Four wheels is so boring, Mom.

Dad took off the training wheels and Little Man is doing great.
With Dad close, Little Man switched to a bigger bike.


Sissy decides to get into the action.
My friend helps Sissy so I can take pictures. Little Man says, "four wheels is so boring, Mom."

North Dakota for spring break

I have been behind on blogging and am catching up today with so many posts. We have been sidetracked with our family and friends going through the flood in North Dakota. We visited them the week before it all hit Fargo and got to see a lot of snow then. (Second week of March) They received a couple more feet after we saw them, during the sandbagging and trying to hold the flood back. Many of our family and friends had to evacuate. We received good news today though, businesses in Valley City could open again!

Little Man is 6

This post is a little late. Little Man, I can't believe you are six now. You and I had fun making your cake for the family birthday party. I like how you decorated your dinosaur. It sure tasted good didn't it?

Mural

I have been painting a mural at a house in Shawnee during this past week. Here are the pictures of the progress so far... It is for a tween that wanted a funky tree, Hawaiian flowers and her initials. Here is a link to the hibiscus that the family liked...hibiscusby Lorie La Plant and the link for the inspiration behind the tree.

Great project for Earth Day! Take a plastic grocery bag and make a parachute guy. We just found a small toy that you could wrap a pipe cleaner around and twist to the plastic grocery bag handles and had some fun. We used a small lego guy, an action figure and a hotwheels car. The lego guy sailed the best.

I want to be an '80s girl.

Like the leg warmers? She does. She specifically asked me to make her some legwarmers (several months ago.) I have been putting it off thinking that the cold weather was over. I finally got some made and she sported them at school. This is now one of her favorite outfits. She liked it when daddy told her she looked like an '80s girl and then she had fun looking at my yearbooks for proof on what an '80s girl looks like.

Boys and mud

At our house, there is plenty for a boy to do, especially if they love the mud. Here they are just having fun digging and watching for things coming through the culvert.


Another meaning to the word "mud boots". When there is a boy and mud, he is not too particular on what he is wearing. He just needs to get dirty.

Being a Mom

My son asked me the other day, "Mom, are you the only grownup that we know that doesn't have a job?" Just got to love him.
Well, no actually, according to him, most of my "just mom" friends are out of a job, too. I think a lot of people see stay-at-home moms this way. We just get up everyday whether we feel like it or not. We try to get ready or have quiet time before everyone else wakes up and needs to know where this or that is (and you usually do even though you were not the one that was using whatever it is they were looking for). So, do any of you really do spring cleaning? Just what exactly does that mean? I find myself with paper clutter everywhere. It never fails, somehow we have paper covering almost every imaginable surface of our house...kitchen table, floor, coffee table, bedside table, shelves. You name it, it's probably there. Back to cleaning...do you find that most days you are picking up something that someone else put in the wrong place and by the time you are done doing that, you are to tired to do what you took out to do and it is sitting there in the wrong place and looks like you are the one making the messes around the house? Does it just seem that if you are a stay-at-home mom you are expected to fit other people's requests for your day in too? I find that most of the time I keep the house picked up just enough for Clean House not to show up. Just when you think you have the dishes done and the kitchen clean and you can move on to something else, someone comes and tells you that they are hungry again. Then there is this mess that seems to always accumulate on the floor under the dining room table after every meal and snack. I don't think it matters how old the children are, crumbs are everywhere. They never make it onto the plate. They hit every surface on the way down from the mouth to the table to their clothes, the chair, and lastly the floor.
I don't have a job but somehow everyone seems to have clean clothes, although they may be wrinkled. I don't have a job but somehow everyone seems to have a full tummy, although we may have the same 5 menus every week. I don't have a job but somehow they get ready and off to school each day and don't miss the bus without spending one minute at daycare somewhere. I don't have a job but somehow they have a lunch to take to school everyday. I don't have a job but somehow they have someone who helps them get their homework done and checked. I don't have a job but somehow they get a bath or shower and to bed each night (ok maybe not a shower or bath every night). I don't have a job but somehow I try to get to their school to volunteer each week. I don't have a job but somehow they get a warm bath in the middle of the night when they are having those wonderful growing pains they can't sleep through. I don't have a job but somehow they make it to the doctor and dentist. I don't have a job but somehow they get to Church, friend's houses to play, birthday parties, the library, the park, carnivals, movies, Grandma's and Grandpa's. I don't have a job but somehow we manage to survive that fun time of the year called back-to-school shopping. You know where we get clothes, school supplies and we can't get it all at one store because they are out of some things at one so we end up going to about 5 by the time everything is found. I don't have a job but somehow their belongings that need fixing get mended. I don't have a job but somehow when someone needs a present (since I know how to bake, crochet, sew, paint...) someone usually makes them a handmade gift.
To make money, I thought I would try Craigslist like my sister and husband have done. Why not, they have had good luck with it, right? I get calls from people saying they will buy my stuff and they never show up. Frustrating. So, it just seems easier to donate to the local shelter or thrift shop.
Don't get me wrong, I do love what I do. I do enjoy the unconditional love of my children, the fact that my husband works so hard so that I can be home with our children, that we have a home, food on the table, clothes and much more. It just gets frustrating that everything good seems to go unnoticed but the messes don't.
(Disclaimer: please forgive me if anything was left out. I do get "mommy brain" sometimes. You know it's what happens to a woman when she becomes a mom...we think about so many other people and things that some things are just forgotten- not on purpose.)

So the answer to your question my son...I may not have a job that is looked at as a job by most but I do get the best pay of all...lots of love, hugs and kisses and don't forget all those dirty dishes.
(Yes, I did write this...typos and all! Lori Tabor)

Greg Hager "Daydream"

A couple of weeks ago I was told by one my friend's moms that one of her sons has an album out. He has written and sung his own music on an album called "Daydream" and it is now for sale. His sister, Laurie, and I were best friends in high school and we went to college together. I have so many fond memories of hanging out at their house. They are a truly awesome family. Greg, good luck with your career. Love the music. Please visit his site at www.greghager.com. You can get to his myspace page and/or purchase his music from there.