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?