The Addiction Spreads ...

I want everybody to welcome my friend from High School to the blogging world. We will call her Not Me's Mom and she is hilarious. Ha! And she said that she didn't have anything to write about. She has been making me laugh for the past couple of days. Once you start writing, you just can't stop, I tell ya. Go say hi for me.

So that makes three of us (Steffie) from my little graduating class of 120 that I know are blogging. Yep the addiction is a spreading.

We Now Own a Trampoline

Our neighbors bought a huge new trampoline to replace their smaller one and guess who got their smaller one? We did! This thrills Jack to no end and I am sure that when Laura gets here, she will be thrilled as well. I am just hoping we don't end up in the ER this summer with one or more broken bones!

Here's a little video of the boy on the thing.

Middle of the Night

Jack woke up screaming last night around 2:30. I heard him, but laid there for about a minute hoping that I wasn't really hearing my child screaming for me. And also hoping that my dear husband next to me would get up and tend to the screaming child. And he did. He went in there and all I heard was "I WANT MY MAMA!!!" Oh joy. So husband comes back to bed and a few minutes later, I decide to get up.

Ever since Jack was a baby, milk will usually calm him down. So I went and got him a sippy cup of milk and took it to his room. He was doing the sniffly, hiccupy cry. I am sure he had some bad dream, which has been happening a few times a week lately. He crawled into my lap and we talked for a few minutes. It really is nice to still be needed. After he calmed down, he got back into bed and was asleep right away.

As for me, I tried to go back to bed, but nope, I was awake. Oh joy. So I get up and get a glass of water and get online at 3:00 in the morning. Ebaying. You know ebay is a very dangerous place and most especially at 3:00 in the morning. Yes, I bought something. I am weak. I know it. I bought a ceramic pot with blue flowers and yellow lemons, which just happens to be my kitchen colors. It will look great above my kitchen cabinets. Yes, ya'll I am an addict to ebay.

Then a half hour later, I am still wide awake and what do I do? I watch an episode Designer's Challenge from HGTV, of course! My other weakness in life. HGTV shows.

Finally got back in bed a little after 4 am. But thanks to my wonderful husband, I got to sleep until 7:30!!! I can't remember sleeping that late. Wow that was nice. And now my wonderful husband is outside in 95-degree heat (yes at 9:30 in the morning!) and mowing the lawn. He is the best!

Love Those Weekends when Daddy is Home

Another busy busy weekend was had by those of us in the Jackaroo house. On Friday night, we hosted a get together for about 16 people from our church. It was the first time we did any kind of entertaining here at our house that was not family related. I think it was a success. There were 2 toddlers who also came over, Cori and Andrew. Jack had an absolute blast showing them his room. As the adults were talking in the family room, the three toddlers were destroying Jack's room. Seriously, there was not any floor space showing. Somehow, I don't know how, nor do I want to know how, but they got toys down from the top of the boy's dresser. Six feet in the air! I can just imagine they worked like a little team to get those things down. Scary when you put toddlers together semi-unsupervised. Scary.

On Saturday night, we continued our party ways and went to our neighbor's bbq, where Jack again had a blast playing with Allison. It was fun sitting on their nice deck drinking a beer and talking with grown-ups. Not something that I get to do everyday.

Today was church where I was filling in for the kid's sunday school teacher. I always enjoy working with the kids, even though, I admit that I am always a bit nervous before I do it.

After we came home from church, we headed to the pool with new pool toys in hand. We stayed there about three hours and totally wiped all of us out. Even vampire Daddy ,who works nights, got some sun. And now Jack is passed out for the night. He has been up until almost 11 pm the past two nights, so I think with the swimming and the parties of the weekend, it caught up with the Energizer Bunny. Now it's my turn. Hope everybody had a good weekend.

Operation Exhaustion

In my everlasting quest to tire the boy out, we went to the neighborhood pool this morning. It is hot hot hot and about 2000% humidity today. A perfect day for a dip in the pool. It was really fun and refreshing. There was another little girl there who shared her pool toys with Jack. I keep meaning to go buy pool toys, but always forget when I am at Walmart. He really liked the little inner tube thing and I was able to pull him all over the pool with it, which was good because I feel like I actually got a good workout swimming the length of the pool back and forth.

So anyway, I am hoping the boy will be really tired from the water and sun and the mile walk to actually take a nap today. Soon. We are having people come over tonight from the church and I really would like to get my house cleaned up before that happens. Without Jack's "help". Right now he is eating a hot dog and animal crackers and watching his new favorite show I Spy (thank goodness for something different than Thomas!). Wish me luck.

*** Updated It is now 5:00 pm and everybody is coming in two hours. The boy? I swear on my life that he is the real life energizer bunny. He is going and going and going. Me? I am pooped. The only thing the swim did was make ME want to take a nap.

Obsessed

In my 40 years on this earth, I have owned 6 houses. Is that a lot? I think that is a lot. Of course, that does not include the original house that I was born into (the smallest house in Michigan, I believe) nor the house that we moved to when I was 6 years old. I have also lived in a couple dorm rooms and three different apartments. Yes, I have moved around a lot. Oh and that all was in 5 different states.

In all that moving around, I do not believe that I have ever obsessed over decorating as I have in this current house. I am obsessed. Of course watching HGTV all the time does not help. I record all the shows with House Hunters and Designed to Sell being my favs. And for the last 8 or 9 months that we have been living here, I have thought about how to decorate this house every single day. I think I am done with the majority of the house. The only rooms that I haven't touched are my bedroom and the guest bedroom. I have gone through what seems like hundreds of gallons of paint and hours upon hours spent online looking for stuff for the house. My latest research project was area rugs. We just put down the hardwood floor and of course ya gotta cover them up with area rugs right? So thrifty me found overstock.com and went wild buying rugs. Even the UPS guy who on the third day of delivering rugs to my house said "ya got enough rugs now?"

So after all that, my fear is what do I do when I finish? Start all over? Or will it be time to buy a new house?

Girl's Room ... Part Two

Well after a long day of painting, Jim and I finished the girl's room. It is hot pink. Oh boy is it hot pink. But I have to admit, it looks awesome. The lime green drapery panels look awesome and her new bedding just completes the look. Jim put the PB shelves up today and put her dolls and stuffed animals on the shelves. I only bought a quart of the lime green paint and will hold off until Laura gets here to help me with that. I thought Iwould go get some stencils with her and we can stencil something on the wall with the green paint.

Oh and I have to just say that I totally heart ebay! You basically can find anything on there. I ordered a pink and green flip flop lamp shade. It is absolutely perfect for the girl since the only thing she puts on her feet are flip flops. I also ordered the light switch cover that matches the lamp shade. Of course. I will take a picture of the room and post it here when I get everything assembled and put together. I think she is going to love it.

Of course, Jim and I had to do the painting yesterday with the boy in the room. Of course he wanted to help also with his little paint brush that let him hold. I don't know how the boy did it, but I would put the smallest speck of paint on his brush to "help" paint, but somehow he managed to get that speck of paint everywhere BUT the wall. I don't know how many times I was taking a wash rag trying to get paint out of the carpet. Between him "helping" with the paint and all the trucks he insisted on bringing into the room, Jim and I needed that well deserved beer at the end of the day yesterday.

Hot Pink and Lime Green

Goodness. For the past two hours, I have been digging Laura's room out. She is a worse pack rat than her father! And THAT is saying a lot! I swear she has 4,324 pony tail holders and she never can find one when she wants one. What is up with that? She also has a ton of old stuff that she no longer cares about nor even knows she has, like all her Bratz stuff that she was SO into about three years ago. That Bratz stuff comes with 3,563 pieces for every doll.

Well all that stuff got thrown away in three boxes full of junk today. I also went through and sorted out her clothes and put aside about 90% to be given to a family at church. It is amazing because NOW you can actually see that she has a closet, not just a space full of junk and clothes. Goodness that girl.

I am also doing a makeover for her room before she gets here for the summer. She has gone with the (very) hot pink and (very) lime green colors. I bought her a new hot pink bedspread with lime green pillows, along with green and pink draperies. My Mom and Dad bought her a pink and green rug when they were here in April. Thanks guys, it looks great. I am also going to put up some shelves I bought from Pottery Barn (the best place ever) for her collectible dolls and such.

Hopefully before the weekend is over, her room will be complete. I plan on going to get some paint (hot pink of course) to paint her room. I am also going to get a quart of the lime green paint to do accents. I have been toying with the idea of painting the bottom half of her walls with the green stripes, but to be honest, not sure if my painting skills are up to snuff for that complicated endeavor. It looks easy on HGTV when they do it, but I am sure it's not. Her bedroom furniture will go to Jack in about a year when he outgrows his toddler bed. The dresser has blue drawers and I have been thinking about painting the drawers the lime green, but not sure since it will probably be Jack's next year and I will have to paint it back to blue at that time. But we shall see.

I have to admit that I am having a lot of fun decorating Laura's room. It will be fun to have her around this summer.

Girls Night Out!

I went on girls night out last night! Whoohooo! I went with 3 other mothers from Jack's class and let me tell you, it was so much fun to actually get out of the house alone. Without Jack. I don't think I have actually done this since we were living in California about a year ago. About time ya think?

We went to see the movie Knocked Up. Hilarious. Laugh out loud until it hurts funny. Of course any movie about pregnancy to a group of mothers who just did that three years ago, has got to be funny right? And of course, after the movie, we sat around and talked for awhile. And the topic of discussion? Yeah you got it. Our birth stories. We had to tell each and every horrifying aspect of giving birth. It is so funny to me that women try to one up each other on how hard their delivery was compared to the next one. I think my 20 hour ordeal after a five week stint on bedrest was bad, but compared to another woman who had labor for almost 3 days before they finally did a c-section has to take the cake. And of course there is always the one who had the 3-hour labor and 2 pushes later, she had her baby. Hate those! Hehe.

But we had fun and hopefully will be able to get out again within the next year or so. Lord knows I sure needed it last night.

Fun in the Sun

Today I wanted to make it up to Jack for yesterday's lack of activity due to waiting for the floor installers all day long. By the way, they did show up only to move my refrigerator and stove back into place and tell me they will be back Monday morning "first thing". We'll see what "first thing" means to them.

But anyway, I decided to take Jack to the waterpark today after church. Jim was sleeping all day because he had to work late this morning on some complicated police matter. Something about some girls and purse snatching and runaway vehicles at the IHOP parking lot. I didn't get it, but it made him get home about two hours late. So the poor guy needed his sleep badly. So off to the waterpark we went.

We had a blast. I realized that this will probably one of the very few times, if not the only time, that it will just be me and Jack at the waterpark this summer. Laura will be here in about two weeks for the entire summer and she will be with us, not that I don't love having her, it was just nice that it was just Jack and I for once. This time, the boy loved the wave pool. He loved it so much that when it was time for the waves to start back up, he would go into a fit of giggles anticipating them. And then he would continue giggling all the while riding the waves like a pro. He also loved getting in the inner tube and bouncing up and down on the waves in that thing. Yep, the wave pool was a big hit.

I also laughed my butt off at him today. First of all, he is such a cool looking kid. How I got such a good looking child, I will never know. Let's just say he looks just like his Dad. But these days he has been sporting a pretty serious tan and you put that little tanned body in swim trunks and put him in a wave pool with music blaring, well he just oozes movie star charm. Not that I am biased or anything. So there we were, in the wave pool riding the waves, and laughing, when the waves stopped and the song "The Slide" comes on. You know the one where you stomp to the left and to the right. It is so cool. Well before I know it, my cool child is stomping and clamping and jumping and getting his groove on! It was hilarious and I was really wishing I had my camera to video the whole thing. The kid has rhythm! Who knew?

Grrrr....

I have been waiting around all day long for the floor installers to come back and finish up their job. They told us yesterday that they would be back here in the morning, but they called about 10:00 this morning and said they would be here this afternoon because they "wanted the glue to set some more". Okay fine. It is now almost 4:00 in the afternoon and I have not seen or heard from them at all. My house is torn up. Literally. My stove and refrigerator are in the middle of the kitchen. My washer and dryer are in the garage, along with bucketfuls of sawdust from them cutting in there yesterday that they promised they would clean up. My china cabinet is in two pieces in my den, along with my dining room table. And the kitchen table is in the middle of the family room. Yes, my house is a mess. And there is nothing I can do about it until these guys get back here to replace my baseboards and clean up the mess. In the meantime, I have been trying to figure out things to do with the boy while Daddy sleeps because Daddy has to work tonight. I can't go anywhere because that is the precise time they will show up and then leave. It is super duper hot outside and after 45 minutes of walking and Jack riding his bike, we called it quits. I wanted to go to the swimming pool, but I can't because I have to stay and wait for the possibility they will show up. But it is looking slim that they even will today and if they don't, that means my house will be torn up until Monday.

Yes, I love the new wood floors. But for the last two and half weeks, it feels like my house and subsequently my life is in shambles. I just can't wait until it is all done and put back in order!!!!

Date Night!

It actually happened! Jim and I got a night out. By ourselves. As in with no boy! A true miracle indeed.

We went to see Ron White at the Beau Rivage last night in Biloxi. We went with Ms. Kelsey (Jack's teacher) and her husband and Kyle's mom and dad (also known as Jennifer and Mark). We had a great time. Laughed a lot at Ron White. He sure is funny. And even had a grown up drink! It sure was fun getting out of the house just the two of us.

We dropped Jack off at Miss Ming's (his chinese tutor) house. I could tell the boy was a bit confused about the whole getting dropped off and not getting to go with mama and daddy thing. He kept saying "you are dropping me off?" But he had a blast playing with her son and their dog, a big black lab, named Shay. In fact, he was sleeping when we went to pick him up and didn't wake up even when we put him in bed.

I do believe that it had been almost two years since we had a night out by ourselves. In fact, it was when we went to see Ron White in California! And yes, we do need to do it more often. It easy to forget that you are first and foremost a couple before parents.

In other news, our house is tore up again. The wood floor is being installed in our kitchen and laundry room and is giving me great excuses for not cooking hehe. Hopefully it will be done today and I can get my house back into shape once and for all. Yay!

I'm Just Saying

If I have read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Busy Spider one more time, I will go insane. I'm just saying ya'll.

Loving It!

I went out and bought the Dyson 07 low reach vacuum cleaner today! And I just have to say that I am absolutely loving it. After I put it together and figured out how all the gadgets worked, I used it on my wood floors and two area rugs. Oh my gosh, I can't believe how much dirt there was in that canister. I almost took a picture of my big dust ball to show the internet, but I didn't want you to think I needed professional help for my strange love of looking at my dirt in a canister.

I am also loving the fact that I bought it for way cheaper than the $429.99 that is advertised on the dyson webpage. HA! I bought mine for $299.99 at the Navy Exchange with NO sales tax. I was actually looking at the DC14 model, but figured that the 07 model was plenty fine for me and my new hardwood floors. LOVE IT!

Just to update you all on the latest discipline that is happening in the Jackaroo household. I have to say that the taking away of all the toys totally worked! The boy has been almost a model little citizen as of late. And if he starts to go down the wrong attitude path, all I have to mention is that he will not be getting a toy back that day, or heaven forbid actually take a toy away again, and he straightens right up. And I have to admit that he is so cute when he comes to me to ask if it is time to get another toy back and when I say yes, the pure joy on his face is priceless as he runs into my room to pick out another toy he can take back. I figure I have enough toys in there for another week or so. This was a brilliant plan if I do say so myself.

I think it worked

I think the whole taking away of the toys thing worked. Jack has for the most part, been a model little citizen around the house these last couple of days. He has gotten back his big fire truck and a dump truck so far. One per day is the deal. And he gets to choose which one he can get back that night. Tonight he has chosen his orange jeep to get back. Big decision.

And he knows exactly why the toys were taken from him. We have gone over it many times. This morning we were talking about it and I asked him if he knew why all the trucks were mine and he said "because I was screaming in the white car". I think he has a good handle on the whole situation. And when I asked how he can get back his trucks he says "I have to be nice to you and Daddy" and then he starts naming every single person he knows in his life, including Grammy and Papa who live in Michigan. So I think this was a learning experience for the boy. And it is great because if he starts to whine about something, all I have to say is that the fire truck is mine again and he whips back into shape. So far so good. We'll see how long this lasts.

Dreading

I am dreading today just because I have soooooo many errands to run and they all have to be run with the boy in tow. The boy that turned to the devil spawn in the last few days. The boy who decided to become a teenager at the age of three. That boy.

My list today includes first and foremost grocery shopping. When I say we have nothing, I mean we have nothing in the house to eat. We are out of milk, which is a baaaad thing with Jack around. Even the poor cats and dogs are out of food as of this morning. And as for toilet paper, we have three toilets with two rolls of toilet paper in the house. Not good math. So, yes a trip to the grocery store is in need.

I also have to shop for two toddler birthday parties that we are invited to this weekend. So a trip to the Walmart toy section is needed at some point before tomorrow.

I also need to see about my dead as a doornail cell phone. If anybody out there has been trying to call me, sorry not working. And the cell phone place just happens to be next door to the "train store" that causes complete and total meltdowns for the boy if we don't walk into. I am thinking I will save that little errand until Jim wakes up and is able to watch the boy. I am NOT interested in replaying last nights scene anytime soon.

Oh and sometime this weekend, I want to go and buy a new Dyson vacuum cleaner!!! THAT is a fun errand and am so excited about the possibility of a new vaccuum cleaner. Yeah how sad is that? My huge exciting plans for this memorial day weekend is purchasing a vacuum cleaner. But, people, it is a Dyson!

That Boy! GRRRRRRR....

I do not believe that I have ever been so angry at Jack as I was tonight. Ever.

We went out to dinner with the uncles, Grammy, and Aunt Ann to see them off as they are headed to Greece on a fabulous vacation. Jim was working, so it was just me playing parent tonight.

After dinner, I tried to go to the Cingular store to see if I could get my phone fixed since it totally died on me yesterday, but they, of course closed five minutes prior. As I was trying to get the boy in the car, he was fighting me big time because he wanted to go to the "train store" or Barnes and Noble as we know it. He did NOT want to go byebye and told me so very emphatically. He was squirming so hard that I literally had to sit on him to get him strapped into his carseat. He was telling me "NO" when I asked him to sit still. He even at one point reached up and scratched my arm with his nails or claws as I call them (I need to cut them tonight after his bath) and growled at me!!!!! Where did THAT come from?

I could not believe that this same child, who was acting so lovingly toward his grandmother and aunts and uncles just 10 minutes prior, was practically abusing me, his own mother, now. He would not do what I wanted him to do. Period. I tried the swat on the butt thing to no avail. He didn't seem to care. I tried to threaten the taking away of toys, but he didn't care. So finally after I got him in the car seat strapped down, I told him that all of his trucks were now mine when we got home. And sure enough, while he sat on his bed screaming and yelling at me, I cleared his big truck shelves and put all of them in my room and told them they were now my trucks and not his. He even had the audacity to run down the hall and open my bedroom door to try to get them before I could catch him!

So now I have a room full of trucks (oh yay, just what I wanted) that will stay there until he can be good to me. I have no idea where this latest attitude is coming from, but I do not like it one bit. For the past few days, everytime I ask him to do something, the first thing out of his mouth is "NO". And he has been very disrespectful to me in telling me "I told you not do that". I tell you the three year old stage is MUCH harder than the two year old stage. That boy is going to cause many many wrinkles and gray hair on me before he is even four!

Voila! ... Almost

Well after four days of mess, dust, and strange men traipsing through my house, I finally have my wood floors that I wanted. Of course to get the floors looking all shiny and clean, I had to get on my hands and knees for about two hours and scrap off all the little glue pieces that the strange men left behind. I am sure that I will be scraping glue up for the next month! But, I am beyond thrilled at this point. I love love love them. Now I just can't wait for the strange men to show up and do the kitchen hopefully in the next week or so. The kitchen is looking really yicky now with that yicky vinyl floor that is half ripped up cause it was never glued down properly in the first place.

And yes, Stefanie, I was whining hehe. I am good at that :).

Notice that lazy cat laying there getting orange fur everywhere!

Here is a short video of what the boy thinks of the floors. However, right after this was taken, I noticed a scratch in the floor that made me sick and it came from the boy riding his bike. His bike is now an outside only toy and who cares if he is upset with that latest development.

My Husband, My Hero

Our neighbor knocked on our door a little while ago. She was almost in tears. She was scared. She had a snake in her backyard! She called the cops and said that animal control could come out tomorrow since they were done for the day. Poor thing didn't want a snake in her backyard until tomorrow.

So she knocked on our door hoping my cop-hubby could help out with the snake. Now let me just tell you that I hate HATE snakes. They should not be on this earth whatsoever. Period. And especially in a yard that is only one yard away from my own! No way!

We went over to her house and sure enough, coiled up on their go-kart is a huge king snake. I mean this thing was about 4 ft. long! And it was next door to me! So my brave husband, with no shoes on (okay brave and stupid husband) went out there with a shovel in hand. He pokes and pokes at this THING to get it off the go-kart. It hisses at him. The two females in the house were screaming, yelling "Kill It!" He is out there a good 10 minutes with this evil thing and he finally gets it into the grass where he kills the offending creature that should not have lived in the first place. Yay! He is my hero.

Now you do know that I will never ever walk out of my house without thinking about that evil creature. And going barefoot outside? It is over. Oh and keeping the door open for more than 10 seconds? That is over also. Yuck Yuck Yuck.

Babies, Babies, Babies Everywhere

Leslie, of Mrs. Flinger status had her baby boy on Saturday. It was a bit early and it sounds like he is still in the NICU, but hopefully with a lot of prayers, they will be able to take him home soon. We are praying for ya Leslie.

I tell ya, there is a baby explosion going on ya'll!!!! I went to a baby shower on Sunday for Holly, my pastor's wife, who is due in July. I will be taking care of him when he decides to come into this world.

Then my neighbor is due in September. She found out a couple of weeks ago that she is having a little girl, which shocked me, cause I had her pegged as a little boy. I think they were shocked as well.

Erin, of tale of a baby human fame, had her baby about two weeks ago and from the sounds of it, she is doing really well. From her posts, it makes me think how much of a hard time I had with the end of my pregnancy and birth and dealing with Jack that first month. But then again, she is 10 years younger and there is a big difference in those 10 years I guess. Congrats Erin, you are looking great!

Oh and yeah, another couple at my church just had a baby boy and I got to hold him when he was 8 days old a few days ago. Wow, they make em tiny don't they. Hard to believe that Jack was ever that little, but in fact, he was smaller than the 8 lb 10 oz baby they had!

All this baby business, makes one's mind wander and say we could do it again. And then I wake up from the hazy baby dreams and laugh and remember those days. HA!

I Want My House Back!!!!

I am tired of these people being in my house! They have been here since Thursday and it is time that I get my house back, of course with really nice new wood floors.

Here is the final product, well if you can imagine it without all that blue painters tape all over the place, which hopefully will be going today. They only have to finish up the long hallway and then put all the base molding back on and they will be done until they come back in a couple of weeks to do my kitchen, which looks pretty bad next to the nice new floor in the family room.

So hopefully by tonight, we will have our furniture back in place and cleaned off from the 6 inches of dust that is everywhere in my house right now. I feel like I need to take a shower all the time because I feel the dust everywhere on me and all around. I know I am crazy.

Jack thinks the wood floor is now his personal race track for his bike. I have a video of him riding his bike through the house yelling that I will post later when I get back on my desktop (this laptop was not made for uploading video in my lifetime). But the boy is having so much fun with the new floors and having a place to race his bike and all the trains, cars, trucks, and tractors. A new toy for the boy!

Check back later to see if I have lost my sanity in all this process, cause I feel like I am on the brink ya'll.

TGIF

I made it to Friday. What a week it has been. It has been full of emotion and happiness.

This week was the last week of Jack's school until Sept. Last night they had their little graduation and boy oh boy was that emotional. First of all, they had all the kindergarteners dressed in cap and gowns and they couldn't have been cuter. They were graduating from the school and moving to the "big kids school" of first grade. Then they had all the other students get up on stage and sing songs. And yes, of course, I was crying. I was smart and did not wear mascara that would run all over the place! At the end of the program, they had a slide presentation of the pictures they took of the kids over the past year. It ran a good 10 minutes or so and I can safely say that there was not a dry eye in the whole place.

I love that school and have watched Jack just flourish while there. I have also made some pretty amazing friends myself and will count Jack's teacher, Kelsey, as a very good friend forever. We did get her good last night. All the mother's got together and presented her with a cookie jar that we had made at a pottery store. First of all, we had all the kid's put their fingerprints on it and then we commissioned an artist to make each fingerprint into an animal. Jack's fingerprint turned into a monkey. It was a jungle theme with the saying "we are wild about Ms. Kelsey". She started to cry and I was so happy that we could do that for her.

It has been more than a bit crazy around the house in the last couple of days. Our wood floors are going in, slowly but surely. For the past two days, they have been working at installing them and they still are not done. They are coming back tomorrow to hopefully finish it up. But as with everything that happens with us, they messed up the measurements. Or I should say, the guy who took the measurements in the first place did not understand that we wanted to put the floor in the kitchen and decided to leave off that square footage from the total. Well to make a long story short, the total cost of this little venture went up another couple thousand dollars and we will be getting the wood floors in our kitchen hopefully in the next couple of weeks. I don't understand how he could imagine that I would want to keep this ugly cheapo vinyl floor while putting the wood floor everywhere else. Oh well. As long as it gets done. And I am beyong thrilled about the color and the look so far. It just makes the whole house look so much more elegant.

I will post pictures and of course video of the boy graduating later when I actually get access to my desk.

Having a toddler who is active in school and sports can keep you running all the time!

We have been super duper busy around here. And will continue throughout the week (that sounds like a weather forecast doesn't it?)

On Sunday we managed to get to the water park after church to sign in and get our season passes with our pictures on them. It was cloudy that day and as we were walking up to the entrance, they made the announcement because of lightening in the area, everybody had to get out of the water. I told Jim that we should just go ahead and get out passes and come back again. It took a good 30 minutes of standing in line to get the passes and just as we were finished they let everybody back in the water.

So in the water we went and let me tell you we are going to be there a lot this summer. Jack loved loved loved the water park. And fear? No where to be seen from that child. In the small kid section there are three sets of slides that I thought he would be afraid of, but nope he just climbed the stairs all by himself, sat down and went. He was laughing so hard at the bottom. Even the bigger slide that he had to have me or Daddy with, he did just fine.

The weather that day was pretty weird and as we got home, a huge thunderstorm came through and within 10 minutes of being home, we lost power for about 2 hours. This of course, freaked Jack out and he was very disconcerted when he tried to turn on the light and nothing happened. He yelled out "what is wrong with this house?!?" But it wasn't as if we were missing our air conditioner because that is still out waiting for our lovely builder to get back to us on that issue. Yeah this builder is not impressing me at all.

This week is so busy for us. Yesterday was school and then last night was the last night of T-ball, where he got a trophy. He was so incredibly proud of that trophy, he was absolutely beaming with joy. I will take a picture of him with his trophy for ya'll later.

Today is the big Luau party blow-out bash at school. I was in on the planning committee for this thing and from what I can tell, it is going to be a big deal. I will take lots of pictures. And of course, Jack will be wearing a luau shirt himself, while I am wearing on of Jim's very loud Hawaiian shirts today. Should be fun.

Tomorrow is Jack's last day at school. I am grieving entirely too much right now about that fact. He starts back up in September in the 3-year-old class. We are having a little party tomorrow just for his class and I am going to try to get pictures of his class with Ms. Kelsey, who is such a great teacher.

On Thursday, is going to be a great day. It is the day that they come to install my new wood floors. I can not wait. But there is a lot of work to be done to get it all ready because we have to move all the furniture, so we have to get all the knick knacks up and out of the way and such. But it should be fun and they say it will take about three days to finish. Geesh. Three days where my house will be torn up and dirty. But it will be worth it.

And Thursday night, Jack is having his little graduation program at school. Another time to be all teary.

So if you don't hear from me in the next few days, that is what is going on.

Of Course

Yesterday we hit a record high of 90 degrees for that date in history. It was also the day that our air conditioner decided to quit. Of course. The emergency 24-hour number to the builder for such things as oh say your air conditioner going out on the hottest day of the year yet was not working. Of course. Looks like we are stuck in a hot house until Monday when hopefully the "non-emergency" number is working.

And I just want to welcome into the world Baby Too who is also known as Baby Simon. Go over and take a peek at him. He's adorable. And read her live blogging entries of delivering a baby. She is a blogger through and through. Congrats Erin and family!

Mother's Tea

I just want to start this post off by saying that I love love love Jack's preschool. It is simply the best. Today was the annual mother's tea where all the mother's were treated to a nice little lunch and were sung to by our kids. Of course, the emotional part of me was blubbering through a portion of it, but I managed to keep it together to take these pictures and video of the boy singing.


All the mothers got one of these bouquets made with the outline of our kid's hands. So precious.

Mother's Tea


Best Friends - Jack and Kyle

The Handsome boy

I have to apologize for the poor quality video, but I didn't feel like I could stand up in front of everybody to video since there about 50 other video cameras there all doing what I was doing. Of course, as you will notice, there was one woman who felt no guilt about stepping right in front of my camera. Grrr. But it still is cute.

My Son - The Tempter

I have been trying to be good on my diet... for the last 24 hours. I started back up weight watchers AGAIN yesterday after a 6-week hiatus. I actually had only gained a total of 2 lbs, which isn't bad considering the pounds of chocolate I ate over Easter and the fact that for the last two weekends, I have eaten out at restaurants and did not go lo-cal in the slightest. So, only 2 lb weight gain isn't that bad, but it is a far cry from the 15 that I wanted to lose.

So tonight as we watched Daddy get ready for work, Jack came up to me and very coyly said "you want to go to Sonic". It was not a question. Jim said it was a Jedi Master mind trick thingy trying to get me to get in my car and drive us both to Sonic for a 3000 point dinner. Jack is the devil. And no, we did not drive to Sonic. (However we did 3 nights ago which spurred the getting back onto WW in the first place.) He is right now eating cereal for dinner. Ha! Now where is that ice cream :) hehe.

Five Minutes of T-Ball

Jack playing T-ball. It is controlled chaos, but fun to watch. Actually, I am quite shocked at how well they have progressed in the 5 weeks since they started playing. Not nearly as much chaos as those first few practices. If you make it to the end, it is quite cute with the big handshake between the two teams. Very cute.

More Daily Stuff

I realized yesterday that I had to get my butt in gear. And the realization came from the fact that my three-year-old son's room was the cleanest room in the house... by far! And that is a sad sad fact. Also there was the fact that nobody had any clean underwear in the house and Jack was wearing dirty shorts because his clean shorts drawer was empty.

So for about five hours yesterday I cleaned and laundered until everything sparkled. Well maybe sparkled isn't the word, but let's just say less dirty. I had to clean Jack's tub with bleach it was so gross and dirty, but now I can say that his tub does indeed sparkle. Yay Me! And all laundry baskets are empty and all closets are now full of clean clothes. Yay Me Again! It always feels good to sit in a nice clean house.

Today was digging in the dirt day for the Jackaroo house. Jim roto-tillered the flower beds and put cow manure (yes ewwww) down and then we planted roses in front of the house. I also planted pretty petunias and impatiens in flower pots. So now we have pretty color in front. Yay Jim and I. Oh and yes Jack because he was digging with his own shovel. I will have to post pictures when the roses get in full bloom.

Other than that, not much going on here. It has been warm with the temps near 90 degrees. I am in the countdown mode to when my wood floors get installed - 7 more days! I so can not wait until this carpet is gone out the door forever.

I have been trying to deny that Jack's school year is almost over. Next Wednesday is his last day and then it will be trying to find stuff do 7 days a week instead of 5 days. I know right now that we are going to be hitting up story time at the library every Wednesday and going to the children's museum alot more. Also there is the pool where he can jump in another 5000 times. That kid has absolutely no fear of the water and that reminds me to look up about swim lessons for the boy and fast.

Today's Life Lesson

Never let your three-year-old be the one to rub the suntan lotion on your back.

After 2 1/2 hours in the pool this afternoon, my back looks very much like a lobster. Ouchie. I didn't have anybody to do my back and so I told Jack to rub it all over. Um not such a good job. Oh well. We had fun. We were joined by our neighbors and Jack had fun splashing with Allison. Even with this being the first time in a pool this year, he was so not afraid of the water. In fact, he had to be lifted out about 78 times in order to jump back in. He is my little Jack fish.

Grieving

Say it isn't so! My favorite show of the last seven years is going going gone! Only TWO more episodes of Gilmore Girls left and I am grieving. Goodbye Lorelie and Rory and the rest of Stars Hollow. You will be missed. It was fun while it lasted.

My New Toy or Expect To See A Lot More Pictures Forthcoming

I got my early mother's day present yesterday. It was totally unexpected, but something that I have been wanting for some time now, but would never get for myself because of the money. But Jim, my wonderful husband, saw this at Best Buy and brought it home for me yesterday. It being a new Sony Cybershot DSC H5!!!! And I love love love it. It takes such awesome pictures, it makes me feel like more of a photographer than I really am.

Below are a sampling of some of the pictures I took yesterday. Yeah, um, expect more pictures. I will probably be a picture taking fool in the next few days.

My New Toy!

There is a family of geese living in the little lake behind us. The little baby goose has really grown in the last couple of days. I tried to take their picture with the old camera, but all you see is blurry fuzz in the picture. So. Much. Better.

Picture taken with old camera of Jack playing T-Ball. Notice the difference?

Jack and his new Thomas bike and Thomas helmet. He graduated to a new 12" inch bike when he started to pedal the tricycle the neighbors let us use.

Jack and Allison on bikes

I call this one - Jack Eating Orange Aftermath

Tosha Dog

He has come a Long Way

About a year ago I wrote This Post about Jack having a complete and total meltdown because I put his beloved Foo Foo (He named him, we didn't) Dog in the washing machine and dryer. I really believed that he was so traumatized over the whole episode, that he was for sure going to need therapy when he got older telling his future psychologist or psychiatrist all about the time when his mother did the unthinkable - put Foo Foo in the washing machine and dryer. It was that bad.

Well flash forward to today. Foo Foo has been looking really really bad lately. The poor dog has already been restuffed and resewn a few times. He is very very loved and so loved that I have not been able to get the dog away from the boy. The dog goes with us Everywhere! It was the walk we took the other night with some neighbors that brought me to the edge of sanity of deciding to put Foo Foo in the washing machine again. He was playing in the dirt with his "two girls" as he puts it (neighbor girls Maddie and Allison). All three of them were extremely filthy that night. So bad that when I took Jack into the bathroom for his bath that night, everything he touched had a dirt spot and when I took his shirt off, the dirt went flying all over me. He was dirty.

And that included Foo Foo. Because you see, Foo Foo got to play in the dirt also. Lucky him huh? So this morning I was very determined to wash Foo Foo. So I brought it up casually with Jack at breakfast saying that Foo Foo needed a bath. At first, he said an emphatic NO. But with a little bit of reasoning within 20 minutes, I had the boy putting the dog into the pillow case himself for a good cleaning in the washing machine! No future therapy needed here. He was very willing to put him in the machine. Go Me.

Here is a picture of Jack staring intently as Foo Foo is "going for a ride in his bath".

Busy Weekend

We were busy this weekend around here. This was Daddy's weekend off and we went to the Crawfish Festival in Biloxi yesterday. Now mind you, this northern girl never in her life thought about eating a crawfish, or mud bug as they call it, in her entire life before I met my Mississippi-raised husband. Just the thought of tearing one of those things open and actually eating the flesh makes my skin crawl. And then my husband moved us to Mississippi, the land where they eat anything that crawls, where they have 10-day festivals just devoted to the creatures.

We went to the crawfish cook-off where about ten teams were competing for the prize as the best crawfish cookers or something like that. It was an all-you-can-eat crawfish fest and let me tell you the first one we tasted was by the Jack Daniels team and oh my gosh was it spicy. I was in pain and a day later, I swear I can still feel that spice on my lips. I also am a newbie in the whole crawfish etiquette. I have no idea how to eat the things, but the ones that Jim cracked open for me, I have to admit did not taste that bad (except for the Jack Daniels burn your lips off one).

There were also rides that Jack enjoyed at the festival. He was all smiles after getting off the kiddie roller coaster and the semi-truck rides. He enjoyed the rides a lot. The crawfish? Not so much. He ate a hot dog.

Also, last night we got an impromptu visit from Aunt Ann and Uncle Bill. Uncle Bill wanted to come down to the coast for fishing (he wanted more marathon fishing like he did a few weeks ago) and Aunt Ann wanted to go shopping, which of course, I was all for. And Jack thinks that Aunt Ann is THE BEST and anytime she is around he is like Mama and Daddy who?

We had a good time with them. Uncle Bill actually was out fishing all. night. long. Yes that is right all night long. He got back here at 7 am this morning. Yes, he is nuts. And Ann and I got to go shopping today after church. And the best part of the whole thing? Jack was not with me! I didn't have to yell at Jack to stop tearing the clothes off the rack or stop running to the other end of the store or to just plain stop doing anything. Loved it!

Alarming

We had an alarm/security system put in our house yesterday. I feel a lot safer now when Jim is at work all night long and it is just me and Jack at home alone. Also Jack has to have his bedside lamp on all night long. He has to. If he doesn't, he wakes up several times and starts screaming. No little night light is good enough for this child. And since his bedroom is at the front of the house, Jim and I have been nervous about people being able to look in at him at night. Yes, he has blinds on his window, but the child will not keep them closed. We play the "he opens them, we close them" game.

So now we have this alarm system that quite frankly scares both of us. It has so many bells and very very loud whistles. There is a bull horn with a 285 db sound that supposedly the frequency can be heard 2 miles away. There are heat sensors, glass breaking sensors, door contacts and alot of little buttons on that fancy dancy keypad. We shall see how many false alarms we can manage to pull off in the next month.

The man who was installing the system yesterday got such a kick out of Jack. Jack kept following him from room to room asking "what are you doing?" and basically talking the poor man's ear off. At one point, Jack decided to "help" and went and got his hammer, screw driver, and wrench off his play tool bench and you could see him bent over a wire with the installation guy trying to fix something. The guy thought Jack was really cute and didn't get mad about having a little shadow follow him everywhere talking a mile a minute. Good thing cause he could of just made that bullhorn go off a few times to make the boy be quiet, but he didn't. Instead, he just put up with chatterbox shadow Jack.

The Ho Hums

It seems that as of lately that I have been reaching to find something to blog about. It isn't that my life isn't exciting (well maybe exciting isn't the word, but full), because I find myself very busy with the daily things of being a stay at home mom, but the content of the daily stuff just doesn't seem that blog worthy. So this is a post about having nothing that big to say.

Jack has been his good self lately. I have started a new discipline/threatening tool that seems to work quite well. I learned it from another mother in the neighborhood where I saw her counting to five and if her son (age 8) didn't do what she wanted him to do by the time she got to five, then something would happen. Not sure what that something was but it must have been a pretty big something because he straightened up by the time she got to three. So I thought I would try that on Jack and will tell him that if I get to five he will either lose a train or get a spanking depending on the severity of the situation at the time. And I have never had to get to five yet! It seems to work. Yay Me for copying another mother's discipline method.

I also started walking three times a night with two other ladies in the neighborhood and probably get a fourth involved soon. Three of us are mothers to toddlers and the other one is pregnant due in September, Erin, my next door neighbor. She also graduated from the same business college as I did near Boston, so we have gotten to be really good friends. She was telling me that she is really having a hard time deciding whether to stay at home or go back to work after the baby. I remember that decision. It is a hard one for every mother no matter what they decide I think.

Well there you have it. I guess, I did have something to write about after all.

Jack and The Girls

We are in trouble. Jack is such a flirt. Last night we had a neighborhood crime watch meeting with my hubby leading the meeting (love being married to a cop). Anyway, while at the meeting we met one of our neighbors who has a 2 1/2 year old little girl who is just as much of a flirt as Jack is. And that, my friends, is trouble. Pure trouble.

The meeting was held at the pool area and the two of them were running around the pool giving both of us mothers heart attacks every time they got close to the edge of the pool. Neither of us actually were listening to the meeting about crime prevention because we were too concerned about jumping in after our wild children. As the meeting was winding up, and everybody was mingling and talking to each other, the two kids were laying on the chaise lounge chairs pretending to sun themselves. It was at this point that the other little girl named Maddie got up and walked over to Jack and planted a big kiss on him. Right there in front of all the neighbors and God. I told Maddie's father, Justin, that he was in trouble when she turns 16 and he was so serious when he turned to me and said "I am frightened." And I could tell from his face that he was really and truly frightened about having a teenaged daughter, especially one who gives kisses to boys at the tender age of 2!

And what did my son do when being kissed? Yes, that is right, he kissed right back. I think that if we are in the same neighborhood as Maddie when they are teenagers, we are going to have to lock up Jack.

The Wood Floor Match Game

Well we decided to bite the bullet and order wood floors for our house. We have the cheapest carpet you can buy (seriously) and the cheapest vinyl in the kitchen and bathrooms. The carpet has absolutely no stain resistant anything to it, so that means when the dogs or Jack have accidents or the cat pukes bright pink something or other, the stain stays there no matter what. Let me say that again, the stain stays NO. MATTER. WHAT. I have used my steam cleaner with no results, and I have used about 3 different carpet cleaners. Nothing works. We have lovely yellow and pink stains everywhere. Not to mention the carpet is so thin, it is starting to wear thin already (after 8 months) in the high traffic places.

So after months of drooling over the possibility of actually ripping up the awful carpet and putting wood floors down in the kitchen, family room, den, dining room, and hallway (basically everything but bedrooms and bathrooms), we decided to go for it. Yes, we are spending Jack's college education just to satisfy my lust for wood floors.

After checking out Home Depot and Lowes and figuring out they are way higher than a lot of people, we decided to go with a local store. We searched their sample inventory and ruled out everything higher than $6.00/sq ft since we have 1100 sq ft to cover. Yeah you do the math. I should start advertising my kidney on ebay I am thinking. We pick out something that we like and we tell them to order that for us. And here comes the frustrating part. When it came in, the color was completely off from the sample. So off, that I thought for sure they made a mistake. We want a Brazillian Cherry color and what they sent was puke orange wood floor. Ugly. So the owner, who is frustrated as well, guided us to another sample that was very similiar and same price. We said sure, we'll take that one. I went this morning to look at what came in for THAT sample and I am truly wondering about the whole flooring industry. This time, what came in was a dark grayish antique barn looking wood floor. I am sure some people like that, but that is not what I ordered!!!

Now it is looking like we are going to have to up our price a bit and go for hopefully our third order. What is up with these people? Is it just because we are ordering fairly cheap stuff as far as hardwood floor goes? Or does everybody have this kind of problem? I was so excited about getting my new floors this week and being able to teach Jack how to slide over them this weekend. Waahhh. Now, I get to wait and see and hopefully win the wood floor match game this time.

Can This Be True?

For the past three days, Jack has not had any pee pee accidents. While that is not that great of an accomplishment, because I would usually force his little bottom on the toilet every hour or two just to make sure there were no accidents forthcoming. And this usually resulted in great crying and saying "No Mama" because the boy did not want to sit on the toilet. I was beginning to think that I would have to remind him to go to the bathroom during first grade.

However, things have changed for the better in the Jackaroo house in the last few days. He will say, out of the blue, "I have to go to the bathroom" and actually go into the bathroom and do his business! He even attempts to put his underwear and pants back on (usually backwards, but I don't say anything because he is so proud of himself for doing that). He is so cute as he runs out of the bathroom yelling "I did it!"

Even last night as I was getting him ready for bed, he started to toot toot. I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom. He looked at me, thought for a minute and said very seriously, "yes I do". And sure enough, he went in there and pooped on the toilet - a rarity. He has been waiting until the first minute the diaper hits his bottom to do the poop thing.

Have we turned a corner and can this actually be true? Is he actually day-time potty trained? I think it is time to celebrate!

Next up - night time trained. Not even going to try that one for a few months.

Quandry

I have a quandry. Jack's best friend, Kyle, is a very aggressive little boy. By aggressive, I mean he can be down right mean. He hits, shoves and even bites other kids for no reason at all. It just comes out of the blue. This morning, as I was dropping Jack off at school, I witnessed Kyle come running from across the room and push another little boy (Justin) so hard that Justin fell face forward onto the floor. He started to cry and quite frankly, I would have cried just as hard as Justin, if I had fallen that hard. Kyle's mother, Jennifer, was in the room and all she did was put him in the corner and told him that was not nice and not to do it again.

Kyle was at my house last week and during the two hours that they were here, Jack was in hysterical tears twice because Kyle hit him so hard that left bruises. And again, his mother basically did nothing to stop it. She just sat him down and said that is not nice. No spanking, no nothing. I personally am a fan of spanking if needed. Now mind you, I am not saying beat your kid, but a swat on the butt is needed at times and Jack has had his share of swats. I have found that lately just the threat of a spanking or taking away one of his precious trains is enough to get Jack back into shape. But Kyle's mother does nothing.

So my quandry is this - she wants the boys to get together more this summer after school is out. But truthfully, I am hesitant because every single time they get together, Jack ends up hurt and screaming. But Jack still loves Kyle despite getting hurt by him. He still wants to play with him. So do I let them play together and just sit quietly and not say anything about her bad parenting skills? Or make up excuses not to get the boys together? I really do not know what to do.

Seizing Opportunity

Tonight I had a meeting at the church for the children's council that I kinda got signed up for because I have a child I think. Jim was working tonight and I did something that I have never done before - ask somebody to babysit my child. I know that sounds weird, but it is true. Other than my very good friend, Janet and Jack's daycare provider (saint) in California, I have never had anybody babysit my child until tonight. I asked our neighbors who have a 4-year-old little girl to watch Jack for a couple of hours. And Jack was estatic to go over to Alison's house because he, just the other day, referred to Alison as his "sweetheart". Yes, we are in trouble. It is probably a good thing that her father is in the Air Force and will probably not be in the area when the kids are approaching the teen years. Oy!

Anyway, the meeting was cancelled, but nobody informed me of the cancellation. And I swear that upon hearing the news that I did not have a meeting to go to, but instead had 2 hours of MY time, my heart skipped a beat. What joy! What freedom! I booked it down to Barnes and Noble and sat there for over an hour with a cup of coffee reading and perusing the aisles WITHOUT a toddler pulling me toward the train table. Pure Bliss.

The Week In Pictures

This week has been a pretty busy week with Grammy and Papa visiting from Michigan. So here is the week in review in pictures.


On Monday, Jack had his first t-ball game. Here is the future major league player.

I think one word can describe these games - Chaos.

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Getting batting pointers from Coach Heidi.

During a rare good day on Thursday, we went to the beach with Grammy and Papa while Daddy was sleeping at home from working all night.

Sissy and Jack getting buckets of water. I think they were trying to empty the ocean.

Grammy and Papa - Beach Bums.

Laura looking prettier and prettier every single day.

Papa and Jack playing ball. About 38 years ago, there was a picture taken of me and Papa doing the exact same thing. I need to find that and post the two pictures together.

Grammy and Jack had to get in on the ball playing also.

My Age Starts With What?

Today is my 40th birthday. I remember when that sounded absolutely ancient. I also remember thinking that when you finally get to that age, everything will fall into place. And for the most part, it has for me. I have a wonderful husband, beautiful son, and a step-daughter who is becoming my friend. I have it all and I am blessed.

These past couple of months, I have been thinking back to my thirties. It is inevitable, I think, to review your life as a big milestone of an age is looming ahead. I remember my 30th birthday really well. I remember driving down the road and looking in the mirror only to see this HUGE gray patch of hair. I thought it was fitting on my 30th birthday and drove straight to the beauty shop and got my first of many professional hair color jobs.

I am pleased to say that my 40's are coming in a lot happier than my 30's did. When I was 30, I was a pretty miserable human being back then. I was in the middle of some serious infertility treatments and attending a support group for infertile women. I had quit my job as an accountant for a bank in downtown Seattle by then and my job became infertility. I was going to the University of Washington fertility clinic at least 2 or 3 times a week for ultrasounds or various procedures depending on what we were doing that month. The drugs that I were on were making me a total hormonal wreck and crying was a daily thing.

And the marriage department was in shambles also. I was married to a complete jerk who thought of himself first and foremost. He did not want kids and was actually quite pleased that we were having trouble. He made a lot of money, but when it came to letting his wife use some of that money or helping his mother out, he almost cried to see it go. However, for him to put in a $17k car stero was nothing. He remarried and is it any wonder that marriage ended in divorce?

Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. I am now very very very happy that none of those infertility treatments worked (well one did, but I miscarried) because he would have been the worst father in the world. God knew what he was doing with that situation.

Half of my thirties were spent alone and single. And it was the best thing for me. I had my own little house with my two little dogs as my children and was not unhappy as I had been. But I felt that I was missing something - children. So when I was 34 years old, after talking to my dentist of all people, who had a son by sperm donor, I went to the doctor to see about doing that same thing. I was told by him that it would be very difficult for me to conceive and of course a lot of money and no guarantees. I went home with a list of potential sperm donors with all their family and medical history. Weird way to have a baby and something inside told me that it wasn't right for me.

And it wasn't. About 6 months later, I met Jim during a tax season when I was working two jobs and 80 hours a week. But it was fate and bam 6 months after we met, I was pregnant with Jack. No, I do not know how it happened. I know how normal people get pregnant, but me? It is still a mystery to me to this day. And he was meant to be, I believe. We have not done anything at all to stop from having another little Jack since the day he was born and well, I guess God just wanted me to have the one perfect little boy.

So as I am going into my 40's, I can truly truly truly say that it is my happiest time of my life. Forty is not a scary age for me. And as they say, 40 is the new 30 right?

Happy Easter

We had a nice time on Saturday for my birthday bash. I say for MY birthday bash, but I know the real reason why everybody came to our house was to see Jack. The real reason that Grammy and Papa drove 1000 miles was to see Jack. Because I really do not believe that they have been with me on my birthday for at least 20 years. Half of my life! But when given a chance to see the Jackaroo, they jump in the car and drive 1000 miles and just say that it is for my birthday. Yeah right.




Papa and Jack talking world politics or something while drinking their root beer together.

The Easter Bunny came to our house on Saturday and brought eggs. Jack thought that was a pretty cool thing to have the Easter Bunny in our backyard. When we asked who that was he said "That Rabbit".

Sissy helping Jack find all the eggs.

Easter morning the kids found baskets.

Tonight is Jack's first t-ball game. We shall see how that goes with the weather the way it is. Yesterday was in the 40's on Easter Sunday! What is up with that? They are taking the team picture tonight so of course, we will have to order a picture. I still can't believe that my kid is old enough for t-ball!

I hope everybody had a good Easter and was able to stay warm despite the frigid temps. There is just something wrong with freezing on Easter.

Birthday Bash

We are having a big birthday bash today. It is for me. Jim had first planned this whole thing as a surprise for me because I am rolling over into another decade (oh my gosh!). He was so sweet and sneaky for awhile. He went behind my back and invited my family from Michigan along with his entire side of the family to come down for the big bash today. But I found out in my sneaky way (I was looking over his shoulder as he was IMng my mother) and he had to fess up to his plans. I am glad that I found out because really I don't like surprises. And truth be told, if he had not told me and if we had not been working for two days to get this house clean and in shape and if people just suddenly showed up with no warning to a house that was not "company-approved", I would have been a little bit upset, shall we say.

But anyway, they are all coming for me today and I must say that seems a bit weird to me. I am not used to having a whole alot of attention focused on me. I am a really good wallflower, so to speak. So I am focusing on this being just a great big family bbq at the house and not about my upcoming, looming big FOUR OH as in OH MY GOSH AM I REALLY THAT OLD?! My actual birthday is on Tuesday, so I still have a few precious days left of my thirties.

You will probably see a post or two in the next few days about my thoughts on turning the big four-oh. The good and the bad. Stay tuned.

40 Inches Here We Come

When I took Jack to the doctor a couple of weeks ago for his strep scare, they weighed and measured him. At that time he was 39 1/2 inches and 37 lbs. I looked up online to figure out what percentile that is in the not-so-important growth chart and found out he is in 89 and 90% for both weight and height. Yes, he is big. And he is very proud to tell you that he is going to be "thiiiiiissssss tall" (stretching arm wayyy up) when he grows up.

I do have to make the appointment to take him in for his third year check-up. Please somebody remind me to do that :). However, I really would not be surprised if he grew a half inch by the time he went in for his checkup. The boy has been doing pretty much nothing but sleeping and eating for a couple of days. On Monday, he fell asleep around 4:30 in the afternoon and did not wake up until 6:00 the next morning! Almost 14 hours of sleep! And let me tell you, yesterday the kid was in a great mood all day long after all that sleep. He was hilarious.

And the eating? The boy didn't stop eating yesterday. We picked Laura up yesterday from the airport for her visit here on her spring break and went straight to T-ball practice. The kid had a cookie on the way there, thanks to Sissy and airplane cookies. Then at practice, he had more cookies and two juice boxes. Then we went out to pizza after practice, where the boy ate two pieces of pizza and a brownie! Then after all that, as I was getting him ready for bed about 8:30, he proclaims he is hungry again! Geeze Louise!

So I do believe that 40 inches tall is right around the corner, which in my opinion, sounds soooo tall! I mean it is only 8 inches from being 4 feet! Good grief. The kid is already wearing 4T pants and regular size 4 (as in the big boy sizes) for shirts and underwear! Aye Aye! This growing thing is happening too fast, way too fast.

IT Has Started ...

The IT I am referring to is what every curly-haired girl has nightmares about and dreads with a such a passion. IT is THE HUMIDITY. And IT has arrived. Now you maybe asking why I moved from California, the land of the oh-my-god-is-it-really-that-hot-dry heat to Mississippi, the land of oh-my-god-I-am-going-to-drown-in-this-hot-humid-place. And believe me, when I say that I thought about that very thing many many times as I drove across country to move to Mississippi.

You see, I have curly hair. No, I should say, I have god-awful-unmanagable-curly-frizzy hair that with an armload of hair products, I can manage to actually make look somewhat respectable ... in low humidity. But when the dewpoint goes up, my hair turns into a freak show. And that is what has happened in the last week when the good old Mississippi humidity has moved in for the next few months. Remember that episode of Friends, where they are in the Caribbean and Monica's hair is 10 times her normal size? Yeah that is me.

My husband, bless his unknowing short-haired self, said to me yesterday "isn't there hair straightening stuff out there?" This was in response to listening to me rant about my losing control of my hair. Of course, I dug through my basket full of products and started showing him the products that I already use, which includes shampoo and conditioner "specially formatted for oh-my-god-curly hair" and other various straightening products. At which point, he just looked at me, shook his head, and walked away.

I guess that is what I will have to do too. Just shake my head and embrace my curly, frizzy, freak show of a head for the next 6 months.

Another Busy Weekend

On Saturday, we went to the big easter egg hunt at the elementary school around the corner from us. It was actually three big fields filled with eggs. The man who started the hunt said that they had over 35,000 eggs in the different parks throughout the county and had spent $7,000 on the whole thing. I thought it was pretty nice of them to do this for the kids.

Of course the whole hunt was over in about five minutes on the toddler field, but Jack did pretty good this year. Last year, in California, he was more interested in opening the three eggs he received right then and there instead of actually getting more. This year is was all about quantity for the boy.


A quick adjustment of the underwear situation and he was off.

He saw a break in the sea of people, and went for the eggs on the other side.

Notice the intent concentration of picking up the easter eggs. He was so much faster this year than last where he got a whopping total of three eggs. This year, I think his total was around 18 or 20.

Sitting on the Easter Bunny's lap was NOT Jack's idea as you can see. In fact, he wouldn't even acknowledge the Easter Bunny at the mall the other day. When we walked by him, he covered his eyes with his arm and just kept on walking and wouldn't even talk about the entire subject of the Easter Bunny with me. He just kept on walking.

In church for Palm Sunday. Jack is doing his job of holding his palm branch high for the rehearsal before church actually started. However, during the actual performance, my son was led to the dark side by the little girl, Kaitlyn, in pink standing behind him. She decided to climb over the railing and prompted him to follow. My son hesitated for a half second, and followed her over the railing. Of course everybody thought he was cute, including the Pastor who continued to prompt him to come up on stage with him. However, I think a little bit of our talk we had earlier must of sunk in because he decided he better stay put after that. Gotta love the age of three.