poor bedroom is neglected.  We painted it last Spring and we have loved it, but we still need to polish it up.  We need bedroom furniture (touchy subject, lets move on), stuff on the walls, etc.  I have a mirror for my 'one day' vanity and one thing I am hoping to get/make is a tufted headboard.  I LOVE the look of them, so glam and classy.  

Then there's my poor sad Living Room that needs art, my Family Room that needs new pillows (I'm thinking something lime green...), my Kitchen that needs...something.  An apron sink perhaps?  Oooh, I LOVE those.  Am I the only one feeling this Spring Cleaning/Decorating urge?  And it's only January!  Alas, I can't do anything until I get well, so until then I shall have to indulge in some HGTV.