Tanner James (Trouble) & Karlie Ann (Trouble) Gustafson

Well, that became Tanner's middle name yesterday for sure, just for fun. A regular day is how it began. Got up and got the kids ready for church. OK, we were a few minutes late. It seems like we always are when we try to go to the early service at 8am, but if the kids are up we try to go to that one otherwise the 10:30 service is longer (with 2 kids doesn't work well) and then we have to rush home for nap time.

Anyway, Karlie didn't want to be quiet today. So exit we did & went down to the bathroom to have a chat about being quiet and I had mints in my hand that I had tried to use as a bribe during church (this I'm not ashamed of; it usually works) so I told her she was being naughty and threw the mints in the toilet and flushed them, then told her if she wanted any more she must be quiet through the rest of church she would get more after church. Basically she wouldn't listen and this was my drastic measure to get here attention. So back up to church we went, only 10 min. left, as soon as we get in she announces to my mom like 3 times (grandma, mom threw my mints in the toilet & flushed them) as I tried to cover her mouth with my hand to muffle it. Talk about embarrassing. You know everyone heard; how could they not with only the pastor doing the talking. After that she was quiet for the rest so she got a mint.

After sunday school, at home we placed Karlie's little marigold in a cup in the bay window (they planted them at sunday school so it's freshly watered). You probably know where I'm going with this one. I was in the kitchen talking to Karlie (about listening-shocker isn't it) and it was much to quiet so into the living room I went & wound my little man Tanner with a black mouth, black hands, and 1 black foot (the one missing a sock) digging a ruler into his sisters freshly planted marigold. She's hollering "he's eating my plant, he's eating my plant". I picked him up, stripped him down, and washed him down. Then picked up the big pieces of mud, vacuumed up the rest, then scrubbed the rest out of my cream carpet. Obviously, the people who had the house before us had grown children when they put it in.

While I'm doing this I hear something clatter in the kitchen...that would be sister's lunch of meatloaf loaded with ketchup. Tanner decided to pull the placemat down. So off I go to clean that up. I turn around from that and Tanner's got his box of wipes ripping one after another out of the box. So I ask...was there a full moon or something. Tanner is usually my calm one, which he was very calm while he did all of this. The rest of the day was very quiet, but after all this I don't think it had anywhere else to go. At least later on when the kids are big I'll have some really good stories to tell. Remember the time you ate your sisters flower...