The Week, Family, New Orleans, Plantations, Alone Time!

This has been a whirlwind few days. It started off with going to visit Aunt Ann, Uncle Bill and Grammy on the fourth. Of course, as you can see, Jack loved being there and so did Laura.

We got back home on Friday when Jim and I left for our weekend alone in New Orleans. We had a great time being all by ourselves for the first time in almost four years! I didn't even miss Jack all that much, but I have to admit that today I was happy to get home to see him. And from what I hear, he didn't have any problem with me being gone either. Not bad because that was the longest time that I had ever been away from him ever, so I think we did pretty good.

Of course Aunt Ann spoiled the kids rotten as is her way :). I did hear of one time when they decided to go to Krispy Kreme at 7:30 at night and load the boy up with sugar. HA! That will teach her. From what I hear he was bouncing off the walls for hours. Now she knows what we go through when she brings gummy worms and proceeds to give the boy the entire bag and then up and leaves us with the resulting consequence. HA! She has lived through the boy on a major sugar high now. It ain't pretty.

Making flag cookies with Aunt Ann and Sissy.

Grammy C. and Jack enjoying a chair together.

There is a nest in the corner of Aunt Ann's porch with three little baby birdies. So cute.

Mama Birdie feeding her babies.

All-American Fourth of July kids.

The kids had a blast in Aunt Ann and Uncle Bill's pool. In fact, Laura even went swimming when it was pouring down rain. She's a fish, I tell ya.

On Saturday, we went driving on River Road where the river plantations are located near New Orleans. There are absolutely beautiful and stunning plantations along the Mississippi River dating back to the early 1800's. The first one we went to was the Laura Plantation, which was run mainly by the women in the family for generations, the last being Laura, hence the name Laura Plantation. Of course, we had to buy Laura a t-shirt from there.

The front of Laura Plantation, which was a creole style plantation. I learned that the creole or French people decorated their houses in the bright colors while the American plantations were all white. I thought the history and the tour was fascinating.

We then went down the road to Oak Alley Plantation pictured above. This place was beyond breathtaking. Named after the 28 oaks that were lined up in front of the house. The oak trees were actually planted in the early 1700's, over a 100 years before the house was built.

The trees were gigantic and beautiful. Here you can see that at one point the giant tree limbs actually grew down to the ground and started to grow back up. Very beautiful trees.

View of the oak alley from the front porch.

We had a fun time in New Orleans. On Friday night we walked around the French Quarter, had a few drinks and dinner and just loved being childless. On Saturday, we spent the day touring plantations and then went out to Antoine's for dinner. Very nice and it was fun to dress up for dinner for a change. But the party animals that we are, we were back in the room and asleep by 10:00 that night. Yes, it is a fact that we are old!

We stayed in a fabulous little bed and breakfast, The Chimes. I highly recommend it for anybody who might find themselves in New Orleans.

Anyway, that is my last few days. Now it is back to normal stuff.

Happy July Fourth!

I hope everybody will have a very happy and safe July Fourth. I am taking the kids up to Grammy C and Aunt Ann's while Jim has to stay here and work. If you are a cop, you do NOT get July fourth off. Period.

Jim bought some sparklers and fireworks. He bought these so-called kid friendly fireworks. The thing looks like a ladybug and the lady at the fireworks stand said they just spin around and will pop up about a foot or so. HA! We actually did one the other night and that thing popped 30 feet up and went boom! It then fell back down onto our roof and rolled off almost on me. Yeah kid friendly. HA! Jack didn't like one very much, but he LOVED the sparklers and kept wanting to do another one and another and another.

When we come back, we are bringing back Grammy and Aunt Ann to babysit the kids and Jim and I will be off on our weekend alone to New Orleans! Alone!!!! Can't wait.

Happy July Fourth!

More Family Projects

We had another family project day. This time it was planting flowers in the new flower boxes that Jim attached to our fence. As you can see, both Laura and Jack were quite the helpers, as I sat back and was photographer :).

Laura is growing up to be such a beautiful young lady. I can hardly believe that she used to be a little girl when I first met her and now she is an almost teenager! These kids who insist upon growing up!

Family Project Day

The other day we had family art project day. Jim got the idea of buying bird houses to put on the fence posts out back. So we went to Michael's and bought four different birdie houses to paint together. Each of us painted a bird house, even Jack (with some help of course).

Mine

Laura's

Jack's (he called it his bird barn)

Daddy's

We enjoyed doing these so much, that I went back and bought two more. And because I video everything these days, here is a very short video of Jack and Laura doing the other "bird barn". Quite cute.

Vacation Bible School Video (cute)

I have to say that I am so proud of Laura and Jack for participating in vacation bible school and actually enjoying themselves.

Here is some videos of last night when they were performing for all the parents. You can see Laura center stage in brown next to another girl in brown (they had to be twinsies) really getting into it. You can also see all my toddlers, including my own son, just kind of wandering around not really caring about the dancing and singing. Just a taste of what my week was like with those little people. But I have admit that I had a blast doing it and am looking forward to next year vacation bible school.

PS There are three separate videos. Different songs in case anybody was wondering why I had three videos looking like the same thing.

VBS Update

Just to update on the Vacation Bible School happenings. Well, I had to kick Dawson out of bible school. He is almost 5 years old and could not sit or stay still long enough to do anything. He was running like a wild child all over that church and I finally said to his mother that he was a security risk. I had six other toddlers to look after and I was scared that I would lose one of them while I was running after Dawson. I feel soooo sorry for his teachers when he gets to school! How embarassing to get kicked out of bible school!

After Dawson left, it became quite enjoyable to be with the remaning toddlers. It is so fun to see them soak it all up. Every night there is a word of the day like "Listen" and when I ask Jack later on what he learned in bible school, he will tell me "I need to listen". So he is understanding it all. Laura is actually enjoying herself also. We are taking her friend Tori every night, so that helps too. But it is fun to see her making new friends at the church and I saw her swapping phone numbers with some of the other girls.

Tonight is the last night. I think I have gotten a lot more out of the experience than the toddlers did. If anything, I learned a little bit more about disciplining a wild child!

We took a night off from VBS last night and went to the Ringling Bros circus. It was the only night that we could make it to the circus since Jim has to work every other night that it is in town. We all had fun watching the acrobats, clowns, doggies, elephants, and horses. Jack sat there for two hours totally engrossed with the whole thing. It was fun to experience the circus through his eyes.

Thomas Recall

I am sure everybody has seen this about the recall of Thomas products. I just checked and we have 5 of the items on the recall list. It looks like anything painted red is on the list. It said that you can send in your items for a refund, but I am having mixed feelings about this. I know that it can potentially be dangerous, but according to their own press release, no child has gotten sick yet. Of course, that could be that they know of at this time. Jack loves these trains. No, I take that back. Jack is obsessed with these trains. Especially the James one and to have to send it away, would be so hard. But on the other hand, I don't want it making him sick or worse!

So what are you other mothers out there doing? Are you sending yours back? Or letting them keep the trains? Decisions decisions!

That Imagination

Jack's imagination is really something. I wanted him to go potty before we went bye bye, so the kid is standing there in front of the toilet pretending to hold something. He turns to me and hands me whatever he is holding and says "can you hold my drink while I go potty?". So he hands me the "drink" and proceeds to go potty. I told him to wash his hands and that I would just put his "drink" on the sink while he did that. I pretend to put the "drink" down and then he yells at me, "YOU SPILLED MY DRINK!". Sigh. I can't win.

Oh My God!

Wow! I volunteered to be the preschool leader for vacation bible school at our church. Oh my goodness what a job! I thought that since one of the kids would be my own, I could do this. Ha! I am humbled by preschool teachers. I do not know how they do it.

Last night, I had 7 preschoolers to watch over for 2 1/2 hours and it just about brought me to my knees. I had a couple of girls from the youth helping me and those poor girls didn't know what hit them. They looked absolutely frazzled by the end of the night. Like I told them, it was good birth control. See what happens when ya'll fool around. You eventually get a three-year-old!!! I do believe they are not going to have sex until they are 30!

There was one little boy named Dawson who I really wanted to kick out of bible school! He had me running all over the church after him. At one point, when we were supposed to be singing and dancing in the sanctuary, he was climbing on top of the piano and grabbed the microphone pretending to be a rock star! Sigh. And I think he broke the microphone. I swear, he made my little hellion look like an angel.

Anyway, wish me luck as I go back tonight. It lasts until Friday night. It is going to be a very long week!

Everyone should have one

A stepdaughter that is. At least one like Laura. She really is a pleasure to have around and she makes my job so much easier. She entertains her brother, she keeps her room cleaner than I keep mine, she cleaned her brother's room (big big job), and she babysat when I had a meeting at the church last night. Not only did she watch Jack and did a phenomenal job at that, but she also cleaned up the house before I got home. Yeah, everybody should have one like her.

We are off to the beach this morning. We didn't go yesterday because it turned very very hot and I was really not into baking on the sand. So instead we are going to hit the beach by 9:30 and leave by noon.

And my treat this afternoon? I get to go to the grocery store all by myself! With no boy. What freedom. Laura is going to watch him while I am at the store. Yeah I could get used to having her around very very easily.

** Update It is now afternoon and we just got back from the beach. I had heard that the UV Index was in the hazard area and man were they right. I think we absolutely baked there on the sand. At 10 in the morning! I can now say with total confidence, that I have the darkest tan that I have had in over 20 years. Not since I used to lay on my little silver suntan bed in the backyard, have I ever been this dark.

Pictures - The Room, The Pool

The girl's room. It really shows up pink in these pictures. Almost hurts your eyes. Laura and I are still discussing what we are going to do with the green paint. Right now, she wants to paint circles of all different sizes. Will post more pictures when that is done.

Also notice the reflection on the wall from her mirror that is on her bed. Laura and I could not figure out what that was in the picture. Her Dad walks up and says "oh its the mirror reflection." Duh. Yeah we felt stupid.

We went to the pool this morning. It was totally gross. There were about 6 dead frogs floating in the water, probably from the huge rain storm we had last night. Anyway, the girl would not go in the water until I had fished them all out. I guess I had to do the mother thing and de-frog the pool. After all frogs were gone, the two fishes had a fun time.

After Jim goes to bed because he has to work tonight, I am thinking about taking the kids to the beach. It isn't miserably hot today (again thanks to the rain storm) and it would be a good beach day. Ahhh tis the life. Pool, beach, fun in the sun. Tough life here.

Horror of all Horrors!

A terrible, horrible, no-good thing happened in the Jackaroo house. It is so bad, it makes me shutter and cry just thinking about it. Our coffee maker died! As in doornail dead. The horror! It is a very scary day indeed.

Thank goodness, we had a backup from years and years ago. But you can bet that I will be at Bed Bath and Beyond buying a new model very very soon!

Got a Girl

Well we got the girl. Of course, it couldn't happen without some drama enfolding. Her plane was delayed from California because of the bad weather in Texas, which meant that she was not going to make her connections in Houston. After a lot of drama with her mother and all, she finally got into New Orleans last night at 10:30, only 3 hours late. We didn't get home until 12:30, but Jack was soooo super duper excited to have his Sissy that he was practically bouncing off the walls. He did not want to go to bed when we got home, but I told him that "it was so late, it was early."

We started off today by going to the water park. Laura and her Dad went off to do the really big slides, including the water roller coaster, while Jack and I stayed in the kiddie pool area and the kiddie slides. Truth be told, the slides in the the kiddie area are quite enough for me. In fact one that Jack can't ride by himself yet, but can go with me, is quite fast and twisty turny enough for me. But I am sure, by the end of the summer, my courage will be worked up enough to go on the water roller coaster. Maybe.

But we all had fun and got home just before the big storm came through the area. It is the same storm that was holding Laura up yesterday in flying. I was invited to a Southern Living home party tonight, but am thinking about not going. Our road is basically one big river at the moment and not really into boating to the party. So a quiet night at home watching the downpour is in store.

The Countdown is Over

Today is the day. The day that we in the Jackaroo house have been looking forward to for weeks. It is the day that Laura/Sissy gets here from California. Seriously, Jack has been missing his sister so much, that it just about breaks my heart. He mentions her every single day. And for the past six weeks or so, we have been counting down the weeks and then the days. Every morning when he wakes up, he said "Sissy gets here in 3 weeks/days". And today is the day we go to pick her up from the New Orleans airport.

And if all goes well, she very well maybe staying through the school year. I am hoping and praying that is the case. It would be so good for her and Jack and Jim and I to have her here with us as a family. Of course, this all has to be okayed by her mother (the wicked witch of the west) and negotations are still continuing on that front. But I think there is a good chance that we will be enrolling her into sixth grade here in Mississippi. Yay!

And speaking of Mississippi, it is HOT and HUMID. Oh my gosh people! When at 6:30 this morning, I am outside admiring my rose bushes, I have sweat rolling off of me. There is something just plain wrong about that. I knew moving to Mississippi would mean hot and humid summers, but this is ridiculous. Enough already. Problem is, it isn't even officially summer yet! I am in trouble.

By Ourselves!

I Can Not Believe It! (as in the words of Quincy from Little Einsteins). Jim and I are going to get a weekend away by ourselves. As in no boy. As in just us. Nobody else. The two of us. For two whole days. Ya'll this is exciting. Big Big News. Because you see, we have not had a vacation by ourselves together in over four years! Big News I tell ya!

In three weeks, we are going to New Orleans for the weekend. Aunt Ann and Uncle "Bailey" and Grammy C. are all coming down to watch the boy and the girl while we go gallavanting to The Big Easy. Did I tell you it was by ourselves? We are staying in a Bed and Breakfast in the Garden District. We get to sleep in if we want! We get to go places and do things without having to worry about a whiney three-year-old! We get to drink! For two days. This is the first time that I will be away from Jack for that long. I don't think that I have ever been away from him for more than 8 hours in his entire life. But I figure with his Aunt, Uncle, Grammy, and Sissy, he should be fine without me for that long.

Of course, I know that on Sunday, I will be racing back home so that I can hug that whiney three-year-old! But until then, I plan to have some fun with his father! :)

Fisherman Jack

Aunt Ann and Uncle "Bailey" came down to visit us yesterday. We always love when they come to visit and Jack gets to go fishing with his uncle. Just some pictures from the fishing expedition last night.

View of Gulfport, MS as it is getting dark.

Jack and his Uncle "Bailey" fishing. I have a feeling that they are going to be quite the fishing duo when Jack gets a bit older.

He loves his Aunt Ann and Uncle "Bailey". Good times when they come to visit.

We Didn't Kill Em

We bought 6 rose bushes about a month ago and planted them in front of our house. They looked beautiful in the pots, however when we got them home and planted, not so much. I thought that we had killed em. But with a little bit of rose food, watering, and a strict talking to, they are starting to flower! Yay! Well four of the bushes are anyway, two of them still look kinda sick. I need to talk to them some more, I guess.

Remind Me NOT To Let The Boy Sleep During The Day Again ... Ever!

Geesh. The boy went down hard yesterday around 2:00 in the afternoon. He was sitting on my lap watching one of his shows and next thing I know, he is snoring. I know that we have been going pretty hard the last few days and it has finally caught up with him. He was worn out. Problem is, he slept three hours, waking up just before Daddy went to work. And boy oh boy was he awake. He was my energizer bunny on steroids last night.

I tried to keep him busy and active by having him help me water the flowers and the lawn and ending with a jumping session on the trampoline. We went inside around 8:00, where he ran around in circles for a good 30 minutes. With the new floors, he is really enjoying using the length of the kitchen, family room, and down the hall as his personal race track. He keeps saying "watch me run fast!".

At 9:30 when I was nodding off in the chair, the boy was literally doing somersaults on the couch. He was quite proud of himself for learning that feat and did it over and over and over again. He wasn't entirely uncaring about my wanting to go to bed. At one point, we walked over to the chair I was sitting in and said "Go to bed Mom". Like he's some teenager trying to get his Mom to go to bed so he can do God-only-knows-what to the house. Um Nope.

I told him that he has to go to bed too. His reply was "Not Me." And he looked at me like I had three heads and six eyes when he said that.

Finally a little after 10, I told him that he could sleep in my bed, which he promptly yelled "yahoo!". He went to get his book about tractors and got in bed to read, while I was trying to read between nodding off. He thought that was pretty neat.

After I turned the light off, he reached over and said "I love you" and gave me a big kiss. Awwwww. Such a little suck up he is.

Remind me also never to sleep with the boy again. Oh My Gawd! We have a king size bed and I found myself falling out of it on several occassions last night. I kept waking up to find his feet lodged in my back and me with 6 inches of the bed. I don't know how many times I moved the child back into position last night, or told him to "put your head on the pillow!".

Um yeah, so now I realize why there are no more naps anymore in the Jackaroo house. I understand completly now.

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".