OK, Maybe I do need to pray a little

This is hilarious--go see my British friend's post here and see why I need to repent. You probably need too, as well.

Not Really Trying Anymore

Remember that post where I finally started moving my butt a little more? Check this out now:


That's what happens when life gets in the way. I come home exhausted from work most days, then do the parenting thing for the rest of the evening. But apparently that doesn't matter--because look at this:

I figured I could post a picture including my boobs because Jaci did it, too. (Yeah, Mom--I do everything my friends do. If Jaci jumped off a bridge, I'd probably do it, too. Oh, and Jaci, if you read this--I've been stalking your blog for years. That qualifies us as friends. Just so you know.)

The Face of a Criminal

OK, this has been sitting in draft status for a while--I forgot about it. SO, it's not really relevant now that the leaves are changing and it's getting down into the 30's at night, but I'm posting it anyway just because I love this woman and she cracks me up sometimes. And I had to sort of make fun of her for what she did this summer.


Does this look like the face of a criminal? This woman is a grandmother, a former elementary school teacher, and the mother of my husband.

Every other evening, she stashes pails in her secret hiding spot. She puts on her darkest clothes, and under cover of the night, fills those pails with water and...breaks the law.

Does she jump out and assault passers-by? Does she vandalize her neighbors' houses? No. She waters her plants hoping that nobody sees her and turns her in. CRIMINAL! (Their county is on water restrictions)

(Sorry, Mother-In-Law. I just couldn't help myself!)

Creepy Crawlers Part II

So I just posted about the boys wanting to bring their creepy, crawly friends into the house to sleep with at night (OK MOM--I'm paying for my raising now!)--Imagine stumbling into your little boy's room early in the morning to see this (look hard):


I almost peed in my pants. Jen over at Buried With Children has a similar story.

Belated Birthday Post

We have been terrible about birthdays this year. We actually jipped the boys out of full-blown birthday parties this year because Bryan & I were both working so many strange hours at work. We took them to the Great Wolf Lodge for a weekend to make up for it, though.

Here is Brandon blowing out candles on his cake:

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And here is what he did with some of his birthday money--the sound really doesn't do it justice.

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Yeah--thank you so much Granny--he'll be sure to bring it with him next time he visits!

I've Been Cheating

This is very difficult for me to admit to the general public, but it's something that I need to say before I get caught and it gets blown out of proportion.

I have been cheating. On Starbucks. Something I never thought would happen. It started off innocently enough--just playful banter, but then I was seduced by the sweet smell, and after one sip--I was hooked. The new coffee of my affection?


Dunkin' Donuts French Vanilla. Thank you, Sheila from work, for hooking me up. Now I can't stop drinking coffee all morning and I have to take sleep aids at night to go to sleep...just to dream about the next morning when I'll be reunited with my new coffee love.


Phew! I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

How to Tame Three Dragons

These are some of the coolest PJs I've ever seen--thank you Granny!!

We haven't seen the movie yet--I want to see it so bad that I'm tempted to take the kids without Bryan (due to his nutty work schedule.) It couldn't be any worse than dragging them all to Wal-Mart every week...at least they'll be entertained! And we'll probably spend as much money at the theater as we do in our weekly trip to Wal-Mart when it's all over with.

A New Rollercoaster Freak is Born

Last weekend I took the kids to Nana & Pops' for the weekend. Bryan had to work and I had an important date with my favorite rollercoaster--Kings Dominion's Volcano. Every year the company Bryan & I work for "rents out" Kings Dominion, and we get very cheap tickets for the day (pretty much an unlimited supply). So we do what everyone else does, and drag Nana & Pops along to help watch the younger kids.

The older the kids get, the more fun these theme parks become. Here's Nick and Brandon taking a nice little drive in a green Corvette (sorry for the grainy-quality.) One drives like his Mom, and one drives like his Dad. You guess which one is which (turn off the music at the bottom of the blog first):

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Unfortunately (or fortunately) I was having way too much fun to keep snapping pictures and taking video. Brandon is finally tall enough to go on most of the large roller-coasters and thrill rides, so he & I jetted off to get our fill of fun. I have always been a roller-coaster junkie, and I am so very happy that Brandon is just as crazy as I am. He even begged to go on one of the very few rides that I don't really like to ride, just because it scares the hell out of me due to the sheer height. Of course, we did it--because I couldn't be shown up by my 7-year-old boy.

The weather was perfect, the kids had a blast, and we all left with a smile that afternoon.

I would like to sincerely thank Nana & Pops (and Brad!) for coming with us and helping to keep an eye on the boys! I would never brave a theme park like that on my own with those three monsters!

Labor Day Weekend

Yeah, sorry--haven't posted much lately. I have good intentions, but I get sidetracked by reading everyone else's stuff and by the time I'm done, it's time to go to bed. Can't help it. Love my blogroll.

Sooo, there actually has been quite a lot going on around the Wrenn nest. (like that?--my attempt at keeping within some sort of family theme here.) (Oh, and because I feel so strung out on caffeine and lack of sleep due to the whirlwind of two boys in soccer, working long days, husband on shiftwork, parents in town from Texas, Labor Day weekend shenanigans, potty-training, and elementary school starting again, this post might be a little random. Try to keep up.)

My parents flew in from Texas for Labor Day weekend. With them came about 15 pounds of fresh Gulf shrimp. They were magnificent and fabulous. And more than we could eat ourselves, so we had a few people over to help eat and drink all our beer. Here are said shrimp after we already dug in:

Here is Brian (yes, Brian with an "I" as opposed to Bryan with a "Y") eating at the kids' table:

Here's some of the piggies eating shrimp--some are neighbors, some are friends, and some are family:

We'd like to thank my parents for the shrimp & baby-sitting, and Bryan's parents & grandma for the tables, chairs, and fixins (deviled eggs, bread, homemade oriental cole-slaw salad that everyone loved, and macaroni salad). And thanks to the neighbors for drinking all the beer. We normally reserve that special honor for my sister, who will drink every beer in our fridge in one night by herself. But that has nothing to do with this post and we don't hold a grudge. Really.

I forgot to mention that the first night my parents were here, the men decided to cook on the grill (after drinking a lot of beer.) And my Mom let the kids help with the cooking. Disaster?

(turn the music off at the bottom of the blog for these videos)

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The meat was slightly well-done and the corn had a little too much salt & pepper. Other than that, it was pretty darned good!

Tyler started Kindergarten on Tuesday (and Brandon started second grade.)

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My parents had a late flight out, so my Mom actually got come with us as we followed Tyler & Brandon to school in the daycare van (no school bus this year.) Tyler was very excited, a little scared and a little anxious (so was his Daddy):

So we had a busy, but good and fun Labor Day weekend!

Weekend Getaway

A couple of weekends ago Nana and Pops volunteered to take the boys so Bryan and I could have some relxing time without them. I was very excited--this could not have come at a better time. My job has me at my wit's end, the kids were getting on my very last nerve, and I feel like I never get to see Bryan due to our crazy work schedules. At first I started looking for good weekend deals for a Las Vegas getaway, or even Atlantic City. Thankfully, Bryan pulled me in and reminded me that even though it would be cool to hit Vegas for the weekend, it would be such a rush to get there, play hard, and come back that it wouldn't be relaxing at all.

So we pointed the car toward the mountains and drove without plans. We stayed off all the interstates and major highways and took in the view. We drove by beautiful Lake Anna and realized it just might be the place to invest in a future family vacation spot. When my parents come up for Labor Day weekend we may go check it out again. Anyway, Bryan & I ended up at Luray Caverns that afternoon.

I've been through Cave of the Winds in Colorado, Mystic Caverns in Arkasnsas, and a few small caves carved out in Palo Duro Canyon Texas--but none of them were as pretty as Luray. When the weather gets cooler and all the summer tourists are gone, we plan to take the kids. We did have one funny glitch there--Bryan ran into our neighbors in the gift shop bathroom! Stalkers... (just kidding!)

After driving through the little town of Luray and not finding any hotels we felt like staying in, we drove on down the road to Blacksburg--home of Virginia Tech. This was the first time I'd been to Blacksburg, so I was excited to see the home of the big East Coast college football team that everyone around here seems to talk about. We stayed the night there and visited the campus in the morning. And what a beautiful campus it was! All the buildings are built to the same theme--like huge, stone castles with giant wooden doors. Kind of reminded me of Hogwart's (I know, I am a dork.) It was just beautiful surrounded by trees and mountains--I would love for one of our boys to go to school there just so I could visit! And it snows there in the winter--just gorgeous...

Since it was Sunday, we had to start making our way back home to get ready for the next workday. Our final stop before picking up the kids was the Natural Bridge. George Washington actually carved his initials in the side of this thing--he carved so deep that it's still there today. Amazing.
And here's a rather unflattering photo of us in front of it (no, I'm not preggers--that's just how this shirt fits).
So we had a great weekend getaway in the mountains while the kids spent quality time with their grandparents. And thank you, thank you, THANK YOU Nana & Pops for doing this for us--we really needed it!!

Summer Fun

What a great way to water the grass AND entertain the kids! Thank you Nana & Pops for the new water toy--as you will see, the kids love it! And as for all our videos--turn the music off at the bottom of this blog before viewing.

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Make a Smilebox slideshow

Nana to the Rescue!

If any of you have been following my Facebook status, you'd know that our house has been hit by the Vomit Fairy. I suspect my friend, Mother of Mayhem over at Hunter & Maisie's Spot, somehow had something to do with this (I have to place blame somewhere!) Anyhow, I panicked because Bryan was working evenings this past week and I had no help with chasing a barfing 2-year-old and his ornery brothers, and I wan't feeling too hot myself. So, thankyou thankyou thankyou Nana for coming down and helping out, even though the situation wasn't nearly as bad as I was forecasting. Nick didn't throw up any more after Nana arrived, but she stayed and took care of him the next day so the rest of us could go to school & work. However, right as Nick got over his bug, Brandon came home with it--and he had it way worse than his brother. You know the other day when we cleaned all the downstairs carpets because of pee? Well, now all our linoleum floors are scrubbed due to puke. Brandon actually slept on the bathroom floor next to the toilet last night because he felt so bad (hey, it was his idea, not mine). Now that Brandon is okay, I'm waiting to see who's next in line. Hopefully next time you hear from us, we'll have banished the Vomit Fairy from thsi house and moved on to better things.

Shout Out to Allison

I have added a link to "Barking Mad" on my sidebar, which I discovered through Allison's blog. So Thank You Allison for sharing this site, because it always has me in tears, both happy and sad! I can only hope to be able to express myself and my family's life in such a funny, descriptive way.