Too Much Drama

First Mississippi Christmas

2012-01-08T21:48:00.003-06:00

This was our first Christmas in our new house in Mississippi. We were excited to have family come stay with us. It was one of the most exciting Christmases I can remember as an adult...mostly due to the two great gifts the kids got this year. Santa wrapped a note for DoubleA and sent her on a scavenger hunt. It ended with her finding the one thing she wanted most but really knew she wasn't getting...a kitten!

She was so excited and surprised. She has named him Flash. He is pretty speedy.

BumbleBee REALLY wanted a "Bass Pro Four Wheeler." Its a battery operated ride on type toy. We told him it was too expensive and he probably wasn't getting it. His grandparents took pity on him and got it for him. It was hidden in another room and halfway through the morning I pulled him aside and asked if he had gotten everything he wanted (he had already unwrapped the biggest boxes with no four wheeler). He forlornly answered "yeah, mostly." This was when grandpa sent him into the guest room to "find his knife." When BumbleBeewent in he saw the four wheeler and jumped up and down he was so excited!

It looks like BumbleBee wasn't the only one excited about the Bass Pro Four Wheeler!

My mom and dad were here among many other visitors. At one point we had up to 15 people here!

Its always exciting when the cousins are together. They had so much fun playing together and made tons of noise.

I had done a detailed menu plan and spent much of my time cooking meals and desserts. I enjoy doing this and Husband#1 helped with main dishes by cooking most of them on the Big Green Egg. Many other people pitched in with prep, table setting, and most importantly...clean up. I made a yummy Gingerbread chocolate cake. I also made a cream cheese wreath which turned out to be essentially a king cake without all the sickening sugar. Husband #1 told me I should rename it a Queen Cake and claim it as my own. We had a seafood casserole, fig and balsamic glazed cornish hens, mini ham and roast beef roasted party sandwiches, beef tenderloin, and so on. Husband #1 and my brother learned how to smoke cheese and they did some duck breast.

I have gazoodles more pictures from Christmas but will spare you the "slideshow." :)

First Grade Christmas Show

2012-01-06T10:29:00.002-06:00

BumbleBee is in first grade and every year they do a play based on the Christmas story of baby Jesus. BumbleBee was a star (not THE star!). They sang traditional Christmas songs and re-enacted the night Jesus was born. It was cute because much of it was from the perspective of tiny insects and how God thinks they are just as important, etc. You get the idea.

First Day of School

2012-01-06T10:24:00.002-06:00

The kids had their first day of school in August, just four weeks after we moved. I had them in a week of summer camp at the school so it wasn't all completely new when they arrived for school. DoubleA was excited about wearing a uniform and just for school in general. BumbleBee was quite nervous and worried.

They are doing great. They have settled in and are making friends nicely. I especially like the fact the school has drop off and pick up lines so I do not have to get dressed in the morning before we go to school. I do miss going in and seeing the teachers and other parents, though. I feel like I am not really meeting people as well as at their last school when I walked them in everyday.

FOOTBALL!

2012-01-06T10:21:00.002-06:00

Being so much closer to our alma mater made it easier to use our football season tickets. We cheered for the Golden Eagles all season and they won the conference championship!! Unfortunately the bowl game was in Hawaii on Christmas Eve so we were not able to attend...maybe next year!

Halloween

2012-01-06T10:05:00.004-06:00

(For those of you who have not read back yet...I am updating randomly and you should scroll back to see if you missed anything.)

Our first Halloween in our new house! We live in a gated neighborhood so still no trick or treaters. The neighborhood decides when we will trick or treat and this year it was on Friday Oct 28. Saturday is too busy with college football, Sunday is too busy with Church and Monday has school and work. We have a neighborhood party with bounce house, etc and then the kids go trick or treating (read: run wild in the street). Husband #1 was not able to make it so we went trick or treating on the actual day of Halloween in another area of town.

Can anyone guess what the kids were dressed as this year?

If you guessed Flesh Eating Monster and Taylor Swift...you were right! BumbleBee picked his costume based on the coolest weapon. He picked out the ax thing and then chose a random costume to go with it. Double A chose Taylor Swift because she LOVES Taylor and that is the only music she listens to and Double A is convinced they look alike (because of the hair).

I watched some YouTube videos and learned how to make BumbleBee's face look like this. It was very cool and I was quite proud of my work. He was nervous so I did it on my own face too. It is Elmer's glue and toilet paper. I did not have Halloween makeup so I just used various kinds of eyeshadow and powder until the color looked right. Then...it just peels off like glue that dried on your hand!

Double A was just super excited to be able to wear makeup. Good golly, you think her eyelashes are long enough?! She once told me that it bothered her to wear sunglasses because her eyelashes hit the lenses. Must be tough.

Catching Up

2012-01-06T09:57:00.002-06:00

Okay, so here it goes...I have gone about five months since my last post and probably about that long before that post. I am playing catch up with photos and what not. I really want to do better with this blog because I do enjoy it but feel I cannot move on until I go back. So, here starts a series of random, out of order posts to catch people up on SOME of the stuff we have been up to lately. They are in no particular order and may not be completely thorough but you are going to be appreciative of what you get and enjoy looking at the pictures and reading the posts...RIGHT??!!

This is Double A's 9th birthday. We had a party before we left St. Louis so she could invite all of her friends. She had a great time even though it was pretty stressful for Husband #1 and I... keeping track of all the kids at a local pizza/arcade place.

For her actual birthday she was visiting her grandparents so we celebrated a few days after at home by just opening presents. She got these legos and a password journal which she desperately wanted and has never worked properly. She asked for money so she could buy her own iTouch. She got most what she needed but did not buy the iTouch until right before Christmas at our urging. She doesn't like to spend her cash, which I suppose is a good thing!

Wild and Crazy Summer

2011-08-14T08:34:00.003-05:00

Well, we have had quite the adventure this summer and this has obviously prevented me from blogging anything. I thought about it frequently but...no go.

We had our usual fun summer stuff such as our fourth annual "cruise" of the Bahamas with my parents and brother and his family. We also had the same blistering heat in St. Louis that most of the country has had...this means we really didn't so much of anything outside.

However, our biggest adventure has been...WE MOVED! We now live in Jackson, MS. I am pretty sure most (read: all) people who read this already know this bit of info so this post is kind of anticlimactic, I'm sure.

This move has been a long time in the making but we didn't tell anyone...the kids, friends or family until it was definite in mid April. We are thrilled to be closer to our family. We have gotten a lovely house and it even has a pool!! The kids are so excited about that particular development.

We have been here four weeks now. So, the first part of the summer and even late spring was completely consumed with getting the St. Louis house ready to sell, and traveling to MS to find a school and house. The last four - five weeks have been consumed with packing up the house, saying our goodbyes and now unpacking and meeting new people! I also squeezed in my 20th high school reunion! Double A even had the nerve to turn nine in the last week.

The kids start school Monday (tomorrow) and they are excited...and so am I! Bumblebee is a bit nervous, because that is his nature, but they will be just fine. Husband #1 has been at his new job for two weeks already and has hit the ground running with operating, etc. My new neighbors have been amazing at welcoming us and even held a lunch for them to meet me one day.

There are definitely things (mostly good friends) that we will miss about St. Louis but so far things have been going very well here. I hope it continues!

I will try to do some posts soon with pictures about our Bahamas trip, my reunion and the new house and the birthday. If anyone needs our address let me know! I am getting some address cards made and will send those out soon.

Wizard of Oz

2011-05-06T11:54:00.002-05:00

Recently Double A was in a Drama Club production of the Wizard of Oz. I am including a link to the video if anyone wants to view it. It was very funny...especially the Wicked Witch of the West who was played by a 6th grade boy. Double A plays a munchkin, citizen of Oz and a poppy. She is wearing a green tank top.

The play was about and hour and a half long so be prepared! I was not at this particular showing (during school) but Double A tells me the static noise you hear is heavy rain on the roof of the theater.

Keep in mind this entire production was done by kids in first through sixth grade. They made the scenery, did the music and lights and practiced very hard for many months. I think they did a great job!

click here to view video
The password is oz2011

Bald Eagles

2011-03-25T17:21:00.001-05:00

At the beginning of March the four of us went Eagle Spotting. About 45 minutes north of here is Alton and Grafton, IL, right along the Mississippi River. Bald Eagles migrate here every year when their rivers further north freeze and the eagles can no longer fish in them. They winter down here and then go back home in early March. We made it up there on one of the last weekends the eagles would be sticking around. The kids and Husband #1 were mostly ambivalent about going but I forced the issue so ff we went. We were all so glad we did! It was a nice day together. I have never seen Bald Eagles in the wild and we were pretty close. We even saw a HUGE next. The branches they use for their nests are so much more than twigs, more like tree limbs. We took two small ferries to cross the river and the kids were super excited to drive the truck onto a boat! We saw many eagles but were not always in a spot were we could stop to take their photo. We saw mature eagles and eaglets. Eaglets are full size "teenager" eagles that have not yet gotten their white head feathers.

BALD EAGLE

EAGLE NEST

EAGLET

Excited to be on a ferry

FIRST LOST TOOTH

2011-03-24T14:22:00.000-05:00

Bumblebee lost his first tooth on his birthday weekend. The day before his birthday he was playing with his most loose tooth and it just popped out! He was so shocked at first! A few days prior to the tooth coming out he wanted his dad to help him get it out. Husband #1 used some dental floss to yank on the tooth. Apparently it wasn't quite ready because Bumblebee started bleeding and crying. Then the tooth was stuck in a twisted position so we had to get it back in the right way before he calmed down. The pirate he is holding is his special tooth fairy tooth holder. It has a treasure chest that says Tooth Treasure. He puts the tooth in there and when he wakes up it has money in it! What a sweet deal!

Bumblebee turns SIX!

2011-03-22T14:11:00.000-05:00

I am a little behind. Bumblebee turned six at the end of January. Well, better late than never! He selected a lazer tag party for his friends. They got to shoot each other with lazers in the inflatable bouncy area of the party place. Only ONE child had to leave the party for stitches!! Success!

He had the party on Saturday night before his actual birthday on Sunday. On Sunday he opened gifts from family and played with all his new stuff. He chose to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner.

Cake at the party

LAZER TAG!

Some presents are sooo big you just gotta climb on top!

Spring Break Camping

2011-03-21T11:27:00.003-05:00

Last week we drove 9 hours to Gatlinburg, TN to go camping with friends for Spring Break. This is the third year we have spent Spring Break with the Pryzsuchas, camping in various locations. This year the kids were ages 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 years old. We love staying at the Great Smoky Jellystone Campground. The owners are great and helpful and the facilities are nice and there is a creek that runs through the campground. It is located on the edge (literally out the front door of the cabin) of the National Park so we can hike from there if we choose.

Waterfall along the hour long drive to Cade's Cove

One day we visited Cade's Cove, an old settlement in a farming valley in the park. There are several old log buildings still standing. It was quite cold that day but we saw herds of deer and numerous old buildings, a working original mill and other cool things.

At the waterfall, taking a break from our hike

On the last day it was quite warm and we hiked 4.5 miles round trip to see a 90 foot waterfall. It was a "moderate difficulty" hike but with 5 kids it was even more interesting..."my legs are tired", "I'm thirsty", "carry me", "how much farther". The kids sure were getting tired of the four adults whining like that! :)

The weather was nice most days. For about half a day we had some rain so we decided to make that a "town" day and went to breakfast at one of the 7,000 pancake houses, then visited the aquarium. After that the boys went to Ripley's celebrity car museum and the girls went to Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. We got exotic beef jerky and some fudgy ice cream.

Of course, right before our driving trip across the southeastern US the gas prices skyrocketed... the prices in Gatlinburg were CRAZY!

Every night we had a campfire and enjoyed s'mores. We experimented with coconut marshmallows and the super jumbo sized marshmallows. The kids played flashlight tag in the nearly empty campground and stayed up WAAAYYY past bedtime every night. One night we drove in to Pigeon Forge and went to dinner at the Dixie Stampede. This is a dinner show where you cheer for the North or the South and there are horses and trick riders and audience participation contests, etc. You eat with your hands and everyone gets the same thing, a whole chicken, pork steak, corn on the cob, soup, biscuit. Basically it is like the redneck version of Medieval Times.

S'mores are GOOOOOOD!

The whole gang at the Hen Wallow Falls

We are back home now. I have done about 10 loads of laundry but haven't folded any of it! Camping is messy business...and everything is smoky. The kids have another whole week of Spring Break but we are just hanging around the house. The weather is wonderful right now but it is supposed to cool off considerably and begin raining later this week.

Garbage men, fences and pee pee pants

2011-03-02T21:10:00.004-06:00

Oh my...last week was full of drama! It started Wednesday when Bumblebee came from from school and basketball having peed his pants. When Husband #1 picked him up he was not participating in basketball. The coach explained they had a bathroom break but Bumblebee chose not to go potty and just got water. He then went back in the gym and peed his pants. When she quietly told him to go change into his spare sweatpants, he refused. Then he refused to participate in the activity anymore. This was not the first time or even the first few times this has happened recently. He has already peed his pants more in Kindergarten than he did in two years of preschool combined. We have tried different things and have even spoken with his doctor and had his urine tested. He simply does not want to stop what he is doing to go to the bathroom. So, he got grounded from watching television for a week. Unfortunately that day when he got home we had a nurse at the house to do our life insurance physicals. This were kind of crazy with that and getting dinner ready and lecturing him about peeing his pants. Poor kid, lost his second tooth at school that day but it kind of got brushed aside with all the other insanity of the evening.

The next morning I got home from dropping the kids at school and the gym to find that our recycling dumpster in the alley behind our house was now resting on our fence. The garbage truck apparently dropped the dumpster off the truck while emptying it. It landed on our fence and crushed the chainlink and the support poles. It was still resting on one pointy corner of the dumpster, leaning up against our fence! WHAT??!! He just drove away and left it like that!! I took pictures and called the city refuse department to file a claim. They said they had until March 2nd to contact me (it was Feb 24). That day after school we went straight to horseback riding. After Bumblebee sat in the car with me for an hour and got out in the rain once to pee in the bushes, Double A got back in the car and said it smelled like pee. Bumblebee then admitted he had peed his pants at school. Upon questioning he was sketchy on details but I think he peed during recess and then never told his teachers or did anything about it. Bumblebee cried and asked me not to tell his dad. I told him we did not work like that. I asked what we were supposed to do with him and he said "ground me." Well, we did that yesterday and it obviously did not work. When Husband #1 came home he was very angry and took Bumblebee in his room and laid down the law. Bumblebee tried to lie to him and say he peed his pants at horseback riding because it was raining and he could not go pee. That just got him in even more trouble. The result is he has no tv for a week and no playdates, no birthday parties and no more basketball for two weeks. We have designed a schedule for him at school to take trips to the bathroom and we are 5 days in and so far so good.

Luckily they called me Friday at 4:40pm to get some more details about the dumpster incident (instead of March 2). I explained there was a bit of a safety issue with the precariousness of the dumpster and he said everyone had left for the weekend and there was nothing that could be done. He said they would send a letter in 5 business days and then contact me to come out and do the investigation. I got the letter Tuesday March 1 and it basically just said they got the claim. It also said that state law puts limited liability on the city refuse department, blah, blah, blah. Well, I received another call today from the investigator. He had two short questions and then promptly said "that's all I needed" and hung up. I am not sure where we are now. I do know the guy pulled the dumpster off my fence and it is now usable again. My fence is still crushed.
So, that was just part of my week! What have you been busy doing these days?

Blizzard remnants

2011-02-25T10:11:00.004-06:00

So, I took a video a week after our "Blizzard." It showed how much ice was still left, etc. I cannot get the video to embed in this post because the file is too large. I don't not have the patience to figure out how to edit the video or post it elsewhere and link here. You will deal without the video to accompany this post! Sadly the post doesn't seem relevant or interesting or noteworthy without the video. Of course, I suppose it wouldn't be any of those things even with the video! This all happened in early February. I am just a smidge behind on my posts!

Turns out we lucked out in the blizzard department. We were predicted to have Monday freezing rain, then changing to sleet Tuesday and by Tuesday night and Wednesday up to 10 inches or so of snow. We had everything but the snow. Husband #1 flew out of town for California on Sunday midday and we had no idea this was even headed our way. They were predicting power outages due to iced power lines, being snowed, in, etc. There was even supposed to be THUNDER SNOW. Husband #1 and I decided this sounded more like a bad 80's band than a meteorological event. Thankfully it was nowhere near as bad (in our area) as they predicted. The kids' school prides themselves on hardly ever taking a snow day. They had two days in a row!! Unheard of!

Double A had just purchased her first CD (and with her own money). Wow was that great timing. I was trapped in a house with two kids for several days with no other adult contact listening to an endless loop of Taylor Swift. Even Bumblebee looked at me and said "Do we have to listen to it again?" There might have even been a point I was hoping for the power to go out so we could end the TS concert in our house!

So in the end...no power outages, no TS related murders, no snow but LOTS of ice. We had about 4 or more inches of solid ice on the ground. We got out and shoveled that weekend when it was cold but sunny. We had to hack at the ice with a garden hoe and then shovel it off into the yard. It was hard work because everything was so thick and the ice was so heavy. The kids took the chunks and used them for walls of a fort.

Over a week after the storm there was still ice everywhere! Parking spots were hard to come by due to the plows having scooped everything into HUGE piles of ice that just was not melting. Things were slippery for well over a week so going outside for any reason was quite treacherous. The roads would melt from the cars driving and the sun but there was no place for the melted runoff to go so it puddled up in the road. The sewers and storm drains were blocked with ice. So when night came and the temps dropped it would all freeze over again and made super slick puddles.

We survived but this winter has not been enjoyable. St. Louis "lifers" have been telling us it hasn't been this bad since they were kids, over 20+ years ago. And it isn't over yet! We were mollified for a bit with a week of 60 degree days. Everything melted but it is so saturated I am not sure we will dry out until July. However, last week we got an hour or two of freezing rain. Just enough to cause bridges to close and a 25 car pile up on the interstate. Taking my kids to school is usually a 15 minute drive. It took 90 minutes. The roads were fine but the traffic was ridiculous! They were an hour late for school. Then the next night we had snow overnight. We got a light dusting but the ground is so wet it did not stick very much. Thankfully. Last night we had a cold front move through and bring a really bad rain storm with it. Complete with hail and tornadoes. The sirens went off at our house around 11pm. Husband #1 and I got out of bed and checked the TV radar. It got windy and rainy and haily but we ended up not waking the kids and carting them off to the basement. Our immediate area was fine and it moved through so fast we barely had time to notice it. Now today it is only in the 30's...it was in the 60's yesterday

February isn't over yet and we always have a cold snap (with or without snow) well into March and even April. ICK!

What happens at ALL SMILES girl's weekend...Stays at ALL SMILES girl's weekend...

2011-02-25T09:56:00.008-06:00

EXCEPT THIS!!!!

Bath Time!

2011-02-03T12:36:00.007-06:00

We have been snowed in for a few days here this week. I am calling it the "Blizzard That Wasn't." We got a layer of ice from freezing rain and then a few inches of sleet. The snow never really materialized, thankfully. The kids were out of school for two days but went back Thursday. Unfortunately, they were already scheduled to have off Friday for conferences so this has been a crazy school week.

While we were snowed in we decided to bathe the dogs because they were super stinky. I figured they would not be going out but a bare minimum so they would have time to dry inside before they went out and became dog-sicles. It went fine except the copious amount of dog hair that ended up getting strewn across our bathroom. However, it reminded me of an ill fated bath experience from this past summer.

Louie does not like water...especially not directly from the hose. Belle loves it and wants to be squirted and snaps at the water, etc. Louie runs and hides when he sees the hose. This makes outdoor baths very challenging. I took off his collar and squirted him while holding him by the neck fur. I managed to get him soaped with one hand while holding on for dear life with the other hand. While I was scrubbing him he got away and darted off. He immediately went to the sandbox area and began to roll in the dirt. He was wild and I could not get hold of him to drag him back to the hose. Finally I tricked him into coming towards me and grabbed him. I now had to re-soap him because he was covered in a lovely layer of black dirt from the yard. It was everywhere...his belly, his back, his head, his face and even in his ears. I got him soaped up and he ran off AGAIN! This time he actually got into the sandbox and covered the soap/dirt/soap layers with another layer of sand. Lovely. At this point I was just laughing to myself and decided I needed to get a camera he looked so awful. I coaxed him back to me and put his collar on. I then held on to that while I rinsed him off. I am not sure if he was ultimately much cleaner than when we started! So, enjoy these pictures of my crazy puppy...if for no other reason than you can see green grass!!

Double A soccer

2010-12-28T15:40:00.005-06:00

This fall Double A played soccer for the first time. She had a great time and says "I am very good at defense" which means they stuck her in the backfield alot. All the other kids had played at least one other season before. She did great running after the ball but actually kicking the ball when it got near her was a bit more of a challenge!

Halloween

2010-12-28T14:44:00.008-06:00

The kids had a Halloween parade at school where they got to dress up in their costumes. Bumblebee had a hard time deciding what to be. It changed almost daily up until a few hours before we left for trick or treating. So, for his school parade he was "evil" spiderman. He was regular spiderman a few years ago and the costume is reversible. Double A said she wanted to be a waitress. We found this car hop costume and she loved it.

Halloween night came and Bumblebee chose his pirate costume to wear for trick or treating. He looked adorable and like a very mean pirate!

Unfortunately we had a slight accident while trick or treating. Bumblebee got so excited he was running in his flip flops in the ocld with frozen feet and he tripped and fell. He scrped up his knee and toe and put a hole inhis pirate pants. I think they just look more pirate-y. His sister went to a few more houses and was nice enough to get him candy from those houses Bumblebee missed due to injury.

Double A was so excited to wear makeup. She had on eye shadow, mascara and lipstick. She must have commented twenty times on how "freaky" her eyes looked with mascara. She has absolutely no need for mascara as her lashes are crazy long and dark on their own. She designed her own pumpkin and drew it on the outside and I carved it.

SOUTHERN MISS FOOTBALL

2010-12-28T14:24:00.004-06:00

This fall we had our second season of Southern Mississippi football season tickets. We drove down for three home games. It is 10 hours each way. Two of the games hapened to fall on weekends when the kids were off of school Friday so no school was missed. These photos are from homecoming. Bumblebee did not want to come to the game with us, which was fine since it was late and he really doesn't do well much past his bedtime of 7:30-8pm. Husband #1's brother shares the tickets with us and he was able to make this game also. Double A was soooo excited for him to be there and to go to the game and stay up late.

Horse Show

2010-11-05T08:44:00.006-05:00

I have been very remiss in posting updated photos and stories here. I will blame my computer. It has been acting up in a variety of ways and my photo processing/editing/storage software keeps freezing up and blah blah blah. So I have tons of photos in my computer that I cannot get out unless I fix this program. (I can get them it just takes WAY too long).

On top of all of that drama, Double A had a horse show and I *GASP* forgot my camera! Thankfully her teacher from first grade came to see her ride with her own camera and took pictures for me. Getting them has been a process of me continually forgetting the USB drive for her to put them on!

ANYWAY...that brings us to these fabulous photos taken by Chris, first grade teacher extraordinaire!

Bumblebee amusing himself at the horse show (lots of waiting) with barn dog, Osco.

I just love this photo...something about the way she is sitting...She finally seems relaxed and more natural on the horse. This was taken while riding Dolly in the "walk trot horsemanship on the rail" event. More on that later.

This is Jake and this was the musical stalls event. Double A placed third and got a white ribbon!

Enjoying other events in between her own. There is a lot of waiting around at horse shows since you are not in every class. And, at this barn the students ride lesson horses (those who don't have their own horses) so they have to share and thus re-tacking and what not needs to occur.

Double A and Dolly the horse after Little Squirts Western Walk Trot Horsemanship on the Rail. Double A placed first and got her first ever blue ribbon!! She was so excited and so was I! This is the first time she has ever been in this event and I had no idea how they judged it. Apparently they tell you to walk or trot or turn around and you are supposed to keep your horse along the rail and follow directions and they look for slow and steady speed, etc.

Double A is not a very emotionally demonstrative child, especially with revealing her inner feelings through words. However, after she won I was telling her how proud I was and she said "I almost started crying!" and that is when I said "me too!"

She also got a red ribbon for second place in Little Squirt's Walk Trot Trail riding Zema. This is an event basically like an obstacle course where they look for how much control you have of the horse while you weave it through poles, next to items to pick up, etc.

This was the first show in 2.5 years of riding that she has seemed really relaxed and comfortable and confident in what she was doing. She rides all different speeds and sizes of horses during lessons and even rides bareback! She rides Western now but I think soon she will have to decide if she wants to stick with that or switch over to English. English does jumping and Western does barrel racing.

Well, I am glad I have finally gotten at least something posted. Double A has another horse show tonight. It is a gymkhana, which is a fun show and there are no "points" for the national level of competition. Not that Double a is doing any of that yet, anyway. The high today is only supposed to be mid-forties so it should be horribly cold by the time the show starts tonight.

I have so many more things to post about, such as all the football games we have been going to in Mississippi, Double A's soccer season, Halloween and more!! Stay tuned!

First Day of School

2010-08-30T21:00:00.004-05:00

The kids finally started school today. All other kids in our area started about two weeks ago. We were all VERY ready for school to begin. Double A even told us over the weekend that she likes school more than summer vacation.

They were both excited last night and this morning. We got Double A to her room, found her cubby in the hall, met her teacher and then Double A told us "You can go now." So we did. She was beyond ready for school to begin today.

We had gone last week to meet Bumblebee's teacher and see his new classroom. Kindergarten is a big deal and quite the transition. When we got there today he seemed a bit overwhelmed with all the activity. He sort of clung to me a bit but after a while we said we had to go and he sat with a friend who was very chatty. By the time we were walking out Bumblebee had warmed up and was smiling.

The after school reports were the usual struggle to pull information out of them. Both kids are getting hot lunch so they reported on that and the recess report is always popular. They were both tired and went to sleep easily tonight. They are both glad to be in school again...and I am glad they are, too!

All We Need Is Love

2010-08-27T08:49:00.006-05:00

So it is our last week of summer before school starts - FINALLY!! We are all ready to have a break from each other, I do believe.

Anyway, we were on our way to the school yesterday to visit the classroom and meet Bumblebee's new teacher. On the way he asks me "Mommy, what is the most important thing in the world?" How the hell do I answer that? So I stammer a bit and go with "I guess it depends on who you are but some people would say water so we could live...or AIR! We can't live without being able to breathe."

He just sat there a bit and then I knew as I said it I was getting too philosophical but said it anyway (Hey, I was navigating a traffic jam and trying not to get run over while answering questions of the universe from my mini Dali Lama) "Some people would say LOVE is the most important thing." He laughed and said "Love isn't the most important thing!"

That's when I launched into all the ways love makes the world special and how life would be without love, what would it be like if we didn't have love for our parents or for him, etc and on and so forth.

That's when Double A finally pipes up with "Love is the gooey stuff that makes the family stick together."

That about summed it up.

Double A's 8th Birthday

2010-08-23T14:45:00.006-05:00

Double A celebrated her 8th birthday this month. Doesn't seem possible. No way 8 years have passed since she came to us all rosy cheeked, dimples bursting out from almost before her first breath. She was a beautiful baby, an adorable toddler and she is becoming a beautiful little lady...quicker than we would prefer. She starts second grade next week. She reads like nobody's business and loves to do "arts and crafts" as she puts it. This summer she has started to enjoy video games and beats her mother consistently at Wii Mario carts - even grabbing the controller from me and doing it herself when I seem hopelessly unable to complete a track!

We had a family celebration on her actual birthday. She chose to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. They let her wear the sombrero while we sang and then brought her fired ice cream! We opened gifts when we got home. This year she asked for and received tons of books. She is reading things like Junie B. Jones and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Magic Tree House.

This is Bumblebee and Double A pretending they like each other for split second! Actually, I think Bumblebee had spied the new Wii game Double A got and wanted to have a piece of that game playing action so he was being nice :)

A few weeks later (when her daddy could be off work) we had her birthday party with a few friends over. She chose the Hawaiian Luau theme and we decorated the backyard, made invitations and bought palm tree cup party favors. They wore swimsuits and played in the sprinkler in the backyard. We also had a fish pinata. We opened gifts and ate cake. Double A had a great time and thought all of her presents were wonderful!

Her daddy had also gone out that morning and bought her a new bike and a tag along attachment for his (or my) bike so she can practice with no training wheels. Now we have taken several family bike rides around our neighborhood and at nearby parks. Bumblebee just pedals his heart out to keep up!

Bahamas 2010

2010-07-08T22:34:00.004-05:00

I still don't have my other camera downloaded nor do I have photos from my sister in law but thought I would post a few of what I do have so far. We skipped the last day of school and flew to Nassau, Bahamas. From there we cruised for 11 days through the Bahamas on my parent's boat with them and my brother and his wife and two daughters. All ten of us on one boat for 11 days...I think it went pretty well!!! No one got thrown overboard! It was so beautiful and we had so much fun basically just swimming and beaching. Some islands had no buildings, some had a couple and one had a few more residents and an air strip.

First day - reunited with the cousins!

on the back deck one night

My sister in law and I still on the back deck!

On Fowl Cay where we took a water taxi for our only "fancy" dinner the whole trip. Lovely place.

If you look at the rope here...well, let's just say this did not end well for me.

Me and Husband#1 and Double A at Highbourne Cay...a private island with a marina and a store.

Me and my momma

Husband #1, me and Bumblebee taking a dinghy ride. The water was so clear everywhere you could see very deep...amazing sea life!

Husband #1 getting paddled around by Bumblebee in the kayak

T-Ball

2010-07-08T22:23:00.003-05:00

Bumblebee played t-ball for the first time this year. Granted he is 5 and it was his first season, but Husband #1 and I are pretty sure this is not his game. We'll see what he wants to do next season. Keep in mind...I picked the photos where he was paying attention. I could do a whole other post with photos where he is facing the wrong way, waving his arms around, etc. He hated his hat because it "itched his head." He did like getting the team snack after the game was over!

Lucky Number 13

2010-07-08T21:43:00.003-05:00

After the July 4th weekend festivities wrapped up Husband #1 and I jumped in the truck, left the kids behind and raced toward New Orleans before anyone caught on. Actually, it was pre-arranged but still fun! Monday July 5th was our 13th anniversary so we spent two nights in New Orleans being tourists. We ate all the seafood we could while it is still available non-oiled. We bought ourselves some art as our anniversary present.

We saw this street performer and at first glance he really looked like a construction worker until you noticed his ladder wasn't leaning on anything!

Where St. Louis meets Bourbon Street...literally and figuratively!!

Self portrait in front of St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square

Breakfast at Cafe du Monde!! Yummy beignets :)

Now we are home for almost two weeks without any children! I will drive down next week and pick them up and bring back my niece with us for a week long visit. We have various parties planned for this weekend and then I plan to strip the kitchen wallpaper next week. We have gone on trips without the kids but we have never spent time at home without them here. Well, there was a short period while we were packing to move here but that doesn't count since that whole two month period has been blocked out due to trauma :)

July 4th weekend

2010-07-08T21:17:00.003-05:00

We traveled south for the July 4th weekend. Husband #1 had a family reunion in South Mississippi we attended on Saturday. It was held at his parents' cabin in the woods where they are building their forever home. We all agreed the reunion went very well and we got lucky on weather...no rain and not as hot and humid as it could have been. The next day we visited Husband #1's grandfather's grave for the first time. The kids had been asking about it and we wanted to see the stone and the military plaque. The kids put American flags on the grave on July 4th morning. Then we went to a mini, impromptu reunion for the other side of Husband #1's family.
Bumblebee with is crazy glasses from the pinata at the reunion...oh, and the prize possession, the pinata leg.

Double A putting a flag on her Greatdaddy's grave.

Us with Husband #1's parents and brother and sister at the reunion

Double A enjoying her lunch at the reunion

Bumblebee all decked out for the reunion. He does not have on his red, Cardinals "supervisor" in this photo but when he wears it he looks like he is ready for the pro golf tour!

Summer Zinnias

2010-06-28T11:13:00.010-05:00

For the first time I can recall I have successfully grown something from seed. I chose zinnias in order to increase my success potential because I heard they were easy to grow. I decided to play around with my camera and take some photos of the blooms. I am pretty happy with the results of both!

Peter Pan

2010-06-24T15:15:00.004-05:00

Just before the end of school Double A was in a first grade production of Peter Pan. She was a pirate and narrator. None of the parts had lines but instead they had about 25 narrators. All the kids sang songs and acted out their parts. I keep telling myself I will get the video on here but really have no idea how to do that and just haven't even tried yet!

She did a fantastic job as a narrator. She had tons of inflection and emotion in her voice, was loud enough and clear on the microphone. She was a cute, oops, a scary and mean pirate, too.

The pirate crew showing how mean and scary they are. LOOK OUT!!

A song at the end of the show that all the kids sang.

Double A doing her speaking part on the microphone. It was an adorable show and all of the children did a great job dancing, signing and memorizing lines. Amazing they were only first graders.

For the second show the next day at the school assembly Double A was so excited that she was chosen to give the thank you card to the piano player. Their class is lucky enough to have a student whose father is a professional piano player and has shows at the symphony hall and such, Peter Martin. He volunteered to practice with them and perform for the shows. Maybe one day I will get the video situation figured out :)

Camping - Update #3

2010-06-23T10:13:00.005-05:00

So I have tons of new pictures to post here but am still playing catch up. Unlike some bloggers I know (looking at you TB) I am not post dating these and rather I am just owning up to being a slacker :).

My 700 pictures I just downloaded from ONE camera need to be sorted through and posted...after I download the gazillion on the "beach" camera and get the ones from my sister in law on her camera. Bahamas pictures are coming!!

This post is short and sweet (I think, just now starting it) with pictures and brief update from our Spring Break camping trip back in March. We arranged to meet our friends from Mississippi (and some of their friends) at a campground in Kentucky. It was tons of fun, even if it was chilly. We explored Mammoth Caverns, went horse back riding, fishing, roasted 400 pounds of marshmallows and just relaxed. One day we drove to the next large town for "provisions" after we discovered we were camping in a dry county. While we were there the older kids and dads toured the Corvette factory. Double A now wants an electric blue Corvette...her dad wants a black one. I told both of them to keep on dreaming the dream.

Unfortunately Husband #1 was only there three out of 7 days. He got called back to the hospital to do a pediatric liver transplant so had to go to the tiniest airport in Cave City, Kentucky and be flown home. We ended up leaving a day early since he was home alone and I was camping with two kids on my own and his birthday was the day we would have returned. We thought it would be nice to be home with him on his special day :)

Inside the cavern, on the ridiculously tight and steep stairwell going down in to the cave

all the kids on a hike on the hills above the caverns

My best bud and I in the cavern

Double A with the deer jaw bone we found at the river's edge while hiking. Other deer parts were claimed by other kids

all the kids down in the caverns
Husband #1 with Bumblebee (in his AWESOME miner's hat) and Double A. This was outside of a cave we went to that we rode in a boat through the cave. Saw bats inside and everything.
Reading around the campfire...this just made me smile. They also played flashlight tag and other fun games. They all stayed up WAY too late...so much so Double A kept waking up with stomachaches during the night and on the second or third night she even threw up. Once we started getting to bed earlier she was fine.

Our spring break is a wee bit too early for prime camping time, the weather is chillier than we would prefer and not all of the attractions are open in the tourist areas. We make do and have a great time anyway!

Update #2 EASTER

2010-05-26T09:36:00.004-05:00

Easter was pretty low key around here.

We woke up and the kids found their baskets the Easter Bunny had brought.

We were a little behind so we decorated egss on Easter morning.

Husband #1 enjoys doing a silly egg. Last year it was an orange egg with a jack o lantern face drawn on it before dying. Clever.

After all the basket and egg frivolity it was time for an egg hunt!! I hid eggs with candy and coins in the backyard and let 'em loose!! (I had to lock up the dogs because they kept finding all the eggs before the kids could get out there!)
Unfortunately, Husband #1 was so excited he pushed the kids out of the way and forgot his basket...he was not allowed to get any eggs since he could not behave!

Here is Double A finding the green egg hidden on the Big Green Egg (which, by the way, is awesomely awesome. More on that in another post!)

After all the eggs were found we went to Forest Park and enjoyed a car show. It was the first warm easter we have had since we moved here four years ago!

2010 in review - Part 1

2010-05-06T13:57:00.015-05:00

I have been remiss in 2010 of updating regularly. I have gotten some major points of our life on here but some have squeaked by so today I will post a random assortment of photos with brief blurbs about what we have been doing in the first 4 months of 2010.

First up is Bumblebee's preschool show in late January. Poor kid had gotten his 5 year immunizations the day before (FOUR shots!) and we were unaware his arm was sore. I noticed his pained look and his refusal to raise his arms during the show. At one point they clasped hands with the kid beside them and swung arms. Even the teachers were giving the kid next to Bumblebee the evil eye because he looked so pained by the movement. It wasn't that kid's fault...Bumblebee's arm was just hot and red and swollen. I think it was the chicken pox vaccine because the same thing happened to me when I got it two years ago.

Then I decided to take the kidss down for Mardi Gras/Valentine's Day weekend. They coincidentally had a four day weekend so I figured...why not? My mom and sister in law are in a Mardi Gras parade every year and I have never seen them ride. Plus, the kids have never been to Mardi Gras at all. We left Husband #1 at home because he had to work (a lot as it turned out). On our drive we stayed in North Mississippi Thursday night. When we woke the next day and started down the road there was snow!! It kept getting worse as we went south...it was weird, as if I had gone north on accident. Jackson MS had several inches of snow on the ground but once I hit the Louisiana border the only white stuff on the ground was trash. The parade was Friday night and it was COLD! At least there was no rain or snow, though. Mom and Tammi were busy all day with parade prep and Ray had to work so somehow I got stuck with all the kids (mine and my two nieces). I am not sure what they would have done with the girls had I not been there but Ray "bought" me McDonald's for dinner so all was even :) My dad met us at the parade and held Bumblebee up for the floats to catch more stuff. This first picture is Grandpa holding Bumblebee and the three girls poised to catch stuff.

C2, Double A, Bumblebee and C1 trying to stay warm before the parade

After we caught the parade near the beginning of the route we decided to get in the car and go to the end of the route to catch it again. We had to go pick up mom and Tammi anyway. Problem with this plan is it was about 10pm and the kids were tired. C2 was so cute as she did this slow back and forth eye thing and then pretty much fell asleep with her eyes open.

The next day we went to Global Wildlife Center which I have posted about on this blog before. This time Ray and Tammi and the girls and Grandpa made the trip.

Here are some more photos from around the house while visiting my parents.

Double A, C1, Bumblebee, C2 in the bounce house

This has gotten a little long so I will do Easter and camping in Part 2. Stay tuned

Don't Cry for Me, Argentina

2010-04-25T18:21:00.011-05:00

Husband #1 and I jetted off to Buenos Aires last week sans kids. My MIL was gracious enough to come up and stay with our kids while we were gone. Husband #1 had a conference to attend and I just tagged along for the almost free vacation!

The flight was overnight. We flew to Dallas at 3pm and from there it was 10.5 hours direct to Buenos Aires. Thank goodness for Tylenol PM! Still, we were exhausted from poor sleep on the flight when we arrived at 8am the next morning. There is only a two hour time difference from Central time zone...so basically like the west coast.

The language barrier was challenging (Spanish) but now that we are home I am still trying to address waiters and such in Spanish! Plus, Lowe's would not take payment in our leftover pesos! The weather was perfect and I think it was warmer than usual for this time of year (fall for them). Husband #1 and I even did the water drain experiment since we were south of the equator...yep, drains counter clockwise!

We had steak every day. I have a strong feeling it will be quite a while before I have another steak. I actually had to beg a waiter for some lettuce one day. We also had (seemingly) gallons of red wine every day. Argentinean Malbec is yummy! We really liked Trumpeter and Luigi Bosca. Now we just need to figure out if they export those here.

We attended a Tango dinner one evening. It seemed obligatory since we were in Argentina. It was a wonderful show and the dancers were fabulous in an historic theater. This is just one photo of a really cool scene set from the show.

Husband #1 and I in an outdoor brew pub drinking 8.5% alcohol beer. Yum. First time we did not have wine at a meal.

Me in front of Eva Peron/Evita's tomb (and her family). The cemetery was amazing and one of my favorite parts of the entire city. More photos follow!!

Each one of these that look like small houses were individual family tombs. Most are very elaborate and have granite and marble and stained glass and such. They go three stories below ground and hold about 11 coffins plus urns of cremations. Each tomb costs roughly $60,000 American dollars just to have and then you have to pay upkeep. Some did and some obviously did not as you will see below.

I'll spare you the photo but one of the tombs (not the one pictured above) was open with corrugated metal half covering it and the coffin inside was smashed open on one end. I actually have photos of the person's leg bone and knee joint...very old and just bones. I can only imagine what the health issues were. Husband #1 was teasing me I had dead people dust in my nose and on my hands, etc.

Can you guess what we ate at dinner this night?

This was a very cool statue. It opens during the day and closes at night. It is made out of some kind of metal, much like the arch in St. Louis

You thought roads in the US were bad? Now that is a SERIOUS pothole...right in the middle of the lane.

This was an area in Boca in Buenos Aires... La Caminita where all the houses are painted different colors like this. Story is that the people who used to live there mostly worked at the shipyard and docks. Their employers did not always have money to pay them so paid them with paint from the various ships, hence the varied colors.

This is the soccer stadium in Boca. Same story about the colors. They could not decide on colors for the team so decided the next ship that came in would be the colors...it was a Swedish ship.

Me inside a cathedral. 80% of Buenos Aires is catholic. This place was beautiful and well maintained for being so old.

This is the office of the president, basically the Argentinean equivalent of the White House but the president does not live there. Their current president is a woman.

I was pretty sure I was going to die on a daily basis whenever I got inside a cab. Those guys are nuts! The government could save a bundle of pesos if they just forgot painting stripes on the road. No one pays attention to them anyway. Three cars per every two lanes was standard. As was making a right turn from a left hand lane across four lanes of traffic.

One day I think I may have almost been mugged. Not too positive but it was concerning. The tour guide the day before had warned of a tactic where they throw mustard or ketchup on you and then approach and help you clean it off meanwhile stealing your stuff. I was in a park by myself under a tree when something splattered all over the left side of me from behind. I wasn't sure if it was bird poop or what. I turned quickly and this guy walks up. I start to back away and he fumbles through some Spanish words and busts out with "water" and motions cleaning and points the other way. I say okay and he walks off the way he came. I head towards this pond thing he pointed at but as I go that way I notice he has begun to circle around the long way over to where I am heading. I immediately turn around and head the opposite direction. I found a cafe with a bathroom to disrobe and wash off most of the goop. It was white and smelled like a permanent (hair) solution or something. It was gross and stunk to high heaven. I am still not sure what happened, maybe he was innocent and it was bird poop but I am just glad nothing bad happened.

We had fun and relaxed and saw some sights. It was my first time below the equator! Husband #1 was unexpectedly asked to give a talk at the conference at the last minute (think asked/told at 3pm Sunday for an 8am Monday talk). Many people were unable to attend due to the volcano so many speakers were not there. We spent some wonderful meals with some friends and colleagues from Wash U. We are glad to be home, though. And for once, the kids actually missed us!!

One a Penny, Two a Penny! Hot Cross Buns!

2010-04-01T14:36:00.005-05:00

Half for you and half for me,

Between us two shall goodwill be

Many might know the old nursery rhyme that goes:

Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns!

One a penny, two a penny - Hot cross buns

If you have no daughters, give them to your sons

One a penny, two a penny - Hot cross buns

English folklore includes many superstitions surrounding hot cross buns. One of them says that buns baked and served on Good Friday will not spoil or become moldy during the subsequent year. Another encourages keeping such a bun for medicinal purposes. A piece of it given to someone who is ill is said to help them recover.

The cross is said to represent the crucifix and was originally baked and given to the poor on Good Friday by a monk.

Because of the cross on the buns, some say they should be kissed before being eaten. If taken on a sea voyage, hot cross buns are said to protect against shipwreck. If hung in the kitchen, they are said to protect against fires and ensure that all breads turn out perfectly. The hanging bun is replaced each year.

Sharing a hot cross bun with another is supposed to ensure friendship throughout the coming year, particularly if "Half for you and half for me, Between us two shall goodwill be" is said at the time.

So for those of you who live far, consider this post my Good Friday gift to you...Hot Cross Buns.

The dough had just woken up from its nap in a warm place covered by a towel. It had doubled in size. This was very exciting for me as yeast is not always my friend and does not always behave as it should. (much like my children)

Here they are lined up and ready to bake. I sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar and raisins then made these little balls.

Oooohh, look how pretty right out of the oven. What's that? You say there is one missing? I caaaan't heeaaarrr yooouuu. lalalalalalalalala (fingers in my ears). Maybe the dogs ran through and grabbed one when I wasn't looking. Yeah, that must be it. Or maybe Poison Control stopped by? No one wants me to gift you food over the internet that could kill you.

The final product. Pretty and yummy and meaningful. What more can you ask from your food?

Look Ma! No Training Wheels!

2010-04-01T12:30:00.004-05:00

Double A has always been the kind of kid who will not do something unless she is certain she can do it well. (nothing like her mother. ahem.) She is also the kind of kid who will not do something with pushing and prodding from her parents. This is hard for us parents to let her reach these things in her own time when we know she can do it. So, I think we did pretty well with the bike riding.

My kids are a little behind in learning to ride bikes. Our yard is tiny and we live on a city street. We let them practice in the alley behind the house or we have to load the bikes into the car and drive to the park...this doesn't happen much. So we were surprised when Double A announced to us she wanted her training wheels off. No prodding from us, not even any real suggestions. She just decided.

And she did GREAT!! I have tons of photos from the event but will spare you all the minutia of each rotation of the wheels. Here are a couple of the good ones :)

Husband #1 gives her a push off and there she goes! He is behind her clapping :)

I just love this one...you can see her little mouth concentration and everything is out of focus but her.

A couple of things to note:

1 - we DO NOT make our children wear all of that safety gear. We require the helmet but the elbow and knee pads are their choice, not ours!

2- Upon viewing these photos the need for a larger bike has become glaringly obvious!

Here is one of Bumblebee:

I am not sure if you can see but he has on gardening gloves, cowboy boots with one pant leg tucked in, elbow pads and just one knee pad. He just got his bike for Christmas but decided since his sister was taking off her training wheels, he should, too. He obviously did not do as well so we immediately put them back on. We also think he just wanted to use the tools to take them off.

Now, the problem is she cannot get started without our help. (or so she thinks) So she cannot just get out there and play in the yard with her bike unless we are there. We'll get there!

Lame cupcake post

2010-04-01T10:29:00.004-05:00

Okay, so I have been blog neglectful recently. I have tons of pictures and stories...maybe too many...and that has paralyzed me. That and being busy. I was going to post yesterday but I could not sign in and then had to delve into cookies and java script and request help and all kinds of crap. For reasons unknown to me...it just worked today!! I hope to get caught up soon. Keep checking back!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So here is the "ease back into blogging, don't want to shock anyone" post. CUPCAKES!!

Let me set the scene: I find an awesome website with fantastic recipes. I am going to a function (shout out to my MC friends!!) and decide to bring these Life By Chocolate Cupcakes. Kids are in school and thankfully I have all day...because that is what it took me.

The recipe is supposed to make 18 cupcakes. I ended up with 42.

Here's how it went: I mix up the first batch of batter and pour it into the muffin tins. It comes out like this - all twelve of them:

The chocolate kiss was supposed to sink in and be enveloped by the cupcake. The cupcakes were not supposed to be doughy and cracking on top and heavy as rocks. This is when I alarmingly realize I FORGOT THE BAKING SODA!! Crap. I have 1/3 of the batter left so I measure out 1/3 of the original amount of soda and throw it in and bake the next set of cupcakes (only 6) and they turn out like this:Oooops!! Too much baking soda!!

At this point I realize the six are edible but ugly and the first 12 are only edible by the young children in my house so I whip up a whole other batch, WITH baking soda. When I bake the first 12 I completely FORGOT the chocolate kiss and while this is not the end of the world...still annoying. So FINALLY I make the last 12 (for some reason batch two made 6 more than batch 1, maybe it was the baking soda that stretched it!). I remembered all ingredients and they turned out great!

Then came time for the icing. This recipe called for ganache...something I have never made before but despite cupcake failure I thought I would try it. That and I pretty much suck at regular icing, too so what was there to lose? They were beautiful!!! And oh so yummy and I was soooo proud of them!!

Look how shiny and they have those cute little folded over drips and everything!!! YAHOO!!

I also made sea salt truffles the same day. Those turned out fantastic as well. SOOOO yummy and easy!! And much a much smoother experience than these cupcakes.

I have since made the cupcakes again and the ganache was now as lovely. I think it may have something to do with my kitchen helpers. I also did the ganache on top and bottom so it was like a ding dong!! YUM!

To further perpetuate my insanity I am making something with YEAST today. Yeast is not always my friend in the kitchen so we will see how it goes. If it works (or maybe even if it doesn't) I might post it tomorrow in honor of Good Friday!

Wintery Note to Self

2010-02-16T09:21:00.004-06:00

When taking your cabin feverish dog and puppy for a winter walk in 20 degree weather with ice and snow on the ground remember the following:

Wear contacts - when you wrap your face, mouth and nose in your scarf in a pitiful attempt to keep them warm, your warm breath will fog your glasses making it impossible to see where your dogs are dragging you.

Use sidewalks - do not traipse down the unsalted, unshoveled alleys with their thick coat of ice because you will slip and come perilously close to falling on your butt - repeatedly. Especially when your dogs go nuts trying to get at another dog behind a fence and you are tangled in two leashes.

Bring tissues - cold air makes your nose run and while it is so nicely covered with your scarf it still kind of grosses you out to think snot is running down your face. Also, then you have to wash your scarf when you get home.

Bring bags - more bags than you think you will need for poop patrol. There is this odd phenomena that occurs when the leash is attached to your older dog's neck - it becomes the world's best laxative. This dog will then poop more in the 10 block walk than she will the next three days in your own yard. (However, this is a year round reminder, not just winter walks!)

I sincerely hope this serves to remind myself, and possibly others, of the dangers of winter!! No good deed goes unpunished :)

2010-01-24T15:11:00.008-06:00

Bumblebee turned 5 years old this past Saturday. I am not really sure how he is so old already. We opened his family gifts right after we woke up. It was similar to Christmas!! Double A got Bumblebee a knight dress up set and he loved it! This is his sword fighting face :)

Later that afternoon we had a party with some friends at Monkey Joe's. This is an inflatable bouncer type place. He had so much fun bouncing and sliding with his friends. He was red faced and a little sweaty. He even got a cherry icee which was a special treat for him :)

Monkey Joe himself came to say happy birthday and give Bumblebee a special t-shirt.

Bumblebee was excited he get to sit in the inflatable "throne".

Then we went in the party room and had cake. He had previously selected a spiderman cake. Then he opened gifts from his friends.

After we all left the party Bumblebee got to choose where he wanted to eat dinner. He chose a new Mexican restaurant. As we left there he fell asleep in the car at about 6:15. I was actually able to transfer him to his bed and he slept for the next 13 hours in his clothes!! I guess that makes for an excellent birthday!!

Dog Days (and one cat)

2010-01-09T11:50:00.000-06:00

Here are some photos from the last few months of Louie, our puppy and a couple of Belle, our 10 year old dog. She does not like to have her picture taken as much so not as many shots of her! Since we adopted Louie the beginning of October he has grown about 20 pounds. He has gotten more black spots and even one on his pink eye lid! He is now 6 months old.

True, not a dog but one of our wily cats. This is Tigger and he is 12.5 years old. He apparently needed a tasty drink from the toilet!! Belle drinks from the toilet, too. I have seen Louie try, but he is still too short to reach.

Louie sleeps in the weirdest positions!! Then he snores wildly.

Louie ringing in the new year with a bottle of champagne!!

Belle being her regal, aloof self.

Belle and Louie resting on their doggie blankets. They rarely get this close when sleeping. Louie would, but Belle is not a cuddler.

Double A and Louie in her bed. She tries to get him to sleep with her. Some nights he stays in there until we put him in his kennel when we go to bed. Problem is, he sleeps practically on top of her!

This must have been back in November, as it is our old furniture. The kids were signing an ode to Louie.

Bumblebee and Louie snuggling on the floor watching TV. Louie is very snuggly which could be a problem as he continues to grow. We estimate he will be about 65 pounds. Belle is reaching 50 pounds as she refuses to eat her old lady food and steals Louie's puppy food instead.

On our snow day this week the kids set up an "animal adoption center" in the living room with stuffed animals. Louie was their only "live victim." He is very patient with them and tolerant of what they do to him. He wore this baby bib for about an hour!

And , check me out - three posts in three days!! Yahoo! I am on a roll :) or just very bored stuck in the house with snow on the ground and temps below 10 degrees.

Thanksgiving Extravaganza

2010-01-08T08:28:00.012-06:00

I know - I am a just a tad behind!! See the Christmas post on Jan 7 for an explanation of why :) Actually, in retrospect I think it was Thanksgiving that put me so behind for December. The four of us packed up and hit the road with both dogs for Thanksgiving week. Husband #1 and i realized this is the first time in 12 years of marriage that we have not been home for Thanksgiving. We were gone for 9 days and then had to regroup when we got home and then Christmas parties and other festivities and then all of a sudden it was Dec 22 and I was not done Christmas shopping or baking or cleaning or wrapping or anything!! AGH!

Back to Thanksgiving...Husband #1 said we looked like the Clampitt's. I should have gotten a picture of the truck! Generally when we travel south we leave Belle (our older dog) home with a dog sitter. However, Louie is not yet able to be alone that long with only going out twice per day so we decided to bring both dogs. They fight when in the kennel together so we had two kennels in the back of the truck, covered in blankets and then covered in a tarp, all fastened down with numerous bungees! We were quite the sight! It didn't help that for the first four days of the nine day trip we spent each night in a different place so that involved lots of loading for Husband #1.

We left Friday after school and we try to drive to the middle of Mississippi. Double A started having stomach pains and was rocking back and forth crying around 9:30pm. We stopped to make sure she did not have appendicitis (surgeon husband) and get her some stomach meds at Target. At that point we were all tired and grumpy and they had a Drury Inn there (always take pets, remember the dogs??). We spent the night there - somewhere in Arkansas. Got up Saturday morning, finished the drive to the in law's in Laurel, MS. Went to the Southern Miss home football game that evening. Good times with Husband #1's brother and his girlfriend even though it was cold. Spent the night at the in law's house.

Husband #1 and I watching the Golden Eagles play at The Rock

Got up Sunday morning to drive another 1.5 hours to go visit Husband # 1's grandparents in Southeast Mississippi. While we were there we went out to my in law's property in the "woods." The dogs enjoyed running full tilt and wading into the pond. Husband #1 was shooting his new shotgun for the first time. The dogs were not so thrilled with that. His dad was acting as his personal skeet thrower - tossing extra house siding tiles into the air for Husband #1 to shoot. We spent the night at Husband #1's aunt and uncle's house. The kids love playing with their older cousins. The cousins are great kids and indulge my little guys with constant playing.

Husband #1 giving his new shotgun a trial run for the first time

Skeet thrower (and supervisor)

The kids experiencing cotton for the first time in south Mississippi

Grandmother and Bumblebee at Greatmother's house

Bumblebee helping warm and comfort Louie after his romp in the pond and while the shotgun was scaring the puppy

Husband #1 with Bumblebee and Double A on the porch swing of my in law's cabin in the woods

Got up Monday morning, loaded the truck for the fourth time (counting the initial load to leave our house) and drove to my parent's house in Louisiana. We were staying four days so we settled in. Louie was able to slip through the fence so every time we opened the front door he would be sitting there!! Crazily, by the end of four days he had grown so much he got stuck in the fence!!

Louie stuck in the fence

My kids played with their cousins (my brother's girls) as much as they could until they left for their Thanksgiving trip to my sister in law's parent's house.

My kids and my brother's girls

On Tuesday night Husband #1 and I went to New Orleans with my brother. Husband #1 and I realized it has been WAY too long since we have been to Bourbon street - possibly med school!! We ate a fantastic meal at Bacco's. I literally was moaning after each bite it was so good - Bacco's shrimp!! We then hit Tropical Isle for a Hand Grenade, Tropical Itch and Horny Gator. Then off to Pat O'Briens piano bar for some really fun times. We requested Gin and Juice and Sexy Back and they played both!!

Husband #1 and I at Tropical Isle, Bourbon Street

My brother and I at Tropical Isle, Bourbon Street

The unfortunate portion of this trip was Bumblebee got a bad stomach virus or something. I ended up washing all of his undies three times in one day. He had no idea when it would just start running out. Poor kid. He was bad on Wednesday, fine on Thursday, then bad again on Friday (the day we were driving 1.5 hours to my in laws)

My dad and Bumblebee charting our next Bahamas trip

My mom and Double A

Friday after Thanksgiving we loaded back up and headed back to the in law's house in Mississippi. Husband #1's brother and girlfriend, sister and her husband were all there. We celebrated Thanksgiving and my father in law's 60th birthday!!! This was the first time we had been all together in a year and a half (and that was a sad occasion so no pictures). We had good food, and good company. We played lots of games, especially Bananagrams and Phase 10.

My father in law as he celebrated 60 with his German chocolate cake

Sadly, the good times came to an end when we had to load up again on Sunday morning and drive home.

Christmas update

2010-01-07T21:32:00.003-06:00

Well, it has been about a month since I last posted. Not coincidentally, this coincides with the last time I felt like I was ahead of the game in my life. December was a rough month. Nothing bad happened (thankfully) I was just scattered, stressed and behind in everything I wanted to get done. So, December is over and I have spent this week regrouping and formulating my 2010 plan :) Well, that is until today when we had a very unexpected snow day. Still not sure if we will have another tomorrow. It snowed about 4 inches last night. However, tomorrow the high is supposed to be 8 and the low -2. I REALLY am not looking forward to getting out in that.

Here are some photos from our Christmas.

I love those pure Christmas joy photos!!!

Bumblebee got a real video camera and was ecstatic. He immediately asked to put it on our tripod and then became the videographer of the day. He was very cute with dragging the tripod around and adjusting the height and even kneeling down to look through the camera. He told us "I am the best photographer because I can take movies and pictures."This is what it looks like when your moody "7 going on 13 year old" does not get something she wants in her current gift box. She had accidentally opened a Nintendo DS game but did not have a Nintendo DS. She figured she was getting one so tore through the next several gifts until she found it - this wasn't it!This is how the same moody girl can look when she gets something she likes. This was from our second Christmas celebration on Dec 28 with Husband #1's parents. She was opening a watch from her Greatmother R.

I got a fancy new camera for Christmas. This is me beginning to read the huge manual while Husband #1 is taking my picture (repeatedly) with the new camera.Christmas was pretty cold (not as cold as it is now, though!) - in the twenties and had been rainy which turned to snow on Christmas day. Bumblebee got his first two wheeler bike from Santa and bundled up to go out and ride it. It didn't last long since it was cold and wet.

Grandma (my mom) and Bumblebee.

Christmas was wonderful and we were all excited to have my parents visit for Christmas and then have Husband #1's parents visit for several days the week after Christmas. The two week "Winter Break" went super fast but the kids (and me) were glad to get back to school this week.

Haircut or mugshot - you decide

2009-12-03T15:31:00.004-06:00

So, I have been a lazy blogger recently. These pics actually happened several weeks ago but I did not post them because I wanted relatives to be surprised over Thanksgiving (and I was just kind of lazy and didn't get to it, plus 9 days of travel, etc).

Double A decided she wanted her hair cut short. She has been growing her bangs for about two years now and she wanted her hair as short as her bangs. I told her we would see what the hairdresser said as far as length with her curls. I really did not want her looking like Bozo the Clown if it got too short and curled up.

This first pic is not a great quality because I only had my crummy cell phone with me. However, it was an emotional moment for me so I really wanted a photo.

All the curls laying on the floor!!

These are the after shots:

It really is a cute style and the stylist did a great job. It is still pretty curly and to be honest might even look better because it does not have all that scraggly length to it anymore. I worried how Double A would feel because her hair has always gotten her so much attention. I asked her if she liked it and she said yes. Then I said "all your curls are gone!" and she said "I know, that is what I wanted." Well, maybe she did not like the curls as much as I thought she did!

OCHO

2009-11-02T21:16:00.005-06:00

#8 has finally left the mouth.

We seem to have reached a standstill. Double A has had at least one loose tooth for about two years now but for the first time, none are loose now.

Double A wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy asking why the Tooth Fairy has not ever written her a note. She also asked what the Tooth Fairy does with her teeth. The Tooth Fairy replied with a note and .50 cents. The note explained that with Double A's teeth in particular she is making a wind chime!

Happy Halloween!!

2009-10-31T22:02:00.007-05:00

The weather cleared up just in time for Halloween festivities. It has been raining all month. We have had record rainfall for October...the most since 1830! 12 inches in one month but today was sunny even though it was a bit cool.

This is the first year the kids have ever agreed to have coordinating costumes for Halloween. They were a huge hit in the neighborhood and I thought they were adorable. Unfortunately, my camera settings were weird and the pics are blurry. I am going to see if the will re-enact it tomorrow for better pictures but this is what we have at this point. Behold...the flapper and the gangster!!! (also, our new paint color)

Puppy Daze

2009-10-17T21:37:00.009-05:00

This post is a little late but keep reading and you will see why!!

Here is the news update on the new little guy at our house. It all started when I had Belle at the vet and they had 6 week old puppies for adoption. I told Husband #1 and to my complete surprise he agreed to go see them! Then we decided to look all over if we were looking. We found this little guy at the Humane Society. We tried to bring him home that Saturday but as we were doing the paperwork he had some diarrhea and a temperature so they kept him until he coud be cleared medically. I went back to pick him up that Wednesday. He is about 3 months old. They say he is a mix of Treeing Walker Coonhound and American Bulldog. He definitely has some kind of hound with his ears and he does try to howl. The saggy face and eyes and squat nose seems to be where they think bulldog. I guess we will see as he grows what he looks like. Yes, he does have big paws. It has been estimated he will be about 60 pounds. We'll see.

His name is Louie. Our current dog, Belle, is 10 years old and was named for the area of Nashville where we lived at the time, Bellevue. So sticking with the theme, Louie is named for St. Louis!

Belle was not too happy but is coming around to the idea. She has put Louie in his place with snarling and growling and is teaching him she is dominant. She has also started playing with him, which is so cute, like in the picture below.

The kids are pretty excited. They want Louie to be on their bed while we are reading bedtime stories.

Double A seems to think Louie's legs don't work. She carries him everywhere and really wants him to sleep with her. I told her she has to wait until she is potty trained. She has been doing very well with the training sessions and commands.Everyone likes to snuggle with Louie. He has gotten to the point that he automatically sits on someone's lap if available. He is very cuddly.

Unfortunately we have had our first major mishap with Louie which brings me to the portion of this post on explaining why it has been delayed.

Louie ate my laptop.

A new keyboard is on order so I am currently typing without those keys. More challenging than I anticipated. Who knew you used B, N and L this much?! I have gotten a replacement power cord. It was actually smoking when I pulled it out of Louie's mouth. He didn't seem harmed, though.

Potty training is going fairly well. It has been monsooning here so sometimes he does not like to go out. When it is dry he LOVES beig outside. He does wake up earlier than I want, but then again I am pretty grumpy in the mornings anyway. It realy is like having a baby. Except when I leave the house I can lock him in a kennel! Overall, it has been a good decision and he has been a good dog in the first week and a half.

Need concrete proof I have lost my mind?

2009-10-08T10:36:00.004-05:00

He lives with us now.

We're not in Kansas anymore!

2009-10-04T15:22:00.003-05:00

Last weekend we traveled to the Southern Miss/Kansas game in Lawrence, Kansas. We picked the kids up from school and traveled about 5 hours and stayed in a hotel that night. When we woke up and dressed in our game clothes, we were the only Southern Miss fans in the hotel! It was a pretty good game except we ended up losing. Close game, though. The kids were okay for most of it but then got pretty bored. Double A started not feeling well. We drove home after the game and she was whiny and sick. Sunday she had 102 fever and stayed home from school Monday. I then got whatever she had. I spent Wednesday in bed with slight fever and hacking cough. I still have the hacking cough and scratchy deep voice. Husband #1 has been battling it but winning and Bumblebee seems to have missed it altogether, thankfully.

Self portrait before the game

Before the game in the stands...Bumblebee wouldn't cooperate for the pic

Bumblebee loves his cotton candy!!

This is how she spent the second half of the game...not feeling well.

Double A's horse show

2009-09-19T15:51:00.004-05:00

What a busy weekend and it is only Saturday! Double A had another horse show today. She competed in Musical Stalls and Little Squirts walk trot trail (obstacle course on the horse). She placed 2nd in musical stalls and 4th in walk trot trail. She did well. She had a little trouble with the trail course with getting her horse to "listen." It seems the other girls had trouble too so no worries. Double A tends to get discouraged easily when her horse does not behave on the first attempt. We are working on that.

We are quite proud of her today and she is proud of herself, also. Bumblebee spent the four hours catching grasshoppers, crickets and caterpillars and basically just getting very dirty!

Apple Picking!!

2009-09-19T15:39:00.002-05:00

The kids had off school Friday for teacher conference day so we went to a local farm with some friends to go apple picking. We have been to this farm last year, also. There are rides, shows, play areas, petting zoo, etc for the kids to do. It was tons of fun and we came home with almost 20 pounds of apples! I plan on making applesauce and freezing it and I have a great recipe for a really light and yummy apple crisp.

I thought this was too cute!!

Bumblebee and his friend trying to get almost 50 pounds of apples around the farm on a wagon

Double A showing off the produce while sampling another!

Finally a photo of me on this blog! Yes, I do exist!! On our way out to the apple fields

Spaghetti day

2009-09-03T19:07:00.003-05:00

My first grader came home from school and told me they had spaghetti for lunch. An hour or so later she then told me it was Spaghetti Day at school. I told her she already told me they had it for lunch. She then said, "yeah, but it was spaghetti day all day. We read books about spaghetti." Okay, whatever. Another hour or two passed and she informed me her teacher had them "throw spaghetti noodles against the wall to test to see if they were done and one boy actually got his on the ceiling!" WHAT??!!
me - "Why would you do this, Double A?"
AA - "My teacher told me to!!"
me - "yes, but why?"
AA - "to see if they were done."
me - "were you in the lunch room?"
AA - "no, in the classroom."

I still have no idea what this was supposed to teach the class. Why would you encourage children to throw spaghetti on the wall??

oh my

2009-09-01T21:43:00.002-05:00

Today I asked Double A if she had a cup anywhere to use for dinner. She looked around where she was sitting and said "Not a single one in sight, giirrlll." It was shocking yet hilarious at the same time.

Just a bit later I was in the kitchen with Bumblebee. He told me this: "Mom, when I get older, like 14, a teenager, and I play in some little football game and win a trophy...I am going to give it to you." How sweet is that?!

So, do you see what I am dealing with here as far as different personalities??

First Day of the Rest of My Life

2009-08-31T21:48:00.004-05:00

Today was happy but surprisingly sad in a wistful kind of way. It was the first day of school for both of my children. Oddly, it was a brisk 62 degrees when we got to school. Double A started first grade and has moved out of the "pre-primary" section of her school. Big move. Bumblebee started pre-K at the same school. He has the same hours she does. So both kids are gone all day, every day. I am excited about all my new found free time to get some stuff done I have been putting off. However, I was unexpectedly a little sad. My babies are growing up. No more little ones at home. Let me make this VERY clear. I do NOT want more little ones. Still, them growing up has me a little wistful.

They were excited. Double A seemed to send a vibe that said "when are you guys going to leave the classroom and let me be??" She did great as I knew she would. Her highlights of the day were recess and lunch...of course. Bumblebee was my wild card. We thought he was excited but when you asked him he said no as if he thought we didn't want him to be excited or that he could not let on that he was. He went in and sat in his spot, smiled for his pic and out we went. He was happy when I picked him up but got grumpy with all the attention he was getting for his first day. He revealed more info later and just like his sister, spoke highly of recess. He also mentioned a few times how his teacher explained he could stay late and have snack and play outside if I did not come to pick him up on time. He finally admitted this sounded good! He was excited when he told me his teacher let him pick the books they were going to read. However, he could not recall which books or any of the kids names :)

At bedtime Bumblebee asked what we were doing tomorrow. I said he was going to school. "I go every day?" I worried he would not like this plan but said "yes, except weekends." He smiled and said "okay. good night."

We'll see how it goes from here.

Going back to Cali...

2009-08-27T14:50:00.009-05:00

Okay, so we already went and are back again. The kids and I went to Southern California to visit my grandparents. We don't get to see them very often so it was really great to go out there. Man, they kept us busy!!! Got there Wednesday. Thursday we spent a VERY long day at Knott's Berry Farm. It is the place where the jelly started and is now a theme park with Snoopy as a mascot. It also has a whole old west/ghost town element going on. They have lots of rides for kids but Bumblebee kept wanting to go on the big rollercoasters but was too short. Double A was tall enough but did not want to go on the roller coasters. So basically they ended up fighting and crying about who was going on what ride. We did have fun and finally found a roller coaster Bumblebee could ride. He started out so excited but quickly got quiet then as soon as we slowed down he said "Mommy, that was awful for me!" However, by the time we came to a stop he asked if we could ride again.

Snoopy. This pic looks kind of blurry :(

Gramps and the kids in the Ghost Town portion of Knott's Berry Farm

waiting for the log ride...probably our favorite ride of the day!

Then Friday we were going strong again at Legoland. There were all sorts of things made from legos and more theme park rides. They also have a whole area of famous cities in miniature made out of legos. Pretty amazing. They used 33 million lego bricks in the whole park.

Grams with both kids. In the background is a real Volvo and Lego people. In another location there was this same Volvo made out of Legos, life size. Very cool.

One of the many Lego people around the park

The kids really wanted to get their faces painted :) Bumblebee's got wet on a ride almost right away and smeared down all one side but still looked scary.

I just thought this was pretty clever. :)

We took Saturday off. Thank goodness because those old people were wearing me out!! :) hee hee. My grandma zips around in her scooter but we all have to walk. She refused to give me a ride :) but did end up letting Double A and Bumble bee have rides. Saturday night the kids and I went to dinner with an old friend who now lives in San Diego whom we have not seen in almost 7 years. It was wonderful to see him.

Then Sunday we were at it again with a trip to the San Diego Zoo. They have a new baby panda but we were not able to see it because it is too young to be out on display yet. It is a huge zoo with lots of big hills. At one point the scooter gave out on a very steep hill and I happened to catch it so Grams and Bumblebee did not go careening backwards down the hill. We got it straightened out but it was scary at first.

It was nice to have one last "Hurrah" before school starts Aug 31. The kids want to know when we can go back to California and visit grams and gramps again. Today Bumblebee told me he wished he could live with them!

And Grandpa...no need to print these pictures. I plan on sending you a copy of all the pics I took.

Zoo fun

2009-08-11T16:01:00.006-05:00

We went to the zoo yesterday. It was hot and humid but not so bad since I didn't have to push 90 pounds of kid in a stroller...they walked!! We had fun and stayed a long time. Saw almost everything...we have a huge zoo so everything in one day with two kids is almost impossible. We took some great pics of butterflies and flowers and animals but thought everyone would rather see pics of the animals I brought with me and took home!

Bumblebee petting a stingray. Double A was scared and actually only touched one just barely

the hippos were swimming laps right in front of us. Double A claims one was trying to kiss her!

crazy zoo animal that was sighted

wild animal seen at the zoo

climbing on a beetle...late in the day

penguin house. This penguin was floating right up against the glass blowing bubbles and Bumblebee thought it was great. Not sure if you can see the penguin very well.

This bird was right on the path in the flight cage. Bumblebee bent down to get a closer look and this bird lunged at him and was inches away from pecking his eye out when I pulled him back. Very scary but the bird didn't even leave...just went back to preening.

Can you tell which ones are the monkeys??? the up close ones or the ones in the trees?? :)

What is wrong with me??

2009-08-07T14:58:00.006-05:00

Sooo, maybe I should not be advertising this all over internet-land but I feel compelled. This is what resides in my living room right now as I type (all too often, in fact)...

What you see here represents at least 11 loads of laundry. Some of which has been deposited here today and some of which has been in these baskets for about two weeks now. Some of you will look at this and think about the ensuing ironing from being crumpled for two weeks. Like my mom. My mom is something of a "militant ironer." She will iron for hours on end (and she doesn't even crumple for two weeks!). Impressive but I think I would rather walk barefoot on broken glass scattered over hot coals. Upon seeing this picture my mom would roll over in her grave, were she already dead. Thankfully she is not, so she will likely just shake her head and smile ruefully and think I am crazy and wonder what have I been doing for two weeks that prohibits me from folding 11 loads of laundry? Well, maybe I am more like my mom than we knew...I am thinking the same thing!!

The other issue that this photo brings to light is "what are we wearing if 11 loads of laundry reside in my living room?" Sadly, we still have plenty of clothes in our closets. Maybe I need to set aside my laundry folding problem and focus on my other problem first...a shopping addiction? I will say Husband #1 gets the worst of this and has to sort through the baskets to find clean underwear. Maybe I should just buy him more underwear and then I don't have to feel bad about it?! However, being the great husband he is (and why I am still on #1) he does not complain. Maybe he is just fearful he will be the one folding it if he complains. Either way, he is approaching sainthood in his tolerance of clean but unfolded laundry.

Well, maybe I should get off the computer and fold laundry!? Hmmm, that brings up a whole other problem I might have...internet addiction. Geez, I am a mess!

Double A celebrates 7!!!

2009-07-30T12:43:00.008-05:00

I am not sure how this happened. Where did the time go? It just does not seem possible. My sweet baby girl with the big blue eyes, kissable dimples and golden ringlets turns 7 years old today. Something about 7 just seems older.

In the last 7 years I have noticed there have been milestone birthdays. Obviously 1 year old is a big marker in a baby's life. Five hit me kind of hard because it seemed like a move from toddler/preschooler to "kid." For some reason I was okay with 6 even though that marked the year she started Kindergarten. However, 7 years old seems like a huge change. She will be starting first grade the end of this month. Husband #1 and I have both noticed changes in her from going from a little kid to a new thing we have not yet dealt with :) Others notice it, too. She has grown taller obviously but it is more than that, something about her manner. She seems a little more poised, her thought processes have changed, her knowledge base has changed; it is hard to put your finger on. It will be exciting to continue to watch these changes and growth in her as she matures even more.

Happy Birthday to my sweet Double A!

We have quite the birthday extravaganza planned but more on that later (if I survive!) In the meantime check out these photos of the past 7 years.

one day old

six months old

one year old

two years old

two years old

three years old

four years old

five years old

six years old

Back Porch Paintin'

2009-07-21T11:36:00.004-05:00

Soooo, we have been diligently painting our back porch, a project long overdue (like most of our projects!). I did most of the scraping and painting but Husband #1 helped a fair bit when he was home and the kids even did a little bit. However, keeping them from helping was the bigger challenge. Just too worried about slopped paint everywhere.

scraping paint off the door to the garage

painting the porch steps while detached

I think the project is mostly done now. We just have to paint the porch floor. I think we will go with some kind of light khaki/sand type color. I scraped the big chunks of paint off before we started painting. Husband #1 took off the steps and replaced some rotten floor board sections. This also led to replacing some rotten floor joists and installing some additional lag screws for support. Much sturdier now.

The pictures in white are the "before" pics and the brown are the "after" pics but, by golly, I would have hoped you could tell that on your own!!

Notice the missing ends of some of the floor boards...just rotted out!

We even did the back door and window to the garage. Everything looks so much better. At least the temperature was lovely this past week or two that I have been working on this project. Only problem has been that every time I paint it starts to rain before it is all dry!

Well, it is done now and off to another one of the many projects on our list. I think the kids are finally to an age where I can get some stuff done while they are around and don't need my constant supervision. Problem with that is I don't have that as an excuse anymore!

What a busy weekend

2009-07-20T14:01:00.007-05:00

We had a fun but busy weekend. Friday evening Double A had a horse show. She did a fantastic job and did not seem too nervous this time. She got three ribbons in her three competitions: 6th, 3rd and 2nd place. She had fun and then afterwards we went to dinner and picked up some things at Lowe's. This is a picture of her doing Simon Says on Zema. He other two events she rode Trucker.

Saturday we finished painting our porch (pictures of that in another post) and I ran some errands to get ready for our party on Sunday. Midday we all went to a surgery picnic at a local park. There were tons of things for the kids such a petting zoo, spin art, balloon animal clown and face painting. The kids each selected their own face design. BumbleBee was very proud of his Spiderman and Double A looked lovely in her butterfly art. In this picture we were trying to get BumbleBee to do the Spidey hands but he didn't really understand :) so he got them backwards.

Sunday we finished getting the house and yard ready for our BBQ. Husband #1 had several people over from his lab. We had a great time and the backyard was lovely. We don't have any pictures from the actual party but here is a picture of my clematis vine which has finally started climbing and blooming. Husband #1 built these trellis things next to the patio and we planted these vines.

I was exhausted by the end of the weekend. We felt good because we got so much done and had fun activities, too. I REALLY did not want to get out of bed this morning. Went to the gym and my trainer "woke me up." UGH! We'll see if I can move tomorrow :)

out of the mouth of BumbleBee

2009-07-06T11:58:00.007-05:00

"I cannot get my foot to stop taking a rest." When his foot had fallen asleep.

"My eyes won't let me keep them open." When riding in the truck. I told him it was okay to close them and within seconds he was asleep.

"Because I am four and a half!" When asked "How did you get so strong/fast/smart/whatever?"

"I have really bad news!" When he had gotten a papercut and was going to let us know.

"You are the best mom in the whole world."

Partyin' Bahamian Style

2009-06-30T17:38:00.006-05:00

Oh! What a night this was. None of these pictures represent our most photogenic faces but really, none of us cared too much! I think this night even included a wardrobe change for some of us.

Husband #1 appreciating the "nose" and "bouquet" of his bahamian beer, Kalik.

teaching my dad drinking games from college. Anyone remember "one up, one down?" or "I'm going camping?"

R, lovin' his wine

T & T - not really sure how we even managed this one!

T and I did not recall we even drank pineapple juice and coconut rum this night until we saw the pics later!

I am not sure what was happening here!

There are more that involve the inside of my nostrils, tons of fingers in front of the lens, different funny faces, different drinks being consumed, etc. You get the idea.

Bahamas photos

2009-06-18T14:59:00.006-05:00

A sampling of photos from the Bahamas trip last week. There were many good ones so there will be more later.

The kids and the daddies watching a princess movie in the salon of the boat. They all seem to really be enjoying it!

My youngest niece preparing to be seasick. She did not actually get sick this day but both her and her sister were sick the first day unfortunately for them (and my sister in law who got puked on twice)

Bumblebee took this photo of us on the top deck of the boat while we were underway. Not too shabby!

Bumblebee being buried in the sand at Treasure Cay. The sand was wonderful...the texture of cornstarch.

Double A taking a self portrait with mommy's glasses and daddy's hat. There were several more with different facial expressions. She is the queen of the self portrait.

All four kids (mine and my two nieces) eating lunch on the back deck of the boat

The four of us on the beach at Green Turtle Cay

My mom and dad's boat we all stayed on while touring the Bahamas. All TEN of us!! The McBreak.

Bumblebee and mommy. Love this photo.

Double A suited up for the pool at West End, Grand Bahamas. She is a swimming fool this year. SOOO glad we did swim lessons.

Not a lot of time right now between vacations and WAY too many things I SHOULD be doing so not much narrative with this one...just a bunch of photos. The Bahamas were great and tons of fun! More later :)

PIERCED!

2009-05-29T12:59:00.005-05:00

Husband #1 and I have always agreed that when Double A asks to get her ears pierced, we will go ahead. She has been asking for about two months or so and we finally found the time to get over there. Husband #1 got some numbing gel from the hospital and we put that on her earlobes before we left the house. Our hope was it would not hurt nearly as much if the ear lobes were numb first.

I love this picture because you can see the grimace on Double A's face but even better is the matching grimace on her daddy's face! I guess he was feeling her pain.

She did a great job! She held her Daddy's hand and a stuffed animal they have there. She grimaced with each ear but no sounds or crying. She even had a small audience of two other little girls observing to see if it was something they wanted to do. I did explain to their mother that her ears were numb so it may not be the best example of how it would really happen. I have heard that you can get the gel at the drugstore for numbing. She is being very responsible with cleaning them, and turning them and so far so good. She selected her own earrings and went with her birth stone...the peridot.

She seems so grown up sometimes and the earrings don't help. She finishes Kindergarten next week and has informed me in 5 school days she will be a first grader!

Mad at me

2009-05-11T17:04:00.010-05:00

So, the other day Double A was very mad at me. She has a habit of speaking in a very nasty tone of voice to her brother and she got in trouble for it. When I explained this was unacceptable and blah blah (which is likely what she heard) I asked if she understood. She then said "yes" in the same nasty tone to me. Obviously she did not understand so she had to go to her room. She was mad and stomped and banged around in there. I ignored it. Then the "hate notes" started to appear in the hall outside her door.

There were a few more similar to this one where I was drawn with a big X through me, usually with an angry face. She was always drawn with a big smile and heart around her. (I blurred out where she wrote BumbleBee's name. I am not sure why he was really even included except maybe he was not in trouble??)

Sometimes we are truly frightened by her attitude, behavior, tone and eye rolling. She is only 6 and a half and already she often acts like a young teen. It scares us mightily.

Mockingbird

2009-05-11T16:53:00.003-05:00

Double A had her dance recital Friday night. It was about as I expected. The teacher is big into getting them to understand "creative concepts" when I think they are a bit young for that aspect of dance just yet. As one would expect, the actual dance steps instruction part was not as high on the list with this other emphasis. Now, Double A has taken dance before from a completely opposite dance instructor...all precision and emphasis on learning the routine, no silliness tolerated while dancing. Apparently Double A remembered this previous instruction, or she was just one of the oldest kids, but she was all about doing the right steps (as right as she could get them) and not goofing around and being silly. She had fun and enjoyed herself. She insisted she have her hair "in a bun" so that is how we did it. She was very cute and has no stage fright.

This picture shows Double A with two of her Kindergarten classmates. She is concentrating so hard!After the performance while taking a bow on stage. She was also one of the tallest kids in her dance class...even taller than the ones her own age.BumbleBee was very excited to see his sister dance on stage and kept clapping for her. Of course, he wanted me to take his picture, also.

Questions

2009-04-09T13:31:00.003-05:00

So, a few questions today with a couple of side notes.

First: what color are her eyes??? They were always very blue like her daddy but now they seem to be changing. She claims they are green and to be honest, they do look a little more like mine in this picture.

Sidenote: This was her "West Virginia" look - one scraggly loose tooth right in the middle of her mouth. Lovely. She refused to pull it even with the bribe of getting her ears pierced. Finally I had to hold her down while her daddy grabbed it and it popped right out. Crazy girl. This is her afterwards...so much lovelier! Hee hee!:

Second: What is this thing??!!: We found it on the back porch dried up and dead. The picture did not come out too clearly but it is about as long as my finger. It really looked like a fish as far as the scales and such but there were no fins or anything and really, where would a fish come from to get on our back porch? It didn't really seem to be a baby snake based on the weird body shape and lack of snake like head. We still don't know...anyone??

Third: Why was it snowing in April and when will it be warm again? I couldn't bring myself to take pictures and admit it was pretty. But Monday had LOTS of snow...big pretty flakes which turned into ice pellets by afternoon. None of it stuck, thank goodness. Still...it was April 6th!! However, as my mom likes to tell me, the year we lived in Chicago there was a blizzard on April 5th (her birthday). I guess some unsticky snow is better than a blizzard. I need warm weather because my kids are outgrowing their pants and I don't want to buy more now!!

Okay, so anyone with answers, let me know!!

Mountain camping!

2009-03-24T10:30:00.010-05:00

We had a great time camping in the Smoky Mountains last week for Spring Break. I was a little apprehensive as there was so much prep work, we have fairly young kids and let's face it...I am not that "outdoorsy." However, we had fantastic time!! We met my college roommate and her family there. We had campsites next to each other. We had a cabin and they have their own camper trailer. There were four adults and five kids ages 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Right behind the campsites was a rocky stream the kids loved playing in. There was no shortage of playmates and virtually no fighting amongst them. The cabin was small but clean and nice. The whole campground was nice, very natural with trees and streams and the bathrooms were very clean.

We went hiking, saw tons of awesome streams and rocks and even hiked all the way to a waterfall (1.3 miles one way). We were there a bit early in the season so not much was leafed out yet but it was still beautiful. We rode an aerial tram to the top of a mountain and then Double A ice skated for the first time ever and we went snow tubing (manufactured snow). We went to Dolly Parton's dinner show the Dixie Stampede. The kids loved it as it had horse riding and tricks and such.

We spent alot of time hanging out around the campfire grilling, eating smores and just having fun. The kids enjoyed the relatively free rein they had to run around the campground together. It was a very relaxing vacation. The kids stayed up late every night and had action packed days. The weather was lovely...a bit chilly at times but pretty clear and dry and warmed up nicely most days.

We all agreed it was a great time and are trying to come up with ideas for next year! It was even very affordable as family vacations go! All around AWESOME - GREAT friends and GREAT times.

roasting the perfect "mellow" even though there are so many different ideas on what constitutes "perfect" :)

crossing a stream/river on a fallen log because the footpath bridge was out

Double A's first time on skates and Husband #1's second time. He readily admits he is not the best skating teacher she could have! :)

Hiking the trail to the waterfall that you could walk behind!

All the kids at the Yogi Bear statue in the Jellystone campground where we stayed.

Our "rustic" cabin. It had four bunks, a toilet and sink (no shower), a kitchen sink, dorm fridge, coffee pot, and toaster

all the kids taking a break on a log on the hiking trail

Foreshadowing

2009-03-15T11:29:00.005-05:00

Who knew when Double A got this pacifier as a 4 month old at Christmas that it would be a sign of things to come?

Double A has been rapidly losing teeth, as most 6 and a half year olds will do. However, our child refuses to wiggle her loose teeth. Her two front teeth have been loose since November. That would be at least 4 months, for those who are counting. The teeth get so loose that they shift positions and pretty much stick straight out. The teeth coming in are at least halfway grown in already. Double A now goes by several new nicknames such as Snaggletooth and Bucky Beaver. These pictures do not really show the detail of how the teeth poke out but it is very annoying. I feel like we should live in the Appalachians or something when I look at her teeth.

I finally called her dentist to see if they would pull them...or really just flick them out, they were so loose. They said it would be $100 per tooth and they really did not like to do that when there were no problems and the kid could get them out on their own. Well, once Husband #1 heard this he decided that was the night it was coming out! I got the lovely job of holding down a kicking and crying Double A while he wrapped dental floss around the tooth. All of a sudden she got very still and the tooth was out - FINALLY!! She claims it hurt but I think she was just surprised. It did bleed a fair amount but stopped quickly. I told him later he should have wrapped it around both teeth since she will likely never let us do that again.

So now we are down to one crazy snaggletooth. She says the next top front tooth is loose but I told her at the rate she goes she will be well over 7 years old before it falls out.

So, for those who are counting...this is her 5th lost tooth in a year's time span. The next one is hanging by a thread...

The Forever Stamp

2009-03-10T12:41:00.004-05:00

So, I saw this on someone else's blog but thought I would mention it here...because, who knew??

This is the Forever Stamp:

The current price of postage is .42 cents. I mention this because who can keep up??? Anyway, this Forever stamp sells for .41 cents per stamp. These stamps will FOREVER be valid postage despite any future postage rate increases...such as the one coming on May 11 to .44 cents per stamp.

I say this is a good deal and where have I been?? Right now it is a small discount of one cent per stamp but coming in May (if I stock up now) it will be three cents off! I am purchasing several sheets everytime I go to the post office and figure they can last FOREVER!! :)

Consider this my helpful hint for the recession riddled economy.

Different Personalities

2009-02-28T10:03:00.002-06:00

It amazes me how two kids born to and raised by the same two parents can be so completely different. For example...Bumblebee spontaneously tells me he loves me throughout the day and gives hugs and kisses. I can tell Double A "I love you. Do you love me?" and she just stares back at me blankly. Nice.

Well, I think these two pictures also show the differences in the two kids. These are their beds taken just after they have gotten out of them in the morning, the same morning.

Happy 60th Birthday!!

2009-02-12T12:26:00.005-06:00

Today is my dad's 60th birthday. He is on his way to Florida to spend some time with his birthday present to himself...his new boat. :) It is hard for me to believe my dad is actually 60 years old. He doesn't seem 60 to me. He doesn't act 60. I know that 60 is not considered "old" anymore but it sure sounds older than 50. The good news is that to me he seems closer to the 50 mark.

I wanted to do something big and exciting for his birthday like a party with friends or something but was pretty much shot down by the others who would have been involved in the planning. They also said he would not like that or care about having a party or anything It just seems like this is an occasion to be commemorated.

My birthday wish for my dad today is this: that he take more time to enjoy his life. He has worked exceptionally hard all his life to get where he is now. I think he deserves a break. He has a plan to get to retirement (my dad has nothing if not plans...one of his favorite catch phrases when I was growing up was "Plan your work and work your plan.") but still works hard and gets too stressed out too often. Don't get me wrong...he travels for pleasure a great deal but he still "works" on these trips. I wish he let out more of his fun side more often and worried less. I cannot tell you the last time I have seen him do a napkin magic trick or hang a spoon from his nose :) I wish he had more time to spend with his grandchildren; I want them to be able to have lifelong memories of doing fun things with him.

I am also discouraged by the lack of time he takes to take care of himself. I don't want him to be old and decrepit. He has worked long and hard and I want him to be able to enjoy the "golden years" without a gazillion medical ailments. Plus, I don't want to have to take care of him! Ha ha!

I am proud of my dad and how he has gotten to where he is now. I am grateful for the way he and my mom raised me to turn out the way I have. I am touched by the way he cares for those who work for him, even though he does not always say it out loud, but shows it in little ways.

I know he has always been there for me from showing me how to ride my bike while throwing snails at me. Or instructing me on how to best clean and organize my closet all day on a Saturday (he needs to come teach my daughter that!). Or showing me how to find the best "deal" at the K-mart tent sale. Or dealing with some of my crazier adventures in high school. Or even now with something as simple as taking my family on a vacation we would not otherwise have been able to go on. My dad does not often express his love verbally. But he does show it in his never failing support of me, despite the crazy situation I am in or if I got there making decisions he did not necessarily approve of. I am thankful I have had him as my dad.

I hope this birthday is fabulously wonderful and that there are 40 more to come. I love you, Dad.

Jack and Kay

2009-02-05T21:23:00.004-06:00

This is the wedding picture (I think) of my maternal grandparents, Jack and Kay. Kay was actually born Catherine/Kathryn/Cathern. We are not sure how it was actually spelt. My niece is named after her. My grandpa always called her Katie. My grandpa was Jack but not until late in his life did he find his birth certificate and find out his birth name was John. Oddly, he named his first born son John! I am struck by how beautiful my grandma looks here. Of course, I never knew her like this. I am also moved by how much my mom looks like her. My grandpa was so handsome. By the time I came along he had eyebrows that could allow him to take flight and these horrible military issue glasses he wore because they were free or super cheap. Interestingly, I think my brother looks very much like my grandpa. If you take his features separately they are more like my dad's side but the whole package looks like Grandpa Jack.

My Grandpa Jack served in the Navy all his life. In fact, he lied about his age to enlist at age 17. He was retired in the late 60's/early 70's. They moved to Oregon and built their own house by themselves. They lived there the remainder of their years. As long as I can remember my Uncle John and Aunt Linda lived on the 20 acres also. This proved to be quite fortuitous as my grandparents aged and became sick; John and Linda were invaluable in caring for them. My grandpa died about 8 years ago. All my life they lived on this rural property and had a small amount of cows and chickens and such. They loved to travel in their RV. They would come and visit us for weeks and months at a time. Grandpa was always sort of gruff and rough on the outside but deep down he was a sweetie. He would walk a mile to get the newspaper every morning and it was always great fun to be up in time to go with him.

My Grandma Kay seemed quiet and sweet and caring on the outside but was also very strong and tough on the inside. She raised four kids with a military husband gone quite often. Plus, she put up with my seemingly often grumpy grandpa! :) She made the most wonderful blueberry syrup for pancakes when we were there from the blueberries out of her yard. She would let us go get the eggs out of the hen house. We played cards alot and she taught me how to play cribbage (not that I remember now). My grandpa died before her, right before their 60th wedding anniversary. She gradually declined in health. My mom, Double A and I were flying to visit her in late September 2004 (I was pregnant with BumbleB). As we got off the plane, my aunt and uncle met us and told us in the airport grandma had passed away that day while we were on the plane. It was quite the shock as she had been ill but nothing more than usual. It was just a regularly scheduled visit, not one due to illness or anything.

My cousin and his wife and family live in their house now. They have redone some of the necessary things in the house. I have not seen it yet but hear it is nice. I am glad someone is living there so the house does not deteriorate. My aunt and uncle still live in their house on the property. I miss my grandparents. I have wonderful memories of playing with my cousins when we visited. Spending time together as a family and just hanging out around the property or doing other activities in the area. So many memories: the farming game, bumper billiards, being chased by cows for apples, picking blueberries, go cart racing, crazy shaggy rugs in the twin bed room, the awesome spinning chair with that horrible squeak in the kitchen, sleeping in the various RV's or the basement and on and on and on.

I want to go visit with Husband #1 and my kids but just have not seemed to find the time. I want to see my family who are still there but maybe in a way, I am hesitant because it will be so different with both of them gone.

(If you are one of my family members and I have some facts wrong, please let me know. Or if you have a great memory to add, please comment!)

Snow Daze!

2009-02-02T09:04:00.003-06:00

So, we got some snow last week.

Actually the first day we got just a little snow and it did not even cover all the grass. However, that did not stop Husband #1 from getting out there with the kids and making them pull and push him in the sled! He is such the taskmaster!

No, actually if you will notice the sled marks back and forth across the grass...that is where Husband #1 was running as fast as he could in snow to pull Double A back and forth across three yards. She loved it but Bumble B was still a little under the weather from his stomach flu and would not get on the sled.

Well, that all changed when two days later we got more snow. Double A did have school but no one else did so I kept her home. One reason was I did not get up early enough because I thought it would be cancelled like everyone else. The other reason was she slept until 9am, which NEVER happens. I was worried she was getting the stomach thing Bumble B had over the weekend and Husband #1 had on Monday. She did not have it, thankfully but by that point more snow was supposed to be coming so I just kept her home. We went sledding with some friends. It was the first time the kids have ever been sledding on a real hill. It was sooooo cold and ice pellets fell from the sky the whole time but we had fun. It is hard to tell in the pictures but this was a really big hill. So big I had trouble climbing back up the steep parts.

This is Bumble B getting ready for his first ride down the hill by himself. Double A was great about taking him and then pulling the sled back up. He wanted to go on his own but I told him he would have to pull the sled up and he changed his mind. Then I felt guilty so told him I would meet him at the bottom to help with the sled.

Not sure if you can see his little face but he was grinning ear to ear. The funny thing about this picture is he was going down backwards at this point! This hill had two parts...the first part was a pretty good slope then you hit a drop off and went even steeper from there. This was taken right before he went over the drop off backwards. He did great and stayed on all the way to the bottom.

Double A loved sledding. She always loves the snow which always surprises me for some reason. She was borrowing our friends disc sled in this photo. She did not want to go home but Bumble B was crying hysterically he was so cold and i was pretty miserable myself after a little over an hour out there.

Then Wednesday Double A's school was actually cancelled but there are no pics of that day because we did not leave the house! I found out later that Double A's school has not had a snow day in three or four years and in fact are one of the local schools that almost never closes. We got bunches more snow Tuesday night which caused the school closing (and the first pic in this blog post).

Well, today is Monday again. We still have snow in the shady parts but it was in the 40's this weekend so much of it turned into a slushy mess. But never fear! We have more coming tonight! UGH!

Fourth Birthday Drama

2009-01-24T10:29:00.006-06:00

So yesterday was the long awaited BIG DAY for Bumble B...his fourth birthday. We started the day off with his new big boy booster seat instead of his old car seat. He was so excited and even buckled himself in on the first try. We brought cupcakes to school to celebrate...pink with white icing and sprinkles by his choice.

After school Double A was eating pretzels and her tooth fell out!! Not the one we have been waiting for since about October, the one we call Snaggle, but one on the bottom! She looked horror struck at first and I asked if she swallowed it and she said "I fink so". Turns out we were able to fish it out of her mouth amongst the pretzels.

After Husband #1 got home we ordered Bumble B's choice of dinner...pizza. Bumble B refused to eat more than one bite. Then came cake with candles and what not. He ate one bite and said he did not like it.

How old are you?

Then we moved on to presents at which point he perked up and was so excited for his remote control Jeep and his new watch, among other things. We played for a bit and then started in with the movie he had picked at Blockbuster that afternoon. The kids always want to "stay up late" so I told them they could and we would watch a movie. About 15 minutes in Bumble B was restless and asked to go to bed at 8:15. Then the drama began...maybe 30minutes later he went to bed he screamed and began vomiting...all over the bed, himself, the floor, the area rug, the bathroom floor, the bathroom door...pretty much anything in his path. We got that cleaned up as best we could and sent him back to bed. He proceeded to wake up at least two more times during the night with vomit. The last time about half of it made it in the trash can by his bed.

After a pretty sleepless night between vomit and pages for Husband #1 I was awakened at 7:15 by Double A near tears tapping me standing on the side of my bed. The Tooth Fairy did NOT COME!! Seems with everyone being up all night the Tooth Fairy was unable to get into the house safely without being seen. We are hoping for tonight. Or at least that is the publicized version here at our house!! Wow, did I feel like a crappy parent!

So far we have been vomit free for almost 8 hours. We have seriously limited fluids this morning and made Bumble B drink out of a shot glass! You know nothing settles your stomach like a hefty shot in the morning!! He has just asked for some food so we will see what happens. I am really hoping he is done with the vomit and we can still have the McDonald's birthday party on Sunday. Poor guy.

'Nuf Said

2009-01-17T15:02:00.003-06:00

It was 20 degrees below zero with the wind chill. INSANE!!

Check Please!

2009-01-14T13:28:00.005-06:00

Have I ever mentioned how much I love a coat check? I never knew I loved a coat check until we moved to the "god forsaken north (GFN)." In fact, I am not even sure I had ever even seen or used a coat check until we moved to the GFN...at least not with any regularity. Growing up most of my formative childhood years in the Deep South pretty much limits your availability of coat checks. Now they are everywhere. Pretty handy at all those socialite type parties we go to...all the time...you know...twice a year at the holidays. Anyway, it is such a pain to have to hold your coat (cuz you CANNOT go anywhere here without one...not even to the driveway to get something out of your car. Did I mention the low tonight is supposed to be 2? that would be Fahrenheit degrees. Tomorrow the high is 13 and a wind chill of -10 below 0. UGH) Anyway, I digress...coat checks...I was saying it is a struggle to hold your coat at a function, and your plate of food, and your cocktail. Coat checks come in really handy. The best thing about coat checks here in the GFN is they are EVERYWHERE. All the places you would go. We went to the butterfly house in January and they had a coat check. It was awesome! It is so nice to not have to lug your coat, your kids coats, your purse, your diaper bag, the crap your kids HAVE to bring and then don't want to hold anymore and so on and so forth. Just shove it in this special room and hope it is there when you get back (they are not always manned by the coat check girl...different than on TV and movies where there is always a coat check girl.)

Anyway, I was just thinking the other day about how cold it is and how much I hate the cold and how hard it is to get out the door with coats and hats and gloves and such. I was struggling to come up with a reason to not leave Husband #1 behind for the next two months and jet off with the kids to some tropical locale (you know other than school and the fact we would miss him). All I could come up with was coat checks. Guess I should be grateful there is that one little refuge in my four month interlude of bleak, freezing dreariness in the GFN. Anyone else want to share what keeps them plugging along in the cold? I could use some more incentive.

The pictures

2009-01-11T14:47:00.005-06:00

So, I finaly go the pics uploaded and onto the blog. There are tons more, of course, but these will have to do.

CHRISTMAS MORNING - SANTA CAME!!

SO EXCITED ON CHRISTMAS MORNING

FALLING ASLEEP WITH DADDY'S IPOD

TWISTER - WHAT A GOOD SPORT DADDY IS!!

THE KIDS COLLECTING CAMELLIAS IN GREATMOTHER'S YARD. HER CAMELLIA BUSHES ARE TWO STORIES TALL!!!

SPENDING TIME WITH BUMBLEBEE!!

Aught Nine

2009-01-01T10:34:00.005-06:00

Happy New Year!! Well, it is the last of the "Aughts" for us. Unless some weird twist of fate or advanced medical techniques come about, I will not see another aught year. Most likely, neither will my kids.

Husband #1 and I laugh frequently about the term "aught" so I thought I "ought" to use it here...hee hee!!

We are currently on the last leg of our holiday trip through the southeast. Since the last installment we have traveled through the Mississippi coast and seen the Golden Eagles beat Ole Miss at basketball, went shopping at some outlet malls, visited tons of relatives in George County and rung in the new year asleep in our bed at my in laws in Laurel.

And yet, I am still too lazy to upload pictures for this post. Oh well!

I do have something I thought was interesting I saw on another blog somewhere. A list of things to do in your life. I have not come up with the list and I really think I would change some things but the ones in red are things I have done so far in my 35 years.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (DisneyWorld)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Comment and let me know which ones you have done!!! Would love to hear!

Lazy post Christmas post...Is this post even worth it?

2008-12-29T14:47:00.003-06:00

Well, it is after Christmas and I should be posting cute xmas pics. I am on the road traveling and am just too lazy to organize all my technology in one location from our bags to do the pics. Maybe later. Especially since I got a new camera for Christmas!!

The kids were super excited about Santa visiting our house. Of course, they got tons of stuff they did not need. Husband #1 and I did not do too bad from Santa either. My parents were visiting and it was good times shopping, and eating and playing Wii and just spending time together.

We are currently in Slidell visiting my parents some more and my brother and his wife and kids. In a day or so we will be visiting Husband #1's whole crew in Mississippi. We have not seen them at all this holiday so it will be nice to spend some time with them.

Pre Christmas fun!

2008-12-19T13:05:00.004-06:00

Well, first and foremost I want to give a "shout out" to my mother in law...KA! It is her birthday and as usual I have not planned enough in advance to get a card in the mail. It is also her mother's birthday, RR! Happy birthday to both of you!!

It is also my friend TB's birthday but she may not read this in time as she is swamped with sick kids, house construction and general holiday gunk.

I made some holiday treats for Husband #1's co-workers and included the following recipe cards (along with the actual treats, too!) Thought you might enjoy. I was supposed to bring some to a cookie exchange but Husband #1 had a kidney transplant so I was unable to attend. Now I have plenty of cards left if anyone wants one! :)

Here are some other images we took over the last few days.

Here is Bumblebee with his reindeer he made at school. He made lots of other stuff but will spare you the play by play. Today was his last day and he is now at home eating lunch as I type. He had a Christmas party at school today and was very excited because he got to pick out the paper plates to bring.

Double A wore her Christmas dress to school today even though they will be having no holiday party in order to recognize all the religions at the school. They have learned about several different ones including things I have never heard of before. She asked me to take this picture of her this morning "so my grandparents can see me in my dress." And yes, those are stockings I found at the dollar store with green holly leaves on them. This is the second wearing and they are surprisingly still in one piece. We are growing out her bangs but they are so curly it makes it challenging. We'll see how it goes on the long run. She will not smile and show her teeth because on of the front ones will probably fall out if she opens her mouth too much. We may have Santa and the Tooth Fairy fighting for admittance to the house in the same night. She currently has four loose teeth and has already lost two this past spring.

This was from our Christmas card photo shoot. It did not make the cut for the card but I love the picture so will include it here.

The weather here is insane. It snowed this week and has been sticking around since then but last night it rained and warmed up. It was 51 degrees when we got in the car for school but within three hours it had dropped to 43. Supposed to be about 19 this weekend with low of 5...fun. UGH!

Well, at least it was not an actual whole month between posts. Been busy but not with anything exciting to post about.

Another New Addition

2008-11-21T16:45:00.003-06:00

Okay, so it has almost been two weeks since I got a NEW CAR!! For most of you who read this I suppose this post is a little anticlimactic since you have already heard the news. A select few of you have even ridden in it!!

Anyway, been super busy and illness has plagued our house plus it rained the day after I got it so it was all dirty looking. Sooooo I finally washed it and had a sunny day and took some pics so here they are...

It is a 2009 Nissan Maxima with all kinds of cool stuff on it. Lately I have been loving the heated steering wheel...those 20 degree mornings at 6am on the way to the gym feel a little bit better with warm hands! I debated about black due to the frequent washing needs but thought the car looked best in black so here it is. I really like the car and the kids and I have been adjusting well to downsizing. It will be even better once Bumblebee gets in a booster seat in January. The haggling process did not go as smoothly as I had hoped but it worked out okay in the end. We had a fantastic experience when we bought Husband #1's truck in August and I guess I was hoping for that again.

The downside has been going from no car payments to two car payments within three months. My old car just was not going to hold on much longer with a variety of "little" issues that were adding up quickly...adding in price and sheer numbers of issues.

It is fun to drive and I like to imagine that I make the car look good! :)

Sick drama girl

2008-11-12T15:20:00.003-06:00

Well, Double A is very sick. She started a fever Saturday and still is not doing well. In an effort to avoid the Mother of the Year prize I did not take her to the doctor until today (Wednesday). She had been feverish for three days but the doc can't do anything for fever and she had no other complaints. I did call the nurse line and they said unless her fever spikes again to tough it out. Well, late Tuesday night she started wailing about her ear hurting ad feeling like it had a bubble in it. The good news was she had been fever free for 8+ hours. Well, the doc said her ear was "horrible" and her throat had pus and her eye was infected and needed drops. She had woken up with it looking swollen and red. She sleeps alot and moans and wails even more. We have gone through a box of kleenex for the runny nose and she has not been in school all week. I am seriously hoping that 24 hours of antibiotics will drastically improve the situation. I am supposed to go out of town this weekend by myself and Husband #1 was going to take the kids to his parents house for the weekend. He will not be doing that if she is not improved.

Maybe it is wrong of me but the wailing and moaning really get on my nerves. I know she feels horrible but that really does not help and grates on the nerves. I am hoping this is some result of my feelings of frustration at not being able to make her feel better and not from some horrible part of me that is just straight up irritated with my sick child.

Horse Show and Stuff

2008-11-09T13:20:00.002-06:00

Double A had her first ever horse show today. Sadly she developed a fever yesterday so was not at her best for the show. Plus it got very cold and there were actually flurries - UGH! Anyway, I thought she did great considering she has never been in a show and was so sick and cold. She rode Zema, the grandpa horse at age 27. She placed fourth in the egg holding competition - where they hold an egg on a spoon while they ride and it can't fall off. Then she placed third in the Simon Says competition. We were so excited for her. She even had a couple friends come to see her ride plus her aunt is in town so it was quite the crowd in her cheering section. She cried before she started and I realized it was the illness but she was also nervous. I talked with her and explained what would happen and she calmed down some. Afterwards she said it was fun but she will never do it again because it was hard. Hopefully she will change her mind when she feels better. Bumble Bee had a great time climbing the fence and playing in the dirt.

Friday night Husband #1 and I and his sister who is in town visiting went to a charity fundraiser party. It was very trendy and kind of crazy. There was a woman painted silver with angel wings, people juggling fire sticks, a guy who was hammering screwdrivers into his nose, breakdancers and all sorts of things. Maybe this kind of thing is the norm for trendy socialite fundraisers but it sure was different from our usual night out!

BumbleBee REALLY does not like to brush his teeth...I figure, Oh well, he will get new ones in a few years!

Fall Fun

2008-11-01T09:23:00.002-05:00

My parents came to visit last week for Double A's grandfriends day at school. We went to the fun farm again to pick some apples and pumpkins. The kids love this swing ride and Bumblebee just barely cleared the height requirement.

We watched the punkin chunkin again since Husband #1 was with us this time. FINALLY Double A was selected to go on stage and choose one of the pumpkins to be shot out. I had coached her on how to jump up and down and wave your arm around to get chosen. She was so excited but when he asked where she lived she said "Mississippi" and it kind of went weird from there. Oh well.

That brings us to pumpkin carving. Double A and Husband #1 worked on the design and both kids and myself scooped out the insides. I made pumpkin seeds in different flavors and they turned out pretty good.

Trick or treating was great fun. The weather was WONDERFUL. Everyone was outside sitting on their porch and Double A did not even need a coat with her cheerleader outfit. It had gotten up to 76 degrees that day...great considering three days ago it was a high of 49. The kids got more candy than any other year because we let them go to more houses...mostly because it was so nice to be outside. St. Louis has a weird tradition of telling a joke at each house before they give you your candy. This was the first year Double A really excelled at that. She had a few jokes in rotation but my favorite was "why shouldn't you tell jokes while skating?" why? "Because the ice might crack up." Bumblebee doesn't really understand jokes so his ran along the lines of "which letters can talk?" which? "trees". What???

This is a picture of the kids looking at a tiny snake I found while we were trick or treating. oVerall we had fun and the kids did not fight me too much on limiting candy consumption and going to bed. Bumblebee seems to be very sensitive to either sugar or the caffeine in chocolate so dessert before bed is challenging sometimes.

HAPPY NOVEMBER (can you believe it??) Set your clocks back tonight!

Learning the hard way

2008-10-29T17:06:00.002-05:00

So today I was in the shower at 7:15am. All of a sudden Double A bursts in with candy in her hand and asks me through the shower door if Bumblebee can have that candy. I said I guess, mostly because I did not feel like fighting about it and he had eaten his breakfast...why not chase it with some spun sugar?? However, Double A then proceeds to inform me that she told Bumblebee he could have the candy (before she burst in to ask me) if he put her papers in the trash for her. I just stared at her and then asked why she thought she had the authority to require work of him to get his own candy. She just shrugged and then said "It helps him learn." It was too early in the morning to explain the problems with that scenario to her so I just sent her back downstairs to give him the candy. I still don't know if he "did the work" or got the candy but they seemed to work it out somehow so I figure...life lesson learned...somehow or another!

Things that make me giggle

2008-10-20T20:09:00.006-05:00

Okay, so I have been lazy with uploading pictures so these go back over a couple of weeks. I figure everyone could use a little giggle once in awhile so hopefully these seem as cute to you as they do to me.

This picture cracks me up simply because this SHIRT cracks me up. We are STILL painting the bathroom and guest room and Husband #1 went up to change into paint clothes to help out one weekend. He came down in this insane shirt. I immediatey burst out laughing and now everytime he wears it I can't stop laughing at him. I think he secretly likes it a whole bunch - maybe it reminds him of his rural roots. He cut the sleeves and neck out on his own...as if you couldn't tell.

In honor of Halloween, Double A drew this vampire all on her own. She even wrote "vampire" on her own at the top. Her teacher tells them to spell it based on what they hear if they are unsure. I think she did pretty good, not like vampire is in many children's early reader books!

Bumblebee is in the "Red Room" at preschool. Double A has been in the Yellow Room and Blue Room. Every year they have Color Day and a parade. Basically this is school spirit day and they make a t-shirt and flag and such then parade around the church lawn. He is such a cutie!

One night Double A was helping me cook dinner. I was chopping onions and she said her eyes were burning. I momentarily left the room to do something and when I returned she had solved the problem of onion fumes hurting her eyes!

dyson update

2008-10-18T11:35:00.002-05:00

Well, for those of you following my Dyson vacuum repair issues here is where it stands. I finally called Dyson and had the serial number. They are sending me a new hose for me to attach on my own. It cost $46 with shipping. I am shocked to realize it is 4 years old so no wonder it is not covered under warranty. I should have it in 5 business days. In the meantime I have followed the sage advice of my favorite father in law...duct tape it. So rest easy, Dyson lovers. My little guy will be all better soon.

In other news...my son pooped in his hand.

Follow up on the other random thoughts

2008-10-06T20:28:00.003-05:00

So, still looking at cars. Will be for some time since trying to narrow down my list has backfired and the salespeople are unintentionally giving me more options for potential vehicles. Looked at the volvo options today. Lovely car...just not sure I want to pay $10,000-$15,000 more for the same or less options than other cars. I mean, I get the safety and all but really, is that such a huge deal these days with the other cars having the side curtain airbags and what not? BTW...if you have not seen a pic of side curtain airbags you should go to some car website and check that out...CRAZY! In the next ten years we will be strapped into our cars with those over the head harness things like roller coasters or the space shuttle. One good thing about the volvo was that it had a "pistol pocket." Never heard of that but sure would come in handy when the kids misbehaved in the back!

Debate issues. I tivo'd the VP debate and who am I kidding? I am probably not going to watch it. i feel like I should care about politics but really, I just don't. However, I was stuck in the motorcade at 4pm before the debate. I assume someone was going to dinner? Anyway...how many STL cops does it take to escort two suburbans and one towncar? SEVENTEEN!!!! Between the suburbans and 17 cop cars and motorcycles I had to wonder who I was watching drive by cuz that can't be good for the environment!

Now, my dog. Belle is her name and being weird is her game. She is now 9 years old and still full of energy and vigor...despite the fact she has suddenly developed weird food issues. I took her to the vet for her checkup and mentioned how she will bark in my face and jump on me when she wants to eat...except she does this even when she already ate! It was like she forgot or something and then that made me wonder if I had fed her or what...nothing like your DOG making you feel like a crazy person. Anyway, the vet suggested feeding her earlier in the day as we are hungrier morning or midday. Also to add in some green beans or carrots for more bulk in her belly without more calories. ALSO...seems I am an idiot. Different types of dog food require different amounts per serving. This has never occurred to me, that there could be varying caloric counts for different foods. Why? I don't know, likely cuz I dump the food and off I go and don't think about it again until she is mauling me at the computer. That got me thinking... the last time I actually checked how much to feed her could very well have been 8 years ago. I gave it a look in the pet store and by golly I was underfeeding her by 1-1.5 cups! No wonder she is hungry. Oddly though, I have been doing this for years and she has just started complaining in the last few months. Also, she has been gaining weight so must not be going too hungry. So I increased her amount of food and laid off the green beans to see how she did with just more food. Well, what do you think happened? If you guessed...SHE QUIT EATING you win!! She has had the same bowl of dog food down there for almost two days now...some will be gone but not much...new behavior for her. SOOOO, I figure she will eat when she is hungry. I then noticed she would follow me up from the basement after a few bites. I experimented today and brought her bowl to the kitchen instead of the basement...she ate EVERY BITE!! So what, now she needs COMPANY to eat!!!??? AARRGGGHHH!!

Okay, kids in bed and hubby not home so off to watch some TIVO shows that no one but me likes :)

Random Thoughts I had to get out of my head

2008-10-02T12:45:00.002-05:00

Okay, so there is this girl in Double A's kindergarten class who is 5 years old. She can read and write. I know, so what?? you say. Well, she has read the first two HARRY POTTER books!!! What??!! I am unsure why this is bugging me so much but that just does not seem quite right. I am not referring to content. I have not actually read them and her mother tells me the third one the content gets a little much for her age. Gee, maybe when she is 6 she can read Where the Red Fern Grows and when she is 8 she can move up to War and Peace or something. It just seems wrong someone that young can read that well. I wonder if she is really comprehending it?

Meanwhile my 6 year old is making huge progress with her reading in the one month she has been in school. She can read an early reader book with some help sounding out words and only needing me to tell her a couple of words. She likes to practice and gets better everyday. We talk about reading so much that Bumblebee told me yesterday on our way to speech therapy that his "teacher" (therapist) was going to teach him to read. With basically no help from me he has started identifying the letters in his name in other contexts and can even write an A and B on his own.

So the vice presidential debate is this evening and for those of you who may not know...it is being held here in St. Louis. I mention this because you would think it was Christmas! Almost everything has shut down. The university where Bumblebee has speech has closed (it is near the debate site), roads have closed, sidewalks have been closed for days. I overheard some parents at Double A's school get excited and envious when one of them stated they would be attending the debate. Interesting times here in STL between debates and beer being bought out...things are topsy turvy.

So we are thinking of buying another car...for me this time. Yes, you are correct when thinking back...it has only been one month since we purchased the truck for Husband #1. We do not want to purchase another car. We were hoping we could get another couple of years out of the Expedition. It has 115,000 miles and has had some major repairs over the last few years. We thought this would mean that it was kind of "rebuilt" so to speak. Well, my electric locks stopped working. No big deal except there is no key hole on the passenger side...at all. So I have to unlock the driver door and crawl across to unlock the passenger side so Double A can get in. It is a big car so it is kind of hard to do and will be even less fun when the snow gets upon us. We took it in and they said it will be $700+ to repair the locks. Well, I guess I will suffer with it. Problem is when we had it in there they found FIVE other issues and now it will be $1700 to repair them. That is 3-4 car payments so now we are wondering what to do. The fear is these things will keep piling up and we will keep spending the money which we could have just used for a new car. The other problem about buying a new car besides the ridiculous expense is I have NO IDEA what I want. Very overwhelming.

I have been painting the guest room, bathroom and upstairs hallway this past weekend and Monday. Husband #1 helped on Sunday and we got a good chunk done. I have an amazing picture of Husband #1 from the painting that makes me laugh out loud so I will post that later when I find the camera and upload the pics. I am still working on the trim which is quite extensive in these rooms...not typical trim rooms. I'll spare the details of the trim work but it is driving me CRAZY!!! Guess I will get back at it next week while the kids are in school. I have taken the rest of this week off painting so I can clean the house very thoroughly so we can decorate for Halloween (and because it is disgusting). I think it is a bit early but I always think that and by the time I end up getting around to it it is a week away and hardly seems worth the effort.

On the house cleaning note (can you tell I am procrastinating??) my mom got me a Shark and I used it on the floors. I think I really like it. No bucket and dirty mop to lug around and the floors are a lot less wet but still clean. Plus, the kids are not slipping and getting muddy footprints on the still drying floor. Since our entire house is hardwood floors it makes it easier than mopping.

Okay, enough rambling and back to the cleaning. Makes it harder when you have a 3 year old "helper" who creates more messes during the act of cleaning that you then reclean everything.

OH!!! one last thing! EGADS!! My Dyson vaccum has sprung a mortal wound. The hose for the attachments has a gaping hole in it...obviously hard to suck stuff up when it all goes out the hole on the hose. For those of you who know me well, know my love of the Dyson. I am bascially a walking commercial for the darn thing and this really hurts. I am now off to google some Dyson repair places so I can staunch the bleeding and get my purple lovely back on it wheels.

Apple Picking

2008-09-27T20:41:00.005-05:00

Today the kids and I went with some friends to go apple picking. It turns out the orchard was actually a full fledged "fun farm" and we took advantage of all the fun we could stand.

There were pig races...

There were actual pigs doing the racing but this one was much cuter!

and punkin chunkin...

Husband #1 has wanted to see this sort of thing forever and he was not even with us! Those pumpkins shot about a half a mile!

It was a little boy's dream come true with tractors every where you looked!...

We even actually picked apples. Double A could not decide which she liked best...the Golden Delicious or the Jonathon!

We had a great time and even baked an apple cake with caramel sauce when we got home. We brought home over 12 pounds of apples so I imagine we will be baking some more apple goodies this week...anyone have any favorite recipes??

We laugh in the face of PLANS!!!

2008-09-25T12:50:00.008-05:00

This past weekend our plans went slightly awry. Husband #1, Double A, Bumblebee and myself were planning on driving to Mississippi on Thursday around 4:30 to see a home football game at the University of Southern Mississippi. Husband #1 had a rough day with patient issues and what not so he did not make it home until about 6:30 at which point we loaded up and left. We had planned on staying in a hotel anyway so no big deal for the few hour delay. Friday we got up and finished our drive to Laurel, MS to stay with Husband#1's parents. His brother also flew in from Pennsylvania for the game. We arrived at about 4pm and about 4 hours later Husband #1 gets a phone call that a 1 year old patient of his has been offered a liver and he must return to Missouri to put it in her. By the time it is all said and done and organized he has a 2:45 a.m. flight out of some tiny private airport in Hattiesburg. The transplant organizing agency has sent one of their jets to pick him up. I drove him the 40 minutes to get the plane and then drove back. It was a bummer but the rest of us went to the game anyway on Saturday. As we were entering the stadium to find our seats it began to rain and did not stop. We had ponchos and the kids did surprisingly well but by half time we were really wet and getting cold so we left. Ultimately our team lost. I had to go to bed quite early so I could function because I had basically been up the entire night before with small snippets of sleep. We woke up Sunday morning and were on the road by about 10am...me and the two kids in the new truck. We got home about 8pm and Husband #1 called at 9:30 to say he had just finished helping on an adult liver and was eating and would be starting a kidney for this same adult. He did not get home until 2:30am Sunday night. Pretty crazy times. We plan to go to another home game next month. Hopefully things will go better!

2008-09-10T13:15:00.005-05:00

Lucky you guys...two posts in one day...this is for all of you diligent readers out there who check the blog multiple times per day just wishing on a prayer that I have posted. :) Hmmm...maybe I am just bored (and delusional) and really don't want to clean up my messy house.

Anyway, just some random thoughts and shots from the past few days.

We finally go the table/buffet thing in the kitchen. We purchased it back in the middle of May but it needed some gluing (very minor) and Husband #1 just got around to that this past weekend. Now it sits half full in our kitchen and tons of stuff is piled on the counter and on it. The problem with this whole idea is that there was more stuff on the old bakers rack that now does not have a home. Some of the stuff that went in the buffet came out of drawers and some stuff from cabinets went into those now empty drawers, etc and so on and so forth. However, we are still at a point where we have things with no homes...maybe one day they will find their way home. The good part was I got to go to The Container Store...I LOVE IT!!! I practically had to physically restrain myself from purchasing containers of all shapes and sizes. Shelves, orgainzers, storage stuff and more!

This is the other funny from this past weekend. It seems that Husband #1's truck was so dirty after two weeks of living at our house it needed washed. Funny how his last car (the malibu) went two years without being washed one time!!!

First Day of Preschool

2008-09-10T09:52:00.008-05:00

Bumblebee started real big boy preschool on Monday. (meaning not his one day per week Parent's Day Out or his Speech Therapy preschool) After a short but much deliberated decision on my part I (I say I cuz Husband #1 had no opinion, really...and I asked) decided to send him to Emmanuel, where Double A went for preschool. I'll spare the details of why this was a debate...it's done now. He walked right in and went for the toys. When his teacher spoke to him he came running back and hid his face in my legs for a second until I told him to go play and he went back to the toys. He was so absorbed he refused to take a picture at school. He was eyeing the other kids so I think he was concerned if he took a picture they might snatch his toys from him. When I picked him up the teacher practically had to carry him off the playground because he did not want to leave and come with me.

This is before we left the house for his first day...This is his second picture...at his request to take a picture of his funny face...

Today is his second day and he told me he does not want to go to that school. When we got there he was just fine, though. He would not provide a reason why he did not want to go to this particular school. I think he was just being cranky.

He goes M-W-F. Mon and Wed are full days from 9-2:30 and Fri is a half day until 11:45. He will start individual speech therapy next week on Tues-Thur afternoons at 1:30 for 50 minutes each time.

KINDERGARTEN

2008-09-02T13:21:00.003-05:00

Well, it is official. Husband #1, Bumblebee and myself dropped Double A off at her first day of kindergarten today. I was cool as a cucumber and had the whole routine ready to get out the door on time. Husband #1 stayed home to go with us to school for the first day, which was great, except he throws off my whole routine. He asked what time we had to be there...I said 8:20 so at 7:50 he starts getting frantic and telling us we have go to go and made Bumblebee get up without finishing his breakfast :) While I was driving there we were discussing routes. He said one would be quicker so we went that way. He then asked what time we needed to be there...I again replied 8:20. At which point (it was 8:13) he said "oh, plenty of time, what are you so stressed about? Relax!" (thankfully he said this with the appropriate amount of chagrin) I don't know where the communication breakdown occurred but once we got it straightened out he calmed down and it was all very sweet.

Double A of course was so excited she was about to burst. We took a picture at home and then loaded up and took pics at school. She walked in the cubby room and put her backpack away, lunch box in it's spot and walked in. She had one moment where she looked slightly unsure but regrouped quickly and then there was no looking back. She did give her dad and I a hug and then we left.

So for those of you with money riding on the tears...you lost your bet...No tears anywhere!! I had one moment where if I thought about it much longer I would have started crying but I didn't let myself think much longer and off we went. Double A certainly did not cry...we'll see if she cries when I pick her up which would actually be more like her!

AT HOME BEFORE WE LEFT

WALKING TO HER CLASSROOM WITH DADDY

DOUBLE A WITH HER TEACHER, MONETTE - this is going to be hard for Husband #1 and I...no Miss Monette, just Monette. We are so not in the South anymore :)

Gustav

2008-08-31T11:20:00.003-05:00

Well, on another, less exciting note, Hurricane Gustav has caused my family to evacuate once again. My parents are in Destin now and my brother and his family are in Mobile with my sister in law's parents. Of course, they are all discouraged and worried about their homes and the business. I guess we will know more in the next 24- 48 hours.

As it stands right now it looks like my in-laws will dodge the bullet this time. I sure hope so!

I also have several friends still in the NOLA area or from there so I am thinking of them, too.

Newest Addition

2008-08-31T11:11:00.003-05:00

Chris has finally gotten his four door black pick up truck. He has been wanting one for a long time now. We figured the deals were so good with trying to get rid of 2008 vehicles and he has worked hard for a long time that we could splurge on him a bit! :) We looked at several options but settled on the Chevrolet Silverado. He loves it and I like it, too. Poor guy...we brought it home Wednesday night but it was late and he had transplant stuff going on so didn't really get to play with it. He drove it to work Thursday and did not come back home until the wee hours of Friday morning. Then Friday I had to take it back to the dealer to get different tires put on and new running boards. So he did not really get to play with it until Friday night and really has only driven it back and forth to work about three times now (10 miles or so). He is awfully eager to run to the store and pick stuff up for me, though!

I am glad we got him a new truck because I am always the one getting the new vehicle so he was due. Course now I want a new one but that will not be in the cards for a while yet :) I don't know if he feels guilty (he shouldn't) or if he is ashamed of my car but he spent Saturday afternoon washing the Expedition and vacuuming it and even conditioned the leather seats! It looks great!

On the Road Still

2008-08-21T15:57:00.007-05:00

Well, The trip is nearing an end and I have just now gotten around to getting all my equipment in one place at one time such as a camera (with charged battery), computer and time to blog. We are on our last night of the trip and will arrive home tomorrow evening. We are currently in Laurel, MS again. Last Saturday we drove to George County, MS and saw these people...

Husband #1's grandparents all live on the same road so it makes visiting them quite convenient. We also went out to my in laws cabin for a bit to see the progress they are making on building their own house. All the walls are framed and ready for the ceiling rafter things. I could never do what they are doing but they seem to enjoy it and be good at it so more power to them! I think Husband #1 and I would kill each other if we tried to build a house together :)

We then went to Mobile, AL that night and met my brother, his wife and two kids and drove to Destin, FL. We went boating with my parents on Sunday where my brother and I flashed our gang signs...

and the cousins enjoyed playing together and posing for pictures...

We drove to Slidell, LA on Monday. We spent a few days in Slidell where I saw a good friend from high school for lunch. We also went to the Global Wildlife Center and saw things like this...

Today I went from Slidell to Laurel and onward home tomorrow. On the way to Laurel we stopped in Hattiesburg and saw my awesomely great friend from college, Becky. I am so excited she has moved only 30 minutes from my in-laws so now I can see her more than every two years! I don't think she is as excited as I am. She seems to feel 10 hours isn't much closer but it would have taken me much longer than that to get to Jacksonville, FL! Plus we come down here more often to see family. I also had lunch with a friend from college, Lisha. It was great to see her...crazy how someone can be in your wedding but you just don't keep in touch more than once or twice a year by Christmas card and email. It was good to reconnect.

I am glad we came on this crazy driving trip to see all of these peeps but will be glad to get home and see Husband #1 and settle in before school starts Sept 2! I will most likely not be blogging tomorrow since I will be driving at least 10 hours. I do love Tara's comment on my last post, though, about the iphone or blackberry and then I could blog while I drive!

On the Road

2008-08-14T08:24:00.004-05:00

Well, the kids and I spent 10 hours in the car yesterday. We are all still alive. We may be the last family on earth to get a dvd player fo the car but we finally did. This was our first trip with it. Bumblebee went with me to the store to purchase the headphones. He wanted to get a different kind and screamed throught he store that the ones I selected "do not fit me!" Not that he had tried them on as they were in one of those annoying hard plastic crimped closed cases. So, all day while I was driving he was screaming about his headphones not fitting (which they did fit) and then throwing them across the car. At which point I would turn off his movie and then he would scream some more. There is only so much you can do while driving and I already do too much, I am sure. Turning around in my seat to adjust his headphones ain't gonna happen while I am going...um, 70 mile an hour. So that was fun. Meanwhile Double A was plugged in and happy the whole time.

We have more driving to do as this is only leg one of the trip. Saturday we will drive 1.5 hours to visit my grandparent-in-laws for the day (we are with my in-laws right now) and then another 2 hours that evening to see my parents and brother and his family for one day in Florida then turn around with them and drive 4 hours back to Louisiana for a few days and then 1.5 hours back to the in-laws and then another ten back home.

I am unsure why I decided to do this! :) No, Double A will be starting school soon (real school, Kindergarten) and we will be traveling less since she will actually have to attend school with regularity. I thought we would take the time to see the relatives in driving distance. We will miss Husband #1, though. he is home working hard every day so I can spend what he makes on gas for this trip! So far the kids are having fun with their grandparents and I will get to see some friends from high school and college that I have not seen in quite a while.

We'll see how the postig goes while on this trip. I willl likely take some pics so we will see if I get them posted. Gee, maybe I can do that while I am driving!