Things I LOVE about the morning!

I am so not a morning person, so I decided to blog about the things I DO like about the morning.

1. I can no longer wake up to an alarm and will let it beep for-ev-er and push snooze for an hour, so my husband is my alarm clock now and he is WAY nicer than my roommates were when they tried to wake me up. I've had balls and pillows thrown at me. They've even used a mega phone and cold washcloths. yea. I had NICE roommates. :)

1 1/2. When the kids awake, they immediately come and find us and get lots of hugs, kisses, and morning cuddles. "Good morning Mommy. Did you have a good nap?"

2. It takes longer to fight over who is saying the breakfast prayer than actually say the prayer. You would think that this is pretty frustrating, but hey, they LIKE to pray. So we usually end up saying two prayers. Our food is "doubly blessed," they say.

3. When Maleia prays, this is what we get: "An bwess Dewin dewin baby face, yes we are bwessing you, baby baby! Yeah! Sewy sewy Dewin baby!" in a baby voice during the prayer while Dylan is jumping for joy and laughing because someone is paying attention to him. Then she looks around the room and blesses what she sees.

4. When Haley prays, this is what we get: "And bless Maleia that she can be reverent during the prayer, and that I can forgive her if she makes wrong choices and makes me mad. Bless Dylan not to pull my hair, and that I can be a good babysitter and not try to pick him up like yesterday and the day before that, but not on Monday so that was good. Bless me to be nice to everyone, even when they make way wrong choices. Bless me at Pre-K that I won't be bored and that Maleia can be good for mommy at home and they can come and pick me up on time . . . " You get the idea. Anything that is on her mind, she says it. Anything she knows we are doing, she's asking for extra help to make it happen. :) Love it! P.S. I have only been late twice! It must have been days that she didn't pray about it, but she definitely won't forget it.

5. Maleia's WILD hair when she wakes up. Seriously, it is just out of control and CRAZY! Also, lately Maleia has woken up with a dry pull up! woohoo! Potty training is pretty much over with, but she will still have accidents here and there, mostly when we are at other's homes. Sorry, "other's homes."

6. All kids are basically in a good mood.

7. All parents are more or less in a good mood.

8. We can all be together and see Brandon head off to work and he can help get kids ready for the day, too.

9. New day. New possibilities to actually get everything done on my list.

10. Another chance to become a little better, try a little harder, and live a little wiser.

5 K --- #2

So we did it again! I would have liked to say it was so much easier the second time around, but it was actually harder this time. Maybe it's because I knew what to expect this time, I don't know, but either way this race pushed me. I did shave a whole minute and ten seconds off my time, so that might have had something to do with it. :) I ran it in just under 26 minutes and got fourth in my age division which was pretty large this time. 20-35 I think. The runner of the day was actually Sarah Galan who shaved three and a half minutes off her time!! What a runner! Though the race ladies got her time wrong at the finish and we had to correct them. . . see her blog for the whole story, right? This race didn't have a chip time and it seemed a lot more disorganized (they put the wrong times in the paper for one thing and got Sarah's time wrong at the finish) but overall it was great to accomplish yet another race. Basically this gets my rear in gear to actually run.

Quotes of the Day

Monique -“Maleia, don’t hug it, just eat it!”
(regarding the garlic bread)
Maleia- “But it’s soooo soft!”

Haley- (gasp!) "Who pushed you down, Maleia?" (seeing her scraped knees)
Maleia - "No one did."
Haley - "Did Satan do that to you?"
Monique - "No Haley, she just tripped and fell."
Haley - "Satan would do that you know. He's wicked!"

Monique- “Hey!” (sees Haley spill spaghetti on lap)
“You need to learn to lean over, Haley.”
Haley- “Well, Mom. You need to learn to make cakes.”

Brandon- "Hey girls! No tackling in the tub!"
Girls- "But we were just playing!"
Maleia- "And I was winning!"
(giggles and screams of glee)

Where's Amanda Kleparek when I need her? Apparently I need to learn how to make cakes, but at least I'm really good at making soft garlic bread. Maleia has fallen every day we've gone to the park this week. So she has scrapes on top of scrapes. Poor girl. But hey, she knows how to tackle.

Sports-a-holic!

I LOVE to play sports! I was on a volleyball league this Spring and I loved it. Now I am playing soccer and love it love it love it! This is the same co-ed team that I have been playing on since we moved here- when I'm not pregnant. :) I've missed a couple seasons so far due to a couple of kids. We play Spring and Fall. This will be my last season before we leave, so that is kinda sad, but I am elated that I get to play once a week. Brandon is playing softball and the girls are FINALLY in dance which are both exciting to go and watch. Haley didn't want to play soccer this time, but we are just letting her see what things SHE wants to do, which I have found is harder than I thought it would be. Whenever I want to force, I just think of the times when I was in piano and dance....bleh! Hence, dance class for Haley and Maleia. They come home and teach me all about pirouette's, pliat's, tapping, and timing. Also, I am running in a 5K this Saturday again, so my goal is just to do better than I did last time. We'll see how it goes... I love to run, too. Sick, huh?

Chapman Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Chapman Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Chapman Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Cherry Blossom Festival, etc.

It's only a little cold and wet. Don't fall asleep Brandon... it's funny how many pictures I have of Brandon with his eyes closed. Strange phenomenon. "Popcorn Popping" has a whole new meaning in the East. When I lived in the West, I really thought the song was talking about popcorn. This is amazing! Cherry Blossom Festival in DC...woo hoo!

Grandma and Grandpa Chapman. AHHH-MEN!

Wrong way, bra!

Do you have all YOUR ducks in a row? Maleia calls them her "Rubby Duckies."

Adorable sister-in-law. P.S. She's single...

YES!!! My son LOVES playing with balls! If you click on the picture you will see the look of sheer delight in his face. :) My daughters just liked posing in them. Okay, so only one out of two did.

I choo-choo-choose you!

Not the most flattering of me, but it's one of the only pics of me.

Chapman and Son, Inc.

And Maleia's infatuation with pigs goes on, and on, and on, and on...

Another shot of my available sister-in-law. Anyone have a hot, single, faithful, rich, and really cool brother? aka Future Brother-in-law

You go girl! Work it!


Alright. You can copy and paste these last two pictures and use them as postcards. I guess. Okay, so I can't take credit for them, but my mother-in-law did a great job taking such brilliant pictures.

So this week has been so fun having my sister-in-law and parent's-in-law as well. I feel like we don't go out and do as much as we should unless we have people come and visit to give us a little push. We were able to go to the Baltimore Aquarium, Port Discovery, the Cherry Blossom Festival, Red Robin, and just chill with the fam. Always a fun time with the Chapmans. A whole lotta laughter, dancing, and playing.

Snoop Dogg might just be joining our team!

My favorite quotes from the article:

1. Though Snoop Dogg has been hesitant to publicly discuss his recent spiritual journey, he commented on the experience of attending his first “Family Home Evening” in a recent interview with People Magazine.

“I was hooked from the start,” Snoop Dogg said. “We talked about the purpose of life, played Mousetrap, and ate brownies. The kids thought it was off the hook, for real.”

2. “Y’all know me,” he said grinning broadly. “There were just certain things the old me -- the "natural man" -- needed to do. And these young guys (the missionaries) are telling me that God’s not down with disrespecting ourselves. But it’s cool now.”

3. “Listen, the haters will say what they will,” Snoop Dogg said. “I can only do what I feel is right.”

Read the whole article here:
http://cnnentertainment.co.nr/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/01

So the last place you HAVE to see is this. Click here!!!

Dinner Battle Stories

I dread dinner time some nights. I know they say to not make the dinner table a battle field, but what if I'm not picking the fights? Haley got mad at me tonight for laughing at her while she was crying over eating her dinner. (Heaven forbid) I was making her eat 5 more healthy bites of her food and then she cried, "I could make better food than this!" Oh dear, the agony! I had to quickly turn toward Dylan and tell her that I was laughing at him instead of her. Then she had to apologize, of course, for such a rude remark.

IT GETS BETTER! Our compromise was that I would give her a bite, then she could get her own bite, etc. and she wasn't looking when I put veggies on her spoon instead of the main course (which she was complaining about) and started making these gagging sounds after I put it in her mouth. I then told her that it was the mixed veggies that was in her bite. And she perked up, sat up, started chewing, and said, "Thanks mom!" The big faker!! She thought I gave her the main dish. THEN the next bite I gave her the main dish and she started chewing, looked at me, swallowed and said, "That wasn't veggies, huh?" I shook my head and she said, "I guess it isn't THAT bad. Just like Green Eggs and Ham, huh mom?"

Maleia just sits there with a bite in her mouth for many minutes and won't swallow. What do you do? Dinner takes an hour most nights. . .

7 things you may or may not know about me . . .

(sigh) a TAG!! Are you kidding me?! I happened to be up for one, so I was trying really hard to stump even the best of friends and even my family on a few of these. We'll see. No tags from me, unless you want to do it. Thanks you-know-who!

1. My nick name growing up was Mo. I think it was more for convenience in sports than anything. I mean, Monique is sooo much harder to say than Mo. :) My dad hated it though and when my friends would call up and ask for "Mo" when he answered he'd respond, "Who?" And then they would pause, stumble, and try to describe me. My dad would cheekily remember, "Aaaaaaah! My daughter, MONIQUE. Yea. She's right here." Good one dad.

2. Speaking of sports, I played most of them. I played volleyball, soccer, tennis, basketball, football, racquetball, ran track, and I couldn't tell you which one is my favorite. I did play volleyball for my college, but I played all the rest in inter murals, too. My daughters don't like balls and prefer to pirouette around the house than throw balls. I can't even say, "Don't throw balls in the house!" . . . yet.

3. My right toe nail is smaller than the other due to ingrown toenail issues most of my teenage/athletic years. Both were actually cut at different times. One was just cut more often than the other. Fun times. (This one is definitely TMI.)

4. I rode dirt bike motorcycles and LOVE to ride any chance I can get off road. My favorite bike was my Honda 250. It was white with a REALLY loud muffler that woke up everyone within a two mile radius. I thought the louder the muffler, the more powerful it must be. Like those suped up cars, right? Um, no. Come to find out I just had a bad muffler and was polluting the environment. Way to go Mo.

5. I love to water ski & wake board and snowski & snowboard. One of these decades I will convince my husband that it is a good family investment to buy a boat. I mean you have to talk to your family when you are the only boat in the middle of a lake, right? And then you cheer each other on and help each other learn. You have to smear sunscreen on each other, so there's physical contact, too. On top of it all, you are doing something active together. Viola! It should be an open/shut case, right?

6. I drink like a camel. (I'm not so sure exactly how camels drink, but isn't that how the cliche' goes?) Just imagine a really thirsty camel drinking a lot of water at one time. That's me. I think it must be all those years playing all those sports that got me into drinking loads of water at one time.

7. I had a pre-cancerous mole cut out from my leg. Not too scary. Just big and it left an even bigger scar. Beautiful. Just beautiful. Bring on the swim suit weather! I tell everyone it's my shark bite, but now my girls can understand that (and are terrified of Bruce on Nemo), so I need a new cover. If only I learned how to fence . . . can the swords even rip you up?