When I was in high school and college, my sister and I kept a quote book.  It was full of things people around us said that--when taken out of context--were hilarious.  It wasn't where I thought it was in our house (although I did find some old journals, and oh my, super embarrassing), so maybe it's at my parents' house.  If I can track it down, I'll share some of the better ones in a future post.

It seems like we constantly have hilarious interactions in our home and I'm always sad when I can't remember them later.  Last week I decided to start trying to write them down and make them into a blog post.  So, here we go...

At dinner--
Me: Cliff, what would you like to drink?
Cliff:  Pepsi.  And 28 Dos Equis.

A "Finley is two" moment--
Eating spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, Finley would only eat his meatballs if they were cut into fourths and served in a tiny ice cube tray out of our mini fridge.

In passing (can't remember what I was really wishing for)--
Me:  I wish...
Cliff:  You had married better?

Another "Finley is two" moment--
Finley insisted on sleeping the entire night with his brush clutched in one hand and his comb clutched in the other.

After all of Cliff's hunting gear was stolen out of our truck in our driveway, and several annoyances at work, Cliff won a DWI case and we received a call that the Sheriff believed our items had been recovered and suspects were in custody--
Me:  Well life is improving greatly!
Cliff:  Baby, life improved greatly when I married you.
{Ha. Ha. Ha.}

Another "Finley is two" moment--
In a meltdown moment, Finley could only be consoled by being able to hold a toy tow truck. (And the meltdown did not involve the toy tow truck so this concerns me a little about his future career endeavors.  Probably more so because Cliff and Jacob often hope that Finley grows up to own a salvage yard.)

Out of nowhere--
Cliff: I want to do a twit.
Me: As in "an obnoxious little twit"?
Cliff:  No, as in that bird thing everyone is doing.
{Turns out he was referring to Twitter.}
(I really wish I had asked him what he wanted to "twit" because I'm sure it was a doozy.)

After I mentioned something about Finley's box of musical instruments/toys, which Cliff plays with a-LOT  (he's really good at playing the d*** recorder by ear)--
Cliff:  That box of music toys should really be mine, not Finley's.

I'll leave you with these entertaining videos.  Just ignore our disaster of a house.  And Cliff's overalls.  And Finley not wearing pants.  And then join me in concern that this terrible music really moves Finley to dance.

By now it's no secret that my husband isn't the stereotypical attorney.  At the office he's not holier than thou, he's not a know-it-all, he's not a know nothing, he's not a do nothing, he's not a bull in the china cabinet, he's not an ambulance chaser, and he's not a sneaky snake (although I can't count how many times we've listened to that Tom T. Hall song.)   Outside of the office he doesn't drive a BMW, he isn't rude, he isn't a liar, and we don't have a yacht and summer home in Greece.  But, his most shocking hammer to the lawyer stereotypes, is that he wears overalls.  He doesn't just wear them to load out cattle a couple of times a year, he wears them like 61% of the time outside of the office.  He has no problem dressing "normal" but when we are just around the house he prefers to wear overalls.  I can't say that I blame him, because I've been guilty of throwing on a pair a couple of times in my life to paint or work on a messy project, but when people find out this little secret about him, they usually can't believe it.  
Until last year, he had stuck strictly to regular blue denim overalls.  You may remember my post about homecoming in Warrensburg last year and my brother's over-the-top shopping trip.  Well, during this male spending spree, Cliff and Jacob both purchased a new pair of blue denim overalls
AND sprung for the hickory stripe also.

It has been a few weeks since my last post because I've been waiting around to grab pictures for this one.  The bonus is, you get several Mason jar/handprint projects in one post, so let's agree that will make up for the missed weeks...yeah, that sounds good...
Grandparents' Day was a few weeks ago.  Grandparents have been so important to Finley, so we always celebrate with a homemade gift.  This year, we made our annual handprint gift for Finn's grandparents.  This one was super simple.

I had already painted these Mason jars a flat gray.  I actually used spray paint instead of chalk paint just to experiment and it worked really well.  Then, we added Finley's handprint in white (which he loves to do now) and painted on his name and the year (which I didn't love to do because I had a horrible brush.)  Doesn't his hand look huge now?  It looked so much bigger on the jar than it does in real life.
In 2014 we did a clay footprint and handprint in a shadow box.  I bought specific clay for making handprint and footprint keepsakes and they have not held up, which makes me so sad because those newborn hands and feet were SO tiny and adorable.
In 2015 we did a handprint flower pot.

One other handprint gift we've done is this tea towel, which is probably my favorite.

So those Mason jar DIYs required Finley's help.  This one went much smoother without his help.
You need:
a board (you can use an old board or stain and distress a new board).
I actually used a weathered board we saved from the original garage that was here, which we tore down to build our current garage/shop.
large hose clamps
screws
Mason jars
a drill
a screwdriver
hanging wire

I started by measuring out and marking where I wanted my jars to hang on the board.

The other day at my parents' house, we told Finley to "get ready to go outside."  He came into the kitchen wearing this:
his rain boots and my mom's visor.

This cracks me up on its own, but it cracks me up more because we always joke about my mom's visor addiction during the summer.  But it really, really cracks me up because when my brother was about the same age, he was riding my sister's brand-new-straight-from-Santa lavender Big Wheel around the house and pulled up beside me looking like this:

Before I begin today's post, I have a quick addition to last week's post.  A sweet friend sent me text a few days after that post was live and said that she and her three year old daughter had paid it forward with their quarter/cart at Aldi.  It melted my heart to hear that and she pointed out that it was a great lesson for her toddler.  Isn't that so awesome?  Although, it then made me realize that the lesson for Finley is a bit skewed at age two--every time we do it, he just says "uh oh" loudly on repeat because he thinks I didn't put my cart back correctly.  Hopefully we get the lesson straightened out over the next year...

(Title of this post should be read in the Church Lady's voice from Saturday Night Live.)
Every August, the little bitty Catholic church that my grandma attends in Wien, Missouri, holds its annual picnic.  Somehow, this teeny tiny town pulls off this picnic and it's a huge success.  It's very nostalgic for me because I always remember going as a child.  Our cousins would be there and we would get to run around and play all day.  In college, I still attended, but more for the beer garden than the rides and games.
Last year, Finley wasn't into it too much, but this year, he was hooked.
I don't know how long this ride has been in existence, but it was there when I was Finley's age, so it deserves some serious museum status.
The ride costs one quarter (yep, only 25 cents).  Finley chose this car the first time.

With everything going on in the world today, the whole hermit crab way of life seems appealing at times.  But, what if we reversed what is going on in the world today, one tiny gesture at a time.  Paying it forward has become more common in the last several years and I love it every time I hear one of those stories.  My paying it forward doesn't compare to the other stories I hear, but every time I go to Aldi, I return my cart without taking my quarter.  I just leave it for the next person.  I've been doing this for about a year and always wondered if the person that got my cart next kept the quarter or paid it forward.  Last week when I went to grab a cart, there was a recently returned pre-paid cart.  It had come full circle and it really made me smile.  Speaking of Aldi quarters, isn't this cute?

I'm an old soul and there is something about a hand-written note that makes me want to flip head over heels.  I remember the first real letter I got from Cliff when we were dating long distance.  I still have it and I still love to read it.  For me, there's something about a handwritten letter that I just don't get out of a phone call or text or email.  I still love when Cliff leaves a note on the bathroom sink if he leaves the house before I'm awake.  And the time he left a letter on my desk on New Years Day is set me up for a whole year of happy.  A friend of mine and I used to write letters back and forth, even though we had full access to email and our smartphones.  Sending cards and letters is one of my favorite things to do.  Even better, I love to send cards and letters out of the blue.   It's an amazing thing, too.  Several times I have had someone come up to me and thank me for the card I sent and I can't even remember sending it.  They on the other hand, have remembered it long after it was received.
So, you can imagine how crazy my heart went last week when I received a TOTALLY unexpected card in the mail from a real sweetheart and the best bank teller we've ever known.  (By the way, this little chica also always sends Finn a birthday and Christmas card from the bank since he's an account holder.  Actually, I could write another entire post about how super awesome our bank is, but that can be for another day.)
So here's what Cliff brought in from the mailbox the other day:
First of all, my heart probably literally skipped a beat when I saw the envelope.  I heart decorating envelopes when I send them, but I've never gotten one sent to me.  I wanted to frame it.  When I opened it and read the card inside, I practically cried (and it wasn't the pregnancy hormones.)  Brianna is possibly the sweetest person I've ever met.  She is always smiling, always friendly, always has something exciting to say.  She never just says hi; she always asks about us and has an actual conversation.  She is super talented; from her photography to her mason jar decorating to her writing (don't miss her blog: https://pearlbayou.wordpress.com) to her envelope addressing.  She is constantly posting something on social media that I wish I had come up with.  And she's the cutest darn thing you'll ever see.  How she is still single...it can only be because she's one smart cookie and knows a deserving guy hasn't come along yet.
Working with teenage girls in KC, I realized that (at that age especially) building up another is extremely rare, but tearing someone down is so constant.  Self-esteem is so low.  In a girls group I led at the high school where I worked, we started a campaign to raise girls' self-esteem.  We wrote each other lovely letters.  We only talked positively to each other.  And we started posting anonymous notes around the school building for other girls to find.  The girls loved doing it and not one of them ever chose not to participate.
So, I'm challenging everyone to do something like this.  It really does make you feel better, too.  If you feel funny writing to someone you see on occasion or know really well, check out moreloveletters.com at their website or on social media and start there.  My sister tipped me off to them awhile ago and I have really enjoyed "making love famous."  I hope you do too!

I just threw together the "Thanks for swinging by!" signs and glued them to paper straws.
We used popcorn tubs and filled them with balloons, suckers, Curious George fruit snacks, a Curious George bookmark to color, and of course banana runts and a real banana.

 We sat the stats sign on the hearth to tie it all together.
Hundley's Hot Dogs (which we grilled and then kept warm in a crock pot)
 Charkey's Chips
Man in the Yellow Hat Deviled Eggs (Shout out to my mom for making these! They were so delicious.)
 Chef Pisghetti's Mac & Cheese
Betsy's Baked Beans (After 30 plates were filled, I swear these beans had not decreased in amount at all.)
 The Renkins' Farm Fresh Veggies & Dip
You  may remember from our Goodnight Moon cake last year that our neighbor, Naomi, makes the best cakes you'll ever see. I put together this little banner with scrap paper and paper straws and she did the rest. The little star the monkey is holding is even a candle!  Finley LOVED the cake.
 Finley has a fan club of women.
 Fan club continued.

 We sat outside with the remaining guests the rest of the evening and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  What better way to end your second birthday than in your birthday suit watching a train go by?
 Or sitting in the perfect size chair?