No matter what happens at court today, this one will still be with us. I’m thankful.
Most of my Phone Photo Friday pictures are from my Instagram feed. Follow me @mahlbrandt if you’d like!
Phone Photo Friday
06/21/2013
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Weekend Part 1
06/17/2013After Buzz’s long nap on Friday afternoon, I took him and Ali for a swim at my parents’ house and then we ate pizza and my parents treated us an exhibit at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens called Night Lights by Bruce Munro. I got so many great photos of Buzz, but of course I can’t share them here.
Saturday morning our original plan for a visit with his mom had to change last minute because the splash park we were going to meet at was closed. Like Ali’s post-pigtails bed head?
I told her I needed to go to Target and we ended up meeting there and doing our shopping together. It felt like hanging out with a friend. She was so sweet and got Ali and Buzz matching outfits at Old Navy before we met.
I am so thankful for her kindness and patience, for how much she loves her son and for how hard she is fighting to get him back. He’s one blessed little dude to have his mama working so hard to get him back.
And then, of course, we went swimming again.
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Phone Photo Friday
06/14/2013
Today marks 10 years with this guy. TEN! A decade. How did that happen?! We’re still just kids. I am so blessed to do life with this man.
Most of my Phone Photo Friday pictures are from my Instagram feed. Follow me @mahlbrandt if you’d like!
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Confession
06/12/2013I actually like doing laundry. Especially folding all of the cute and colorful kids clothing. Pajamas and underwears are my favorites.
I know it goes against the flow of popular blog topics to rant about but I’ve always appreciated doing laundry, even when it was just Jason and me. I would imagine him wearing each article and be thankful that I could make it clean and fresh for him.
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Phone Photo Friday
06/07/2013
After a busy weekend and two kids up in the middle of the night (one with bronchitis and the other that wanders), Monday morning tried to get the best of me but I kicked it in the teeth. Hi-YA!
Most of my Phone Photo Friday pictures are from my Instagram feed. Follow me @mahlbrandt if you’d like!
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We’re Now Officially…
06/05/2013a two pizza family. We were pushing it with one pizza when it was just the three of us. Ali is hard to predict; sometimes she’s a one-slicer, sometimes she’s a three-slicer. Now with Buzz joining us, we are most definitely a two pizza family.
Also, I made a new family rule. You can mutilate your pizza as much as you want but you have to actually eat it before you get another piece. We have one kid who likes to eat holes in her pizza like swiss cheese and another kid who likes to eat all the cheese and toppings off the top.
If anyone is curious where Buzz’s foster care board payment goes, I can tell you that so far it has gone mostly to food. Some clothing, some other daily essentials (sippy cup, pull ups, lotions, etc.) and purchases for his room, but mostly to food.
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A Vacuum That Will Change Your Life
06/04/2013We were ready to purchase a new vacuum recently and I remembered my friend Molly had written about the one she’s in love with a loooooong time ago. I looked it up and it turns out she hasn’t written a post since then. Ehem, NOVEMBER. I’m poking fun at ya, Molly, but seriously: I admire you and I totally understand your busyness because I now have two toddlers around the age of 2 and you have TWIN toddlers AND two other boys. So, in short, you’re my hero. I think about you every time I bust out the double stroller.
Thank you for the endearing (and persuasive) post about your Makita BCL180W 18-Volt Compact Lithium-Ion Cordless Vacuum. We purchased one for ourselves last week and I concur with every word you’ve written. In the spirit of short and sweet blog posts, please visit Molly’s blog if you want to fall in love with vacuuming again…or more likely, for the first time. Leave her some comment love. Maybe she’ll start sharing nuggets of brilliance on the interwebs again.
If you don’t feel like clicking on the links above, let me give you bullet points on it’s awesomeness:
• it’s cordless so no stopping to plug it in 3-4 times through the house; no getting tangled on chair legs, dogs or kids. It also makes it convenient to grab after a meal and zip zap under the dining room table.
• it charges super fast, like 15-20 minutes. It stays charged for 10-15 minutes which is actually enough to get through the house because see bullet point above.
• it doesn’t use vacuum bags and the filter can be washed
• it’s fairly lightweight…at least compared to dragging a wheeled canister vacuum around the house
• the canister near the handle means that it can reach under furniture very well
• it can be used without the attachments like a dust buster
• it’s small and easy to store
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Four Weeks
06/03/2013The wee hours of Saturday morning marked 4 weeks since Buzz joined our household. I’m starting to regain normalcy in many aspects of my life. I’m caught up at work. I got our checkbook balanced a week ago. I worked out our family budget the other day. Bills are getting paid on time. Laundry is getting done. I’m pretty sure we’re no longer receiving meals from friends and generous neighbors. I’ve been keeping up with grocery shopping somewhat. I plan to actually cook some more complicated (than spaghetti) meals this week. I’m showering most days and remembering to feed the dog. The kids (and usually Jason and I) get three meals a day and snacks-o-plenty. There are lots of bums to wipe, booboos to kiss and hugs to give out everyday. We’re getting settled. One thing—appropriately at the bottom of the priority list, I suppose—that has not quite rebounded is blogging.
I miss this space to share and process and build community. I realize I need to lower the bar. I’d like to get back to M-F regular posting. I have all these big things going on around me that I want to write long, thoughtful posts about as I unpack it all from my brain…however that takes more time than I can spare just yet. I’m going to try my best to get back into regular posting by keeping them short and sweet.
Because, I have a lot of other things to do, like draw chalk people on the driveway with two adorable little toddlers.
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Phone Photo Friday
05/31/2013
New rug! It’s 8×10. I feel so grown up.
Most of my Phone Photo Friday pictures are from my Instagram feed. Follow me @mahlbrandt if you’d like!
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Phone Photo Friday
05/24/2013
Last weekend I actually had this thought, God, I am looking forward to Monday! These two were driving me bonkers and sitting at my quiet but windowless cubicle at work suddenly seemed so appealing. Then I took a break from unloading the dishwasher and peeked around the corner in time to see this. I’d like to think these getting along moments are increasing as they both get more and more adjusted to this new family life.
Most of my Phone Photo Friday pictures are from my Instagram feed. Follow me @mahlbrandt if you’d like!
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myMCMlife.com 