Who let the water beads out?

I get a text from Michael this morning while I was at work saying something along the lines of, " We broke out the water beads, and I didn't know I wasn't supposed to do the whole bag." Side note, that bag had 2,000 water beads! 2,000 water beads that we now have to handle and take care of. He then said that multiple of our dishes and Tupperware are homes for these 2,000 little babies. Unfortunately one of the tall Tupperware tipped over, so now we have a nice water bead floor.

Thankfully they are only an outside toy, (lets hope it stays that way) and so we are enjoying our last few days of good autumn weather before the cold hits our city of St. Louis. Any moms out there that need to find ideas of how to entertain their kids during the "witching hour" of the days, whip these babies out and it is hardly any prep or stress on you! I love how they really make no mess, except for maybe the clean up, but we haven't gotten that far in our experience yet. We will let you know how it goes! 

Also here is the picture of Richard on the top shelf of our closet trying to get the candy from the last post. 

The Climber

Richard is a climber. We think he could climb a ladder before he could walk. Tonight, we put his Halloween candy on the top shelf of our closet, and he saw us put it there but we didn't think anything would come of it. We go upstairs to start dinner, and Richard runs downstairs and is very quiet. 2 things are wrong in this picture, Richard rarely goes downstairs by himself to play because he usually tries to drag one of us down there with him, 2. he was quiet. Nothing good comes when a toddler is quiet and by themselves. Michael runs downstairs to see that Richard has climbed to the top shelf  of our closet, and is hanging trying to get up there to get the bin of candy.  Determined kid we have. Made us laugh pretty hard and he thought he was pretty funny. We praised the determination, but unfortunately he didn't get his candy of the day until after dinner time. I swear we were the worst parents ever in his eyes. ;) Whenever he sees the candy that he wants, he always says mom what is that doing here as he tries to eat a piece and give me the smirk smile. Or he will try and offer it to us and then when we don't want it, he will stuff it in his mouth as fast as we could say no thank you. He is extremely smart and a little business man at heart.

Mental Wellness Challenge Day 2!

I have seen something going around the internet about a 20 day mental wellness challenge, and as the days get colder, and Rico and I tend to spend more time inside, I am trying to get a start to not get the "winter blues". I am only on day 2 and day 1 was go to bed an hour earlier, and so you can say I am basically crushing this challenge. ;) Today's challenge is to right 10 things that you are grateful for in your journal, and considering that my journal is in a storage unit with boxes completely surrounding it, along with 95% of our other belongings except for the same 5 shirts I got out and have worn for 3 months, I thought I would write them on here.
1. Obviously the most obvious, Richard. Holy cow this kid is a gem, and I may just be saying that because he is my child and every mom thinks that, but he has been the biggest blessing ever. He seriously is hilarious and will say the most funny things at random times to us. I am soo bad at writing things that he says or does down, and  I am realizing that all of the gems are being forgotten. So I am hoping to write more on this blog about random day to day experiences.
2. Michael. Michael is the hardest working person I know, and he is married to someone that could sit around and watch The Office all day with a big bowl of ice cream. When we bought our second house, it was because his funding was supposed to be ending after his 4th year, and he wanted to spend more time with Richard and being at home, rather than trying to find a job to do on top of schooling. So, we bought a fixer upper, and are renting out our house to amazing tenants. He would rather spend all of his energy working on that house, and having the flexibility so that I can go to work, and watch Richard.
3. Our short term rental. When the tenants moved in, we thought we would be done with the renovations on the new house (at least enough to move in), but we are 4 months, later we have moved 4 times and we are still continuing to work on our house. We found a short term rental that has been an absolute blessing so that we don't have to live in a house with no running water, and no kitchen.
4. My friends. The friends here in St. Louis have been the biggest blessings to Richard and me. It has also been extremely hard because we have made a lot of friendships, and then the friends leave to pursue jobs or further education, and we stay here. Friends make it so much easier to parent during hard times, because they validate, and I feel like that is the secret that every mom wants is validation that they aren't alone, or that they are doing the right things.
5. Our vehicles
6. Holidays! I told Michael yesterday that I could not live in a world without holidays.
7. Dr. Pepper, so silly, but Dr. Pepper gets me through the hard mothering days.
8. Electronics that I can video message and speak to  my family thousands miles away. If it weren't for skype, marco polo etc. I don't know how  I could handle living so far away from everyone.
9. My Job. I am a firm believer in that every mom needs something for them every day or something once a week whatever time, they need something continual. I work to keep my sanity, and it also makes me 100% better mom. My boss has been a huge blessing and has given me the freedom that we need so that I can be with Richard when I need to.
10. Seasons. Our street is currently lined with bright yellow, red and orange leaves, and it brings such a refreshing feel to everything. I love seasons, I love the changing of weather and the feeling to kind of start new again.
Wow if you guys made it this far, good for you!!! I will hopefully be updating short little moments that Richard and I have to hopefully keep others informed about things, and hopefully make this a my "journal"!