Leanne is a mom, a new mother of 2, but an old mom of 1. (How do like them apples?) We had our first children 3 1/2 weeks apart, both girls, and pretty much lived at each others houses until they were about 18 months old. We kept each other sane. And drank wine together. Mmmm, wine. I digress. Now our second children, both boys, are 3 1/2 months apart. Nope, we didn’t plan that. But we got pretty lucky. (Heh!)
She just started a blog and I love her humor – the way she writes like we’re having a conversation. It makes me coming back for more, so today I asked her to guest post here. And she did.
La Voz (The Voice)
He’s kind and generous with his time and talents. He’s cute and I like his shoes. He’s thoughtful and caring with his employees, the tools. He is bilingual and always teaching us new words in spanish. And if Mr. Lopart was my neighbor, I think I would’ve offered to cut the comb-over myself. But not him.
His name rolls easily off of my tongue- heck it even rhymes! Come on people, you know who I’m talking about. Handy Manny is his name. If you have ever seen his show on playhouse disney, you understand.
Manny’s a handyman and routinely fixes random things in his town that break with his talking tools. One of my favorite episodes was when he was called to the city’s Christmas tree and had to check all the bulbs one by one. Pretty realistic, I’d say. But what I really want to get at here is his Voice. I LOVE IT.
When I first saw the show I actually sat down and would watch it with Anna because I was completely taken with the voice. I am not kidding- I would sit down and analyze what it was I liked so much about it. I like its tone- midrange-y with a little rasp. And hey, I’d learn a little spanish along the way. So would Anna.
AND AND AND she would learn how to use tools and fix things. Sort of. But really, lets be honest here… I’d watch a kids show because I was hung up on a voice, basking in the slight accent and silky tone. Secretly, which now is not secret, I’d wonder who it was that did the voice. Did he like his job? Did he do other voice work?? And if so, where could I find it! Did he realize he had the sexiest voice in kids TV programming? It could very well be that I love it so much just because its not your typical high pitched squeaky kids show voice.
Or maybe I like the mystery of not knowing the person behind the voice. I don’t know. But what I do know is that Anna and I watch Handy Manny most mornings and we both enjoy it. But I’m certain that our reasons for liking the show are quite different.

TOMORROW night (29th) at 8pm jodimichelle.com is sponsoring a “Wince and Wine” night at Butches in Holland, Mi.
We’ll be buying the first 2 bottles of wine – but the rest is on you.
Wince and Wine is a night of reminiscing and laughter – break out your old high school or middle school journals – do you ever wince to yourself when you re-read some of that drama? Good! Bring it and share it!
I’ll be starting the night off to get our feet wet with laughter – I have PLENTY of embarrassing and wince worthy entries to get us going and then I’ll sit back and join in on the laughter with all of you as participants take turns doing a reading (or readings) from their journal. Let’s get interactive!
Are you with me?

I can’t remember if I ever wrote about the what we went through trying to get Oliver to come into this world on his own – I desperately wanted to go into labor without being induced, but I wanted the baby out of me even more.
So – we tried everything. Literally.
Drank salsa – didn’t even give me acid reflux.
Castor Oil – did absolutely nothing to my system, I didn’t even get cramps.
Started pumping my milk at about 37 weeks to induce contractions – nada.
Walked, walked and walked some more. Baby did not drop.
Sex. Yes. Lots of it – nothing to show for it. (Of course in the end, Oliver is the ONLY thing to show for it, but thats another story and one I won’t be telling)
Raspberry leaf tea – made me pee, didn’t give me contractions.
Acupressure – I bought books on this stuff and tried it continuously … I do believe that this could work but it takes a whole lot of commitment and time – and either way it did nothing for me.
Massage – went and had one around 37 weeks I think – she did everything she could to trigger contractions and of course, nothing – NOTHING happened.
Pretty much Oliver was just a happy little guy in there and not completely ready to be born so we had to induce and force him to come on out and play with us. He was healthy, an easy birth once everything started and has had a great go at life so far. I wonder how big he would have been had we let him come on his own – and if that happened, would I have been able to even give birth to him naturally? All things we’ll never know, and really – they don’t even matter. We have him now and thats all that counts.
But – Buyer Beware!!! When you’re that close to having the baby and your doctor thinks you’ll go any day – you’ll do about anything and believe almost everything you read or hear to get that baby out. Just … take it all with a grain of salt.

Poopy’s! OOPS! Apparently I have diapers on the mind – I meant POPPY’S. So sorry.
More Poppy’s!
Poppy Pin
Crops for the world
Gift holders
I Spy
Thinking Fathers Day
Bambi is still a baby
A really, really cute one
I am addicted to paper
A birdie told me
Letterpress cards
Dinos!

Love these:
Bowls
And this one
And, well this one, too
This jug
This bowl makes me smile
And this tile is just fun
I have an addiction to bowls
All things leaf, fern or tree related usually make me stop and stare.
Ha ha ha ha ha , ho ho ho, ha ha!
This looks like something Aaron would want, and I love it, too
WHAT! You can sell this stuff on Etsy? Where have I been!?!?
If I’m going to wear jewelry it has to fit within these guidelines: Either noticeable or not, simple, sleek, unassuming.
Right now I’m loving the bold colors
Oooh, this is fun

Yesterday was a great day – Jessica and I went downtown in the morning to see one of her and one of my friends. The kids played while I got some adult conversation. After nap we had dinner at a park with Aaron’s family and played for quite a while – aiding in Jessica’s easy transition to bed. Everyone came over to our house for a movie night and then Leah, my sister in law, spent the night with me so I could sleep with both my eyes closed. Which I did.
I have a really hard time actually GETTING to sleep though, without Aaron. So although I actually slept last night, I didn’t sleep very much and am hoping and praying for a long nap today. I might have to get myself some kind of mild sleep aid to get through the next few nights. This is crazy.
On the other hand though – Jessica is doing fabulously well. Missing her dad but keeping busy making forts and playing with her kitchen. She’s really interested in the concept of being a big sister although she has no idea what that means.
I tried to convince her that when her baby brother comes around she’s going to have to give all her diapers to him (trying to potty train) and she could have cared less if I was offering her the moon. Those diapers? Are hers. Period. Ok. No problem. Then I asked her if she wanted to wear panties all the time and she says yes! She knows she gets a new bike when she uses the potty all the time but that excitement has died a little. Although she talks about it constantly.
Feel free to give me tips – I know they’ll do it when they’re ready, I’ve read all the books. But you don’t understand, she is ready. She has dry naps and has bladder control she just could care less about being that responsible or self aware.
I’m not pushing it – if we’re out and about she’ll ask to use the bathroom on her own sometimes, even with a diaper on – so I don’t have much to complain about – but nevertheless … I would truly love to be done with her diapers – by Halloween. Am I dreaming?

We bought a house together before we were engaged. All of 13 days before we were engaged. One of Aaron’s requests of me before we got married was to live on my own. A request I have thanked him for many, many times – oh how wise he was. The 6 months I lived in our house on my own before we got married are among some of the happiest memories I have.
I made those memories here:

Our mortgage on this house was 323 dollars and some odd sense every month. Plus taxes and insurance – which was a whopping 150 bucks more to set aside each month. We had so much money it wasn’t even funny. Although, of course, at the time we didn’t think so. All those $50 trips to Target were part of the budget. I kill myself some times.
I was working full time as was Aaron – so that all helped. We do look at eachother every once in a while and think out loud – What the hell did we sell that house for? I Loved that house. Loved.
This was my cheery little kitchen.



And this was my awesome little living room.


This, the perfect little bathroom.

Our simple bedroom.

And the second bedroom that changed functions a lot – but mostly our office.

And our mudroom/back entrance/laundry room that we remodeled.

I loved that house. We needed more space because our business was out of our house and the first year of marriage was like a cock fight for available space. It was a small house. But it was my first house. My very independent, freedom house.
We also love our current house – what with all the square footage. But there is constantly something to be done – it feels like we’re never “done”. And we were done with the first house. It was small enough to do just right. It would have fit in our kitchen/dining/living/mudroom of this house.
Oh little Perry home – the fond memories I hold near and dear of you will keep me plugging away at my current, never ending list of things to do. I’ll remember our ding-dong breakfasts together with tears in my eyes for all my days to come.

On Wednesday I started this project. A friend of ours has a leap-year birthday and they happens to be in town over the weekend that his birthday would normally take place. So we’re having a surprise party.
They didn’t ask me to make this, I decided it sounded like immense fun and set out to dazzle even myself. Then it was Thursday night and I was still layering the paste and newspaper and I was about to throw it away.
I just finished it – we’re leaving in T-minus one hour, so it’s probably good the glue is drying. If you can’t tell what this is you are not allowed to breathe for 2 1/2 days. Seriously.

Unfortunately Jessica’s night was about as bad as restraining her at the hospital. She kept crying and waking up – a few times when I went to check on her she was asleep but talking. I think she was having a bad dream, she kept whispering “No” in a torturted little voice.
She spent an hour or so in bed with us around 1 am, I have bruises to prove it. She’s a kicker. I feel bad for her husband, he’s going to need to wear padded pajamas to bed.
We did get the tape on her eye, in the dark. We missed a little and put it on her eyebrow by accident. That’s going to be fun to take off. This morning she doesn’t even notice it unless I’m talking about it and then she looks at me like, ‘Seriously, are you really talking about this again?’

Originally uploaded by Jodimichelle.

Last week I was cleaning up some toys while Jessica was taking her nap and I came across these dolls, like this. I have no idea what they did but apparently they were naughty and this is how Jessica chose to punish them.

She’s pretty sensitive about it, doesn’t like to talk about it. It could have something to do with her reoccurring bad dream of not getting a snack with all the kids. Maybe these are the kids that are taunting her in her dreams – or maybe she just wanted some revenge.

Either way, these dolls are on serious probation from her affection.