Relief

We heard from our family tonight. They are safe thank goodness. However they did have some damage to their houses, and Bill, Jim's brother, completely lost his house in Gulfport. But the important thing is that they are alright. They are also looking at 2 weeks or more of no power. We offered them to come visit us for that time, but stubborn as they are, they are going to wait it out there. I guess our family were the lucky ones. It looks like thousands of people lost loved ones. How terrible.

In other news, Jack and I are flying to Michigan tomorrow to visit my family. Grandma and Grandpa are looking forward to seeing the Jackaroo. I have been running around the house like a madwoman trying to get everything packed and ready to go early tomorrow morning. There is just so much to remember when you've got a toddler tagging along. We have to leave at 5 am! Yikes! I just hope that Jack cooperates tomorrow on the flight. We are flying nonstop and will be on the plane for 4 hours. And I have him in my lap. I think I am going to see if I can buy him a ticket cause not sure I want a 28-lb kid on my lap that long! Who cares about money hehe.

I just want to say thank you to everybody who left such nice comments regarding our family. It really meant a lot to me! Thanks!

A little bit of news from Mississippi

Jim talked to his sister Carla today. It was a miracle that the phone worked. They do not have any power, of course. And she can not get out of her neighborhood. She said that her neighbor was killed when a tree fell on him. Scary! But it sounds like her family is safe. Thank God.

However, we still have not heard from Jim's Mom, Sister, and Brother. His mom and sister are not too far from Carla, but they are out in the country. And Carla has not heard from them at all either. So that means that they can not get out either. We are really praying hard that they are alright. There is a curfew there and I guess nobody is going anywhere.

Jim's brother Bill was in the Gulfport area where it was really hit hard. Of course no communication at all from him.

This is just so terrible. I can't believe the images on the tv. We were just there in April and now the area is just devastated. Jim is about ready to get in his car and start driving East to help his family. I just hope that all of them are safe and sound and it is just a matter of time when we hear from them.

Terrible!

Praying for those in Mississippi

We have family in Mississippi and are praying that they are alright after the Hurricane went through there yesterday. Jim tried to call his Mom and Sisters yesterday but unfortunately all lines are down. So we are sitting here hoping that all is okay with them and can't wait to hear from them.

Also, here I was complaining very loudly and often about the heat here in California. I will stop that now. A little bit of heat is nothing compared to the millions who are going through hell right now. We visited Jim's family last year in Mississippi and it is one of the most beautiful places with all the lush green everywhere. In fact, we were hoping to maybe move back to that area in the next couple of years because it is so nice.

So those in the affected states, just know that we are praying for you and hope that you can get back into your homes real soon.

Busy Busy Busy

Busy weekend we have had. Jim has the weekends off for the next few weeks, so we try to pack as much as we can into them.

We had fun last night at the Ron White show. He was SOOOO Funny. By the time it ended, my face hurt from laughing so much. He is definitely an adults only show, some (most!) of his material is not for kid's ears thats for sure. But we sure laughed our butts off. The show ended a little after 11pm, so both Jim and I were SOOOO tired. We didn't even stay up that late on New Years Eve! We had to pick up the boy from our friends and then head home. I was shocked by how well Jack took it all. He was asleep when we picked him up and he stayed awake all the way home. I thought for sure I was going to have trouble putting him down again, but he just fell back to sleep as soon as he got into his crib. The kid is so good!

This morning, Jim and I got ourselves in gear and cleaned the house. Our friends Mark and Janet and their family were coming over for some hamburgers and hotdogs on the BBQ. And well I can not have people come over when my house in a mess. But with Jim's help and Jack's help (see picture below of him using the vacuum) we got it all clean with time to spare.

The boy is absolutely TERRIFED of the vacuum if it is COMING at him. But if he is BEHIND it, he throws a fit and wants to push it himself. So Daddy relinqueshed his vacuum duties to Jack.

After all the cleaning was done, we had some time to just have fun.

Jack and Daddy decide to do a joint masterpiece.

Daddy put together Jack's first bike today. I bought it at Target the other day for $16 on clearance! He is a tad bit too small to pedal, but very soon, he's gonna be biking all over the place. Oh boy!

Then Jack took a ride on his horsie. He gets such a kick out of riding his horsie. All you have to say is the word "horsie" and the boy is running over to climb on for a ride.

Now I am exhausted...morning came fast today, or I should say it was morning by the time we went to bed. But it has been a good weekend spent with Jim, Jack and good friends. Can't get any better than that.

Oh my Gosh, We have a Date Night!

Holy smokes, we get a night out without the boy tonight! Yay! We are going to the local casino to see the comedian Ron White from the Blue Comedy Tour. It is our "official" real date night that we have had since Jack was born. How pathetic is that? And yes, we need to find more babysitters or hit our friends up more often to take the boy.

This is going to be a real test on how "young" we are. The show is at 9:30 and well neither one of us has stayed up that late, well yeah you guessed it...since Jack was born. Yes I know I know...pathetic. Shut Up. We are old folk here.

Oh yeah and at last check it was 110 outside. I am thinking about moving to Alaska, except for one small problem - I hate snow.

Gotta run to find something to wear that is "date nite" appropriate. What exactly is that again? It has been so long. Sigh.

The Weatherman Lied!

He said it was going to be 104 today. Liar! It is 109! AND then he said that it is going to be HOTTER through the weekend. Oh Joy. So I am guessing that bbq we are having with 7 people coming over is gonna be an INDOOR event. Note to weatherman, next week is September, you had better get FALL here fast! Or Else this frazzled Mommy with the toddler who was melting in my backseat today, is gonna get you! Be afraid Mr. Weatherman, be very afraid!

Another Hot One

I saw on the news last night that it is going to be 104 today. Okay, enough already! Can it just be fall already? Or if not fall, just temperatures NOT in triple digits please?

I am waiting for Jack to wake up from his nap. We are going over to my good friend, Janet's, house. I call her Aunt Janet cause she has been like a sister to me over the years. She has an in-home daycare center and I like to take Jack over there to play with the other kids. It really is a selfish thing because it gives me some time away from constantly trying to come up with something new to entertain the boy on my days off.

I just got done cleaning up from Jack's "decorating" of the family room last night. As you can see below, that is what happens when you are too tired to care what happens to your family room. Oh yeah it didn't stop with just the family room. No it also reached into the kitchen. I was emitting a few swear words this morning as I stepped on blocks, toy cars, and pan lids strewn all over the floor on my way to the coffee pot. See what happens when you take a night off and just say "screw it" to housework. It comes back to bite ya or in my case in the form of sore feet from stepping on the blocks.




This picture was taken a couple of days when Jack and I were watching Sesame Street together. I made some popcorn and here he is "sharing" with his doggies and kitties.

Still Ranting

Just checked to see if I could get the pictures from JcPenney online and nope they aren't ready yet. Come on people, how hard is it to post them? I guess I need to wait NINE more business days! And I will be grumbling for all of those days - Trust Me!

Nothing much going on here. My week at work is finally completed - thank goodness. We have a busy weekend ahead of us. We are going to see the comedian Ron White at the local casino on Saturday night. I think this is like our first "big date night" since Jack was born. Jack and Laura are going over to our friends house and we get a night by ourselves! Yahoo!

On Sunday, we have those same friends coming over for a bbq in our backyard, which hopefully will be nice. It is our first entertaining we have really done in this house, except for a couple of dinners and Jack's birthday party. But of course, like the paranoid-perfectionist person that I am, I am going to have to totally clean the house spotless before the "casual get-together". That is no easy feat as you all know with a toddler following you around undoing everything you accomplish.

Oh yeah and I am still grumbling about the picture thing.

Picture Day Ranting

I went to get Jack's pictures taken today. I tried JcPenney's portrait studio this time just to see what it was like. I can say that I like Sears Portraits ALOT BETTER! First off, I thought that JcPenney was digital and therefore can take home your pictures the same day - wrong! I have to wait until Sept 16 to pick my pictures up. And then I find out from the girl at JcPenney's that Sears is now digital and pictures are available the same day. Man! If I had known that I would have gone back to Sears.

Also, I wanted to try JcPenney just to see how their props were and for something different. Again, I feel gipped. The only props they used were blocks that they spelled his name with, which is a cute idea but didn't turn out that well because the "C" block was yellow and didn't show up in the picture. But I wanted other props! Cute ones! The other pictures were just of him sitting or standing. Don't get me wrong, I did get some cute pictures (well he is a cute kid after all hehe) but I just wanted some cute props damnit! And they only took 9 poses and Sears takes a ton...usually 15-20 in a sitting. There was a baby in front of me taking pictures and it seemed to me that THEY had a lot more poses AND cute props. One cute one was in a washtub with fake suds - so cute. But for Jack - Nada, Nothing. AND the pictures were more expensive on top of all this. But the sucker Mom in me ended up buying $60 (6 sheets) worth of pictures.

Oh yeah and you have to PAY for them to post them on the internet ($5) whereas Sears is free. AND (I keep saying that don't I?) you have to wait 10 BUSINESS DAYS for them to get them on the internet. I just checked, not there yet. With Sears, they were always posted by the time I got home.

I was so hoping to have the pictures before I went to Michigan so that Grandma and Grandpa could have some. But now it looks like, I may not even get to see the internet pictures. Yeah, Never going back to JcPenney. We'll stick with Sears from now on. I think they do a good job and are affordable (relatively speaking of course).

Jack is now napping. He had another big day at the mall. Of course we had to stop and play and the playland. He was running around there like some crazy kid. At one point he was laughing so hard, I seriously thought he was going to lose his lunch (he is prone to do that - laugh so hard, he throws up). But when it was time to go, he was not happy about that. I had to go into a store after that for some makeup and then we had to pass by the playland once again. He was yelling "STOP" as we passed by.

I also saw a friend that I haven't seen in months on my way out. She and I stood there talking for about 30 minutes. And how did I keep Jack happy? Ummm... I let him have some sips of my Diet Coke. Yeah you can say it, Bad Mommy. Whatever works though right?

Sleepless in Jackaroo World

Not a whole lot of sleeping going on here, at least for me. Two nights ago, Jack WOULD.NOT.GO.TO.SLEEP. I mean he went down and about an hour later woke up SCREAMING. I went in there and soothed him with a bottle (I know we need to get off the bottle, but man does it help at night). So he went back to sleep. But 2 hours later, he woke again SCREAMING and would not be soothed by any bottle this time. So I picked him up and took him into our guest bedroom and laid down in bed with him. He did finally go back to sleep and he was so cute all cuddled up with me, but um...I couldn't go to sleep. He was laying smack dab against me and I hate anybody touching me when I sleep. I kick Jim to the other side of the bed all the time. But I didn't want to wake the kid, so I just laid there awake....for like 2 hours. I did finally take him to his crib about 1 am, which left very little sleep for me.

So last night, I am exhausted because of a really busy day at work and well no sleep the night before. I go to bed early at 8:00 (actually 7:46 pm, I know I am pathetic). Jim comes to bed and soon starts snoring. Now I love this man to death, but the snoring - not so much. He actually is scheduled for surgery in two weeks to remove nasal polyps, so I know its not his fault. However, when you have a pounding headache and trying to go to sleep with a man who is snoring logs loud enough for the neighbors to hear, it is a bit hard! So, after trying to fall asleep for two hours, I again end up in the guest bedroom. Thank goodness, Jack slept last night!

So here it is in the morning and now I have to get ready for work. Argh, what I would give to be able to stay home and stay in my jammies until noon! But instead I will sing "Work, Work, off to work we go".

Have a good day everybody

Day of Jackaroo Fun

Today pretty much revolved around Jack and his fun. We thought that Jim had to work today, but to my surprise, he comes walking in the door this morning at 7:30. He went all the way into work and found out that he wasn't on duty. Yay! Another day off!

So after we cleaned up the house a little bit after yesterdays day of yard work that trashed the inside house, we headed to the mall. I needed to buy my shampoo and conditioner which I buy only twice a year when it goes on sale because the regular price is way to expensive.

Before we went to the mall, we went to Barnes and Noble. Jack loves to play with their Thomas train set they have setup in the children's area. Everytime I go there, I reaffirm the reason why Jack doesn't have that same train set...It is way too expensive. I think to get the same set with the table and all would be around $400. Um no. But the boy can stand there for an hour and play.

Then we headed to the mall, where we ended up getting Jack a whole bunch of fall clothes at Old Navy and Gap. I think I found the outfit that his next professional pictures will be taken. Sad, I haven't had any pictures taken since last Christmas. The outfit is a cute jean onsie with cargo pants. Cute. Of course, Jim and I did not get any new clothes, but for Jack we spent $130. Geesh.

Then it was playland time. Our mall has a really nice playland area for small kids. It has a small merry-go-round that eats dollar bills. There are also all kinds of climbing stuff. And of course we can NOT go to the mall without hitting up the playland for about 45 minutes.

Then we went outside and rode the little choochoo train. Oh so much fun for the Jackaroo. Then we went to the big fountain where all the kids were playing in. It was only about 105 outside, so it felt really really good. Jack at first was not sure about this big geyser, but it only took a few minutes and the boy was running in and out of the water and laughing his little head off. Of course, he was absolutely drenched when it was all done.

It was a fun day had by all and especially Jackaroo. Oh yeah, and sorry no pics of the day. I thought that my camera phone was in the car and I even mentioned it to my dear husband that I wished that I had the phone to take pictures. So when I get back to the car, I look for the phone and couldn't find it. He reaches into his pocket and brings it out and says "Oh you mean this phone?" Yeah I told him that I was mad at him. So yeah no pictures.

Curiosity has got the better of me

I am so curious about the person who has been on my blog for going on 4 hours today and is from Rye, NY. I am just wondering who you are. I honestly did not think that my blog was that interesting to spend that much time on, but I am flattered that you would. If you don't want to reveal yourself, thats fine or you can email me and tell me. I am just curious is all.

A Day of Yard Work

We spent the day today doing yard work. Jim went to get a truck load of bark chips to put down around the sod. So we spent the day transporting the bark chips from the back of the truck to back yard. We thankfully got most of it done while Jack was napping, but of course when he woke up, he just had to "help". Oh yeah and the temperature was 100 degrees in the shade under our patio cover. It was at least 138 out in the sun - give or take one or two.















Here's the boy getting a ride in the wagon on top of a load of bark chips.
















Here he is pushing the wheelbarrow. Such a big help he is.


















And here he is explaining to me just how he helped out today and in the process getting absolutely filthy. Notice the filthy hands, legs, face, chest. And the thing is, he loved it! He absolutely loves being dirty. Yep he's a boy.

















This is Jack's face after I tell him that we are all done for the day. "Whatcha talking about? But I need to get even dirtier."



















And what do we do to cool down and clean a filthy Jackaroo? We strip him and hose him down. Yeah he liked that. And then he played with the hose for the next 30 minutes spraying everything in his path, including me, Daddy, the dogs, cats...everything. Oh and yeah this was the only picture in this series that I could post without having people get mad at me for showing ummmm... private parts. But I got lots of pics of him hosing himself down. Very cute.

Toddler Room Decorating

Laura and I painted these letters last weekend. They are just wooden letters that I bought at Target. Of course now Laura wants her name done in Pink and Black with stripes. Not sure that I am that artistic to do stripes. It was quite a feat to just get these painted.



I have added a couple of decoration touches to Jack's room. Below is a growth chart that I bought last Christmas! And yes I am just now getting around to putting it up. It starts at 2 ft 6 in and goes to 5 ft 6 in. He just now stands at the 2 ft 6 in mark. Of course at the doctor's office, he was 34 inches but that included the length of his feet and that was almost 2 months ago. But standing he is 30 inches. Yay! He's on the growth chart now.



And all this decorating has got me to thinking that he's gonna be outgrowing the Blue Jean Teddy theme soon. Probably when he is about 2 we will be moving him a big boy bed. So of course I am already thinking(obsessing) over what the next decoration theme is going to be. I was thinking about Thomas the Train, but not sure about that. The videos get on my nerves after awhile, not sure I want a room dedicated to the blue engine with a face. So I was thinking of just doing a generic trucks theme. Target has some cool stuff that I like. (Yes I am a Target-obsessive crazy woman. I know) I really like this chair . Laura has one similar that can fold out into a bed for when she has sleepovers. Jack absolutely loves climbing into her chair. That is when she LETS him into her room. Typical sister won't let little brother into her room. But I really can't believe that the time is approaching when he is into a "big boy" room. Where did my baby go?

Lesson #27149 Learned

Another parenting lesson learned the hard way. I was going to the grocery store, which is about 3 minutes away, and of course Jack had to tag along. So we get ready to walk out to the garage and he has a crayon in his hand. He starts to throw a fit when I try to remove it from his little clenched fist, and since I was tired, frustrated and frazzled at the time, I said he could take it with him. My tired, frustrated, and frazzled brain was NOT working at the time. When I got to the grocery store (3 minutes away, maybe 5 tops) and opened up the door to let Jack out, what do my eyes behold? Yeah you guessed it. A lovely shade of blue/green crayon masterpiece ala Jack all over Daddy's brand new car door. The car is only 2 months old! I was going to take a picture of it. It really was quite a masterpiece and impressive. But I was so intent upon cleaning it that I forgot to grab the camera until I had it half cleaned. By the way Oxyclean 409 works miracles. I actually got most of it cleaned up with just a faint lines.

So that night, I was talking to Jim who is in Baltimore this week and I told him about what happened. And this is why I love this man so much. He started laughing. He didn't get mad or tell me I was stupid in letting a toddler have a crayon in the car. He just laughed. Gotta Love him.

Speaking of Jim, he is coming home today. I get to go pick him up in a couple of hours. I am trying to get the boy to take a nap right now, but he is in there babbling/screaming so I guess no nap. I just know he will be ready for one when we have to leave for the airport. And then he will be Mr. Grumpy Pants.

Money Yay!

I just got home from picking Jack up and got the mail. Included in with all the yucky bills (yikes water bill was double with watering all that sod) was a nice check from our insurance company for reimbursement from our home refinance. So I started waving my arms around saying "yay we got money". Jack walks up to me and puts his hands up and says "yay Money" and then starts clapping. Yep thats my kid...cheering for money.

To Cut Hair or Not to Cut Hair, that is the question

I am in a quandry. Jack's hair is getting a little long. As Daddy says, he looks like a hippie. But here's my quandry. The kid has curls. Or I should say the kid inherited a mass of curls from me, who has possibly the curliest hair on the planet. To straighten my hair, it takes a team of professionals and some very expensive tools (dryer, straightening iron, massive amounts of hair gels, mouses, and sprays). Oh yeah if there is a drop of humidity in the air, you just have to give it all up and realize that I am gonna have curly hair. Kinda like that episode of friends where Monica went to Jamaica. Yeah like that. Jim also has really thick and wavy hair.

Anyway, I was hoping that my son would somehow get straight hair. But I have realized that there is no way you can bend the laws of genetics that far. So that comes to my quandry - haircuts. He does need one, but he looks so cute with his little curls all over that I do hate to cute them off. He has had one haircut before in March, but he didn't have the curls he has now. But at the same time, I don't want people to look at my son and think "that kid needs a haircut where is his mother". I have thought that of little boys before who obviously needs a haircut badly. Yeah I am a petty person.

I forgot my Blogiversary!

My blog is a year old as of August 12! And I forgot to mention it! I have to admit that a year ago, I really did not know what a blog was (yes how pathetic was I?). I had begun to read the blogs of other March Mommy's from the board that I read and thought wow what a cool idea. I really started it as a way to show off Jack's pictures to all the family and friends scattered all over the country. But it has evolved into a personal journal of myself, Jack's growing up, and our family. In some ways, it is really great therapy writing this blog and also reading other blogs. I can not begin to thank all the other Mommy's who have opened up their lives a little bit by blogging. I have learned so much from them about parenting and coping with a baby and now a toddler. So thank you to you fellow Mommys.

I also have come a long way since last August. I still was trying to recover from giving birth, having endless nights of no sleep, and coping with a new baby. Um... no easy feat. But a year later, life is really really great. And for the first time in my life, I can say that I am content with life. It only took 38 years!

I also just have to mention one thing that happened last night. Of course Jack did not go down at 7:30. He started screaming about 8:00. I think he gets scared in his room when it is not really dark outside. He was looking around at the shadows on the walls and ceilings when I went in his room, even though he does have a night light in his room. So I picked him up and took him into my bedroom and put him in bed with me. And we just cuddled together for about 30 minutes. He was so cute and loving. At one point, I was stroking his hair and then stopped. I guess he liked his hair getting stroked, because he picked up my hand and put it back on my head. So cute! Yep it is these moments when you say that being a Mommy is the best gig in the world.

Just me and Jack

Jim is gone this week (boohoo). He is in Baltimore for work training. I really really wanted to go with him. It sounded like fun relaxing and checking out Baltimore with Jack during the day and then with Jim at night. Also, would have been great for the possibility of meeting Ben and Erin. But alas, work wouldn't let me off. Short-handed and all, etc etc. So it is just me and Jack this week. We had fun tonight. We shared a can of spaghettios and then shared a bowl of ice cream (I know I know thats not on the diet. Shut Up.) Then we went for a walk (yeah exercise so there.) Now Jack is tucked in bed, hopefully for the night. He has been not wanting to go to bed ontime lately by pushing his bedtime later and later until about 8:30. I am hoping that the days becoming shorter will put an end to that. I really like bedtime at 7:30.

Nothing else going on here. Back to work tomorrow. Been thinking about taking medical billing classes to maybe work from home doing that. Not sure just how that all works, but sounds interesting. I remember I had a friend in Seattle who did that and she had two kids under 3 at the time. As you can see, my daily thoughts are a) quitting my job and b) maybe having another baby. Same old recording going over and over in my head. Geesh I need a new recording me thinks.

All American Day of Cheerleading and Baseball

Yesterday we went out to the ball park. Laura's cheer team was performing the pre-game show. She did really well. Both her father and I were sooo proud of her because we know how hard she has worked. I think she is really proud of herself also for not giving up and quitting. And she thought it was really cool to get to show off in front of all those people. I also watched in amazement at the older girls. They were really good and the way they can flip their bodies around is truly amazing. I did take video. However, because of jerks who insisted on getting in my way, it didn't turn out like I wanted. I even got mad at some guy who stood in front of my camera. I said "excuse me that is my daughter down there" and he actually turned around and said "so, my grand daughter is coming up next" Next! As in NOT peforming right now. So get out of my way! He didn't know that I am Mad Mom With Camera. So I will try to edit the video and maybe post it on here. I am still fuming at that man.


Our little cheerleader

Laura performing. She is in back the 2nd on the right.

The big finish. Laura is in back 3rd from left with her arms up in a V.

My two baseball guys. Of course, I had to dress Jack up in his little "All American Baseball" Shirt.

Jack did really well at the game. He was quite enthralled and liked to watch them. Maybe we have a future baseball star on our hands? We sat behind 3rd base in foul ball land. There were two balls that came really close to us. In fact one came and landed two rows behind us and both Jim and I heard the SMACK of the ball on some lady's leg. OUCHIE. The baseball stadium people showed up with an ice pack for her, which I thought was nice of them.

We ended up leaving in the 6th inning. The Lake Elsinore Storm (our team) was losing 2-0 and it was almost 9:00. It was actually a cool night and we were all getting cold. But it was really fun night. We even got free Lake Elsinore Storm hats. Yay!