Why Mom Why?

Jack's brain is constantly working these days. The questions are coming fast and furious and they have no rhyme or reason. He just comes out with the why questions and I have to admit that they are sometimes tough to answer.

Here are just a few of the why questions that he has asked in the last few days:

Why do scissors have handles?

Why do people sneeze?

Why did God made the world?

Why are there vowels? (they are learning their vowels at school right now)

Why does Grammy and Papa have a basement and we do not?

Why did the hurricane not break our windows? (he is quite concerned about hurricanes and other storms ever since we had to board up)

Why is the sun so bright?

Seriously ya'll they never stop. I love the fact that he is trying to figure out the world around him. But I do need a break every now and then. That is when I am very thankful for the DVD player in the car.

A Week Later

Yes I realize that it has been over a week since I posted anything. This superbug that I somehow caught has put me in just survival mode for almost two weeks. I have been doing what I absolutely have to do like taking Jack to school and back and basic mothering tasks and other must-do tasks. But anything beyond the must do, well that just hasn't been happening. Today is the first day that I actually feel like I might survive this thing. I did go to the doctor last Friday and was told "it is just a viral thing, can't help ya, but here is some knock-out cough medicine for ya".

Anyway, I think I might be back with land of the living very soon. We have big plans this weekend by going to see Bill Cosby in concert at one of the casinos in Biloxi. It is an actual date night thing for Jim and I! Wow!

I also want to share with you the Jackism that happened last night. As most of you know, I let Jack sleep with me when Jim is on duty. I like it that he is right there with me in case anything happens and it is a special thing for us that I know won't last forever. So last night, he was in a very loving mood. Sometime in the middle of the night, he woke up and gave me a big hug and said "I love you Mom". Yes my heart melted. Then he was laying there thinking about something. And this conversation proceeded:

Him: "Mom?"
Me: "Yes Baby?"
Him: " Why are computers so heavy?"
Me: HUH? WHAT?

What goes on in that brain for him to ask such a question after midnight? I tell ya, his brain is working overtime all the time!

Start Early These Days

So yesterday Jack came home from school (preschool K4 for those not playing at home) and told me that his friend Tanner has a girlfriend! This is how the conversation went:

Me: that is nice that he has a friend that is a girl

Jack: no Mom he has a girrrlllfriend. You know.

Me: how do you know this?

Jack: he told me and her name is Kara and she is his girrrlllfffrriiieend.

Me: (slightly freaking out) you don't have a girlfriend do you?

Jack: no! girl pooties (his word for cooties)

So there you have it my son's four-year-old friend has a girlfriend! Now this is the child that is in trouble everyday and had so many spankings in the Principal's office last year that his Mom lost count. He is also the kid that more than one mother requested their child NOT to be in the class with him this year. I am kinda rethinking my decision to give the kid a break and let Jack be in the same class.

He is definitely the class leader and the "bad influence" (at FOUR). Jack's teacher talked to me last week about Jack pushing another K3 child on the playground and then laughing about it. That is all Tanner and his teacher told me as much. Mrs. Nix (Jacks teacher from last year) was on the playground at the same time and said she could not believe that Jack did that and it was the influence from Tanner who told him to do it. Of course, we had a long talk about nice boys and playing nice and if I hear he does that again, he will be in time-out with NO toys for a very long time.

Ugh, who knew that Junior High playground antics started in Preschool! Geesh!

In other news, I seem to have caught some super-bug or something. I was down for the count most of the weekend, even on Jim's birthday on Saturday. We ended up doing nothing for his birthday because I was pretty much comatose that day. The super-bug has now travelled down into my chest and this morning, I do believe I coughed up a lung or two. Fun stuff.

Yeah and I can probably blame the preschool for the super-bug also!

Feeling the Effects

We are hundreds of miles away from Galvaston, however we are definitely feeling the effects of Ike. The above picture was taken this morning at the Gulfport pier that was severly damaged in Gustav and now from Ike. It is amazing that we are feeling such heavy effects being so far away. The beach road is closed and the wind is enough to blow your head off. Forget having a good hair day in this wind. I feel bad for Texas and hope that the people who are being told they face "certain death" actually heed the warnings and get out of there. I have seen what the storm surge from Katrina did here and they need to know that storm surges are downright deadly.

I hope everybody says an extra little prayer for all those in harms way from Ike. I know that I will sure breath a sigh of relief when November 30th comes around (the end of hurricane season).

Too Much Fun

I think the boy had too much fun/candy/cake/heat yesterday at the birthday party. They brought the Tumble Buggy to the party, which is an old school bus where they have taken out all of the seats and replaced with all kinds of jumping and bouncy things. If you watch Jon and Kate plus 8 they had the Tumble Buggy at their house for one episode. Anyway, it was so hot for the kids because the people said that the air conditioning was not working that well inside the bus and when all the kids came off that bus, they all had red faces and sweat pouring off of them. But everyone of them said it was fun.

So that brings me to last night around 1 am and Jack woke me up with the words "Mom I just threw up". He was sleeping in my bed with me. So I turn on the light and sure enough all of his pillow and sheet and his pajamas. So I strip the bed of sheets and put on the other sheets, strip him and put on new pajamas. He said he was feeling better and so we went back to sleep. About 20 minutes later, I hear that wonderful gagging sound and this time it got all over everywhere. So since that was the only other sheets I have for our bed, I stripped the bed yet again and went to wash the sheets. I put Jack on the couch with Thomas playing on the tv and we were then up for the next couple of hours with him sitting there with a bucket. Fun times.

So needless to say, the boy won't be going to school today. And the way it looks, he might get to go tomorrow and MAYBE Wednesday, but we will probably be evacuating on Thursday AGAIN. I found a cool model prediction online here that shows the eye landing just about where Gustav landed (those poor people in Louisiana) however it looks like it will be a much bigger storm and we will be on the "bad side" of it again and well it isn't looking good for us. Even More Fun Times.

Busy Sunday and More Talk of Hurricanes

We are super busy today, so I thought I would get on here and tell ya about it all in between events of the day.

We went to church this morning and everybody is talking about the possibility of Ike. They even had the sand bags out front of the church left over from last week's storm.

In a few minutes, we will be leaving to go to a birthday party for our friend's three-year-old girl, where lots of candy and sugar will be consumed by the boy. Then we have to leave somewhat early from there to go to a bridal shower for our neighbor who is getting married next month. The shower was actually supposed to be last week, but Gustav pretty much did everyone's plans in last weekend.

Then I also have to leave the shower early and go back to church to help out with the youth group. I signed up to be a youth group leader and that means that my Sunday nights are now taken. Then it will be back home, do a load of laundry (the boy needs clothes for school), get the boy in bed and relax for a few minutes before I go to bed myself. I doubt that I will see Jim at all today as he is sleeping right now and then will be working tonight while Jack and I are off doing our thing.

Thanks for everybody's concern about the hurricane threats. And Evelyn it is great to see you again. I see that you have been watching the hurricane tracking about as much as I do. We are hoping that it will hit over in Texas somewhere and not affect us that much. However, if it does hit to the west of us, we will be on the "bad side" of the hurricane. Until lately, I had no idea that there was a "bad side" to a hurricane, but evidently the northeast of the eye gets hit by the bad winds. Who knew? I tell ya before this hurricane season is over, I will feel like I have earned an education in hurricanes!

Enough Already

Geesh it seems like all I have been posting about is hurricanes and threat of hurricanes. And here we go again. It is looking like Ike is heading toward the Gulf now and could come our way. Seriously, never in my life have I looked at hurricane tracking so closely. I have looked at www.noaa.gov way too many times in the last couple of weeks. I know that it is bad to wish it to go to someplace else, but that is now what I am doing. We need a break ya'll. My poor husband has carried our patio furniture to and from the garage way too many times and it is looking like it will need to be done again. There are people around here who still have their houses boarded up in anticipation for Ike to come our way. Enough already. I really would like to plan something more than a week out without having to say "if the storm doesn't hit us."

Back To Normal

We survived Gustav very well. We had absolutely no damage, except for one tree limb fell down. Jack and I had a mini-vacation at Grammy's and Aunt Ann's and Aunt Carla's, where he was spoiled beyond belief. On Monday, he literally stayed in his pj's all day long. It was a very lazy day for all of us as we watched the weather channel most of the day.

Just a little editorial here on the coverage. I get so irritated with the media because I really do believe that they have absolutely no idea that Mississippi exists. It got to be hilarious after awhile as most of their coverage was in New Orleans where they had like no weather at all. They kept showing the same baby palm tree down about fifty times. However, to the west was where the actual hurricane landed and then to the east where Gulfport is, the guy standing out there could hardly stand up. But they insisted on covering New Orleans. And at one point, they actually said that Gulfport was on "the southeast shore of Louisiana"! Excuse me? I live in Gulfport, MISSISSIPPI! Just a little irritation is all.

Jim had to work Sunday night, Monday night and Tuesday night for 12 hour shifts. I guess he slept through the whole thing during Monday in the very dark boarded-up bedroom. Also he housed a couple of other cops on his shift to sleep the day away at our house. It is funny, because I have always said that man could sleep through a hurricane and now he has.

We came home yesterday morning, which was probably not the smartest thing I have ever done. When we left, it was drizzling and no weather at all. However, we got almost half way home and we were driving through the WORST weather that I have ever driven through in my life. We were on the interstate and literally inching our way. At one point, I could not see anything at all, very much like a fire hose spraying on the windshield. I decided to pull off and we went to McDonalds to sit it out. I watched a lake form in the next parking lot and the fools driving through the water up to axles. I was contemplating going back to Grammy's house, but heard that they were having severe weather with tornado warnings, so I decided to head south once the rain let up a bit. It was very nice to get back home, which took twice as long as it usually does.

Everything is back to normal today. Jack went to school today and all the businesses are back open today. They moved the tons and tons of sand off the beach road and even that is open again today. Thank God that it wasn't Katrina. But it looks like we aren't out of the woods yet for the year with more tropical storms out there brewing. Even with all the threats of hurricanes, I still love this place and wouldn't move. But it would be better without all the humidity and the stupid love bugs every year at this time of year. Hate those things.