His What?

Jaykeb is learning the planets. Oma bought him a t-shirt that has the planets on it and also a sticker book. She sat with him and went over the planets on his shirt, naming each one so that he could learn their names. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.(We are still calling Pluto a planet...poor thing) Then it was Jayke's turn to name them, "Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, My Ranus, Neptune... Wait, What? His ranus? Or was this his anus? I had to have him say it several more times. It was, "my Ranus" that he said. I laughed and laughed. The kid is a nut!



He has cracked us up a bunch of times since Oma and Opa have been here. He told Oma, "Stop mumbling, Oma!" when she was talking to him the other day. On the boat he was sitting driving us across the wake another boat made when all of a sudden he yelled, "Don't lose your camera's ladies!" Ladies? I know it doesn't come off as funny when you read about it on here, but when you hear that tiny voice say it it is hysterical.

Here he is in his planet shirt...the picture is one I took when we went to the town of Abbeville. Very historical little town. We toured some of the historical locations while there. This bell was one thing but I can't remember the story about the bell. I was too intrested in making my way over to the old Opera house, the old hotel, and one of the many churches you could go in. Abbeville is the place where Jefferson Davis held his last war council meeting and signed the succesion from the union documents.




This fountain interested me since I am such an animal nut. It is a fountain for animals, mainly horses. The top level for the horses, the bottom for cats and dogs. They had them in other towns too. This is one of the few that is still in the orginal location. Put there in 1912.

The old Opera house was really neat. You could go up to the box and balcony seats. They still have shows there. There was an old hotel and an old church you could also tour. The mansion where the succession papers were signed was not opn the day we were there so we couldn't go in it. I got a picture of it though. Everything else is in the slideshow below.



This will probably be the last slideshow for a while. Mom and Jim leave tomorrow. We haven't done anything the past coupld of days. Just hang out. Jayke has been worn out so he needed to stay home and rest up. Back to my normal boring routine again after today.

Just Monkeying Around

I finally got to go to Monkey Joe's today. Maybe I should say, Jaykeb got to, after all, it was for him. I really wanted to go too though. I am thinking about having his birthday party there this year. You can get the whole place in the evening for just your party. But I digress. Jayke absolutley love it! Like you thought otherwise. If you have one in your areas and you have small kids, I highly recommend it! Especially on a rainy day. If you don't have kids, steal your neighbor's and take them. You only have to pay for the kids and you can join them on the blow ups for free! My mom really wants them to make one for adults only. Good exercise!



There was even something for the guys to do...



After Monkey Joe's we went to the mall then to downtown Greenville. I had to show them Falls Park. They have an interactive fountain in the park for kids but we have never let Jayke play in it before. Well you know the kid was going right in that thing with his grandparents here to say it was okay.



We ate at one of my favorite restaurants, Wild Wing Cafe, after Jayke was done playing in the fountain. On the way home I stopped and picked up some fireworks and stuff to make smores. Mike built a fire which not only let us make our smores but finally got the lot cleaned up where the trees fell in the storm a couple of weeks ago. After all that Jaykeb was exhausted. I can't believe he made it to watch fireworks. Tomorrow we won't do much so he can be well rested for out day on the boat Monday.



Jaykeb has recently introduced us to his new friends. Icky, a boy who is invisible and Mr. Nobody. Mr. Nobody is only around though when Jayke has done something he isn't supposed to and he blames it on Mr. Nobody. It goes like this, "Jaykeb why did you leave crumbs all over my chair?" Jaykeb replies, "I didn't do it, Mr. Nobody did!" Icky is just a boy he talks about who goes with us everywhere now. Weird name for an imaginary friend, but then again I did have Barber Carson the dog when I was little. It has been funny listening to him tell us all about what Icky is up to.

I Don't Know What to Title This...

Well, The Boy is happy. He has his Oma here waiting on him hand and foot. I can only imagine how spoiled he would be if we still lived near them!



Mike turned our builder into the BBB about the condition they left our empty lot in. They did a terrible job grating and planting it and it never grew plus they filled in a ravine that shouldn't have been filled in and now there are drainage issues. We got a response that they are going to come out and redo it all so we had to go out and discuss it with the expert (Jim).



While we were out there Opa found an arrow head for Jayke. You know how boys get excited about these things. He immediately stuffed it in his pocket so he wouldn't lose it. In the middle of the night he started yelling in his sleep about the arrow head. Scared me to death. I couldn't figure out what he was screaming about. The Boy has as many conversations in his sleep as he does when he is awake and that is A LOT!



I have to post this next picture because it is something few people have been lucky enough to see in there lifetime...



That would be two men in the kitchen, cleaning! One with a broom and the other with the vacuum. When Opa went to get a glass to drink that berry whine/shine stuff it flew out of the cabinet and shattered all over. Every time he is here something falls at his head. He thinks I plan it. I don't. No really, I don't!

Today I took Oma and Opa around to look for houses. Eventually they are buying one down here. Jayke got tired of that real quick. The Boy has to learn as I did when I was little. Looking at houses is what we do. Opa is a developer/builder, my mom is an interior designer, my grandfather was a builder, my grandmother was in real estate and I worked in interior design with my mom for 10 years. It is in our blood. I hated it as a child too but grew to love it. Jayke will too, whether he likes it or not. At least today we only drove through neighborhoods. Wait until we start dragging him to models!

Mom and I took him swimming this evening. He really wasn't into to it though. My mom actually thought she would be able to get in the pool with me and not get her hair wet. Ha! She should have known better. Opa and Mike stood on the deck above us and just watched and shook their heads as we tried to drown each other. She tried to talk me out of it by telling me she thought I was an adult now. Bwahahahahah!(evil laughter) That just makes it easier for me to dunk her!

Tomorrow Opa is going to unhook all my audio visual equipment and hook it all up correctly. Mike can operate multi million dollar robots but he apparently can't hook up av equipment correctly. Don't tell him I said that! Last night he told me he only checks my blog about once a week just to see what embarrassing s**t I've put on here of him. I told him I'm sure I can do better than what I have so far. I will have to work on that. Right now, I'm going to work on going to sleep before 4 a.m.

P.S. I have been reading how everyone is reading their Harry Potter books so when I got this in an email I decided to post it for all you HP fans out there...This is my cousin and her family at the book party at Borders in New Jersey. They made the paper. Cracked me up.



Note: Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and check out the really interesting clock down there.

"Shine"y Happy People

"I was talking to you, berry man!"

"I'm not berry man, I'm two berries and a Dickle!"

Yep, Oma and Opa arrived safely this evening. Opa and Mike decided to bust out the "special" jar in the fridge that came down out of the mountains with a guy Mike works with. Also a bottle of "sippin' whiskey" Mike picked up at a distillery in Tennessee. George Dickle whiskey or something like that. Hence the conversation I had with Jim after two glasses of the "special" stuff and one of the whiskey. Mom and I were not amused. Jayke just went to sleep. I should have joined him.

It's Utter Chaos!

I can't talk now! Mom and Jim will be here in a couple of hours. I need to run to the store to get something to feed them tonight. I was up all night again last night. I assembled a table at 3 a.m. It is for the patio. It has been sitting in the garage waiting on Mike for a couple of months now. He will never get around to it so I went ahead and did it. I don't like to do too much of this though because then he will catch on that I really can do stuff and when I ask him to do things he won't anymore.

My house is clean, my table is assembled, my deck and patio are nice and neat, the kid is clean, Oma's room is ready for them, and the beer is cold. I think I'm ready if I just get something planned for dinner.

Jayke keps walking around the house randomly saying, "It's utter chaos." I don't know what he is referring to. Maybe my new sleeping habits, maybe my whirlwind cleaning, I don't know but it is kind of funny.

I will try to get around to blogs later. For now I have to run!
Oh yeah, Dona, I cleaned my ceiling fans!

Random Thoughts Spewing All Over

I have been one giant ball of snot all weekend. Lovely visual, huh? I think I am on the mend now though. I slept in until 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. Yeah, you heard me right. I didn't get to bed until 6 a.m. the night/morning before. Insomnia decided to join the snot-inducing critters who invaded my body and they were up late partying. The hubs kept The Boy out of the room and quite after the horrible day I had on Friday.

With Jayke and I both sick and home alone together ALL day (Mike worked late)we ended up having a terrible day. I was told that I was a Big Poopy, he didn't like me and he also poked me in the eye. He also told me that, "His Bwain tells him to be mean to Mommy!" I'm thinking we need to get out of the house for a while. Good thing Oma and Opa will be here on Wednesday!

Opa called today and had me look into making reservations at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta for while they are here. I am stoked about that! I have been wanting to go there since we moved here. I think we are going to meet up with his sister and parents, who live in Atlanta, have lunch then hit the aquarium in the afternoon after the crowd starts to thin out. Anyone been there and have some good tips for me? I think we are going to see the 3D Deepo show while we are there too. I heard it is good. I've been watching all the videos on the website and I can't wait to go!

I have a tentative schedule made out for while the grandparents are here. So far I have 5 days filled. I'm trying to leave a few open for spontaneous activities such as the excitement filled game of croquet we had last time they visited. I'm thinking of getting a Hillbilly Ball game, aka ladder ball. Ang's son, Matthew, dubbed it that and I think it is a very appropriate name for the game so I'm going with it. So what are the things I have planned you ask? Well, we are taking Jayke to Monkey Joe's on Thursday and then I want to take them to Falls Park to show them the waterfall. They have been to Greenville but when we were there with them we didn't know about the falls so I'm taking them back. On Saturday I want to go to Abbeville. Cute little historical town about 20 minutes south of us. Mom wants to go there too so that is on the list. The next week, is our boat day on Monday and the aquarium on Wednesday. I'm sure I will get something else penciled in somewhere, there are tons of things I want to do. Maybe a trip up to The Biltmore or something like that.

I just heard on the news that people were stuck in the arch in Missouri for over two hours today. I remember going up in that thing when I was pregnant. I am not the type of person to be claustrophobic but riding up and back down in that tiny capsule thing was too much for me. It was all I could do to not freak out. It probably would have been better if they hadn't crammed another couple in with us. The entire time I was thinking what if we got stuck, what if we got stuck? Well, some unlucky person did and I feel bad for them. I don't know why I felt I needed to talk about that...I guess that is what happens when you have been sick and on too much cold medication. Random crap just spews out of my head onto the keyboard. I need to make a list. Things You Don't Want to do While Pregnant:

Go to Las Vegas (while 6 months pregnant with feet the size of melons)
Go to the St Louis Zoo(in the rain in October while 6 months preggers)
Go up in the arch in St. Louis
Run down the street chasing 7 dogs who have escaped. (I'm sure Angi agrees with me here!)
All dumb things I did while pregnant and regretted immediately. I'm sure there were plenty of others but that is all that comes to mind right now.

Speaking of random...Here is how The Boy finally conked out this afternoon.



He is asleep on the foot rest part of the recliner in between his dad's legs. He is also holding a back scratcher. I'm going to make a montage of all the pictures I have of him sleeping in random places and positions around the house. It amazes me sometimes. Especially when I can't fall asleep for anything laying in my comfy bed with my two down pillows and my old quilt that has been washed just the right amount of times to make it perfect. My blanky. My sister actually offered me $180 for my blanky and I turned her down. That is how much I LOVE it. I don't know which one of us is crazier...her for offering that much for an old quilt or me for turning that much down. Anyway...more random tidbits from my over medicated, sleep deprived brain. I will stop now.

Cousins to play with!

We had a great time at Kristen's party for being accepted into Oxford. Only a portion of the family was there which is a little unusual, but we still had a good time.



We played cards,(yes, Angi, I played cards)and took loads of pictures, and had a REALLY good meal. My cousin, Leanne, and her husband, Russ, cooked lobster for us all and it was better than any I've ever had any where else. Lobster, homemade twice baked potatos, sauteed asparagus spears, and a huge salad all topped off with home made key lime pie! I think I want them to come cook for me every night, or at least invite me over to their house for dinner. Below is Russ, Kristen's boyfriend, Russell. Kristen, Caitlin, and Leanne. Oh yeah and Lola, the dog who growled at Jaykeb.



Jaykeb had a blast! First he got to play with one of his older cousins, Danny...



Then two more cousine arrived. Kylie and Alexa. Kylie is only a few months older than Jayke. I wish they lived closer so they could play together like this more. The picture below is my sister, Sherri. My cousin, Mitch who is Alexa's dad. Alexa, Jaykeb, and Danny.



And this is Jaykeb with Kylie...



Taking pictures of 3 year olds is very difficult. They never hold still!



There was a "performance" by June and The Tripods. They performed Tiny Bubbles. Kylie and Jayke were the tripods. It was her farewell tour.



Meemaw insisted I DO NOT put her picture on my blog, so no pictures of Meemaw on here. She was here though. Jaykeb played for 5 hours straight, no nap. I should have known I would pay for this later. He was a perfect angel and everyone went on and on about how sweet and well mannered he is. I was actually impressed with his behavior. This was the child I remember from a year ago back out of no where. When it was time to go he was ready though and didn't even make it off of their street before falling asleep. I think we are going to go back this afternoon for some more time playing with the girls. We didn't make it to school this morning because Jaykeb kept waking up in the night crying he was so exhausted. I don't know how that works but when he is super tired he doesn't sleep well. Weird, I know. So we skipped school, slept in (sorry AJ you should have just told me to shut up and get off the phone)and now we are getting ready to go back over. It's warmer today so hopefully the kids can play outside some. I'm sure I will lots of pictures again. I will try to just put them in a slide show in a separate post later. I will get some of the neighborhood in Seneca today too because it is gorgeous. Those will be for Angi. Maybe you guys can show them to KP to coax her to move down and you guys can follow! I promise if you move down here I will start playing cards more! How bout that?



I won't be visiting blogs until later tonight but I promise to make my rounds then.

Suprise...guests in two hours!

I think I need a two hour notice for a surprise inspection once a week! Meemaw called today and said she was bringing my aunt June and my sister Sherri over to see the house. They were in Charlotte when they called which meant I had two hours to get the house cleaned up and myself showered and dressed. After I recovered from my panic attack I started barking orders at The Boy and The Dad to start cleaning. I have to say they did an excellent job! Both of them helped me the entire time and did whatever I asked without complaint. We managed to have the house in pretty good shape by the time they got here which is amazing after what Jayke did to it yesterday. I hate rainy days.
They arrived literally as I was pulling on my pants. Jaykeb was so excited! He was disappointed P'pa wasn't with them though. We showed them the house, the yard, the landscaping and then 15 minutes later they loaded The Boy in the car with them and took off. At least my house is clean now. Mike and I will be joining them all in a little while at my cousin's house. I can't believe how quiet the house is without Jaykeb here. This doesn't happen very often. I miss him.

Thank You Oma and Opa

Jayke is a sad boy today. His Oma and Opa left to go back home to Indiana. For a minute he said he was going to go with them until he realized I wasn't going too. Now he is in the bedroom watching cartoons. Something he didn't do the entire time they were here.
I haven't taken any more pictures of the finished landscaping project yet because it isn't totally finished. Mike and I still have to get the mulch and put it down ourselves. Probably this weekend. It looks great though and will look even better when the mulch is down. Mike and Opa finished that up yesterday while my mom, Jayke, and I went shopping. You know we have to get a day of shopping in no matter what! It was a VERY successful trip too!
After shopping we decided to find a new restaurant. That isn't too hard to do since we have only been here a year and there are TONS of restaurants down here that we have never heard of. We decided on one in the little historical town of Pendleton. Opa was craving some fresh seafood and this place had a great menu loaded with seafood, steaks, and other goodies. The restaurant was in this really old old building. Not big on atmosphere but the food was great! Mike even said he'd go back and anyone who knows his eating habits knows that is really saying something. We took a spin around the town square after dinner to see all the old historical buildings and read about the history. Interesting stuff. I've been meaning to go explore up there a little bit so I was glad we went.
We had a busy tiring visit with my parents but it was a good visit. I will be glad when they move down here in a few years and we will be able to do more of this stuff. Jayke will be glad too!
Mike is off today but we aren't doing anything. Just cleaning up from our company and long weekend. Jayke and I did have a little art project this morning though. He got Floam from the Easter bunny so we made these this morning...



A bee and a mosquito in case you couldn't tell. I think I like the Floam better than the Clay Babies we did a few weeks ago. It was easier to work with and you don't have to bake it. Jayke loved it for about 20 minutes and then he was on to something else while I finished making his bugs. Typical.

Our Big Working Weekend!

It has been a little boy's dreamland around here this weekend. Not only has he had his Oma waiting on him hand and foot, but he has had two dump trucks come and dump piles of dirt and stone on his cul de sac for us to use in our landscaping project and we have a Bobcat rented that he has been getting to ride on.



I don't know what is so fascinating about this stone but apparently something is...



It only took about 1 minute for him to go right up to the top of the pile. That is what 20 tons of stone looks like by the way. I thought it would be more. He ate his lunch which he called a "picnic" on top of the rock pile both days it was still out there.



Oma had to climb up with him for his picnics. That was entertaining all by itself, watching her climb up and better still, get back down!



He had to try out the dirt pile too. He was in heaven! At the end of the first day of our project he was exhausted!



He didn't only play on the piles, he actually helped with the work. Here you can see the beginning of what we were doing in the yard.



....and another shot with the beginnings of the steps put in.



Jayke got to ride on the Bobcat (On Opa's lap, not in the bucket. They weren't moving in this picture)many times and loved it! I remember riding on equipment with my grandpa all the time when I was little and loving it.




Daddy got to ride on the Bobcat too!



Here is a picture of the landscaping with some stuff actually planted. This is where we are with it right now. We have to get mulch tomorrow and then it will be done. Just have to wait for everything to grow!



I know Grandma is waiting to see all these pictures that is why I'm putting so many on here. Tomorrow I will be able to put the finished project on here but you can get an idea of what we have been doing all weekend from these. I think everyone is sitting around in the living room trying not to move right now and waiting on their Easter dinner. Jaykeb is asleep in the middle of the floor. He fell asleep with his face buried in my shoe he was so tired. I think tomorrow we are going to do something fun and not work other than spreading the mulch which Mike and I can do by ourselves if mom and Jim are too tired.
Here are a couple of shots of the boy with his Oma...


Next weekend his Meemaw will be here so he is going to be in grandma bliss next weekend too!



And the Easter egg hunt pictures I promised...


It was pretty cold here this morning so we had to wait until it warmed up a little but we were still able to have the hunt outside which is always better!



We are all exhausted but we got a lot of work done! Besides putting in the steps we built up and leveled an area where the pool is going to go and we got The Boy's sandbox set up with new rubber playground mulch put down so he won't get so dirty when playing on the swingset. He also go a new glider added to his swingset which he LOVES! I think we will all be heading to bed early again tonight and hopefully we will be able to walk tomorrow!

Thank You Easter Bunny!

Happy Easter! Feels more like Christmas though. Cold! Jayke got up plenty early this morning but didn't remember that it was Easter. I think he was so worn out from all the work we did yesterday that he just forgot about the bunny coming when he went to bed last night. I think every one of us was in bed by 10:15p.m. That has to be a record for me! I have lots of pictures of the work we have been doing but I will save them for later. Today is about Easter!

We won't be hunting eggs until later. Let it warm up a little. We didn't color many but we got a few done. I haven't done this in years. Here is Jaykeb and his Dad coloring the eggs yesterday.



He has a few eggs in there.


I know it looks like a lot for Easter but there is stuff from 3 people in this pile.



Mike had an interesting Easter basket. He called it his, "Wife Beating Kit" I'm not sure I like that.



He got a new George Foreman grill too since ours pooped out a couple of weeks ago.
The Easter Bunny even remembered to bring Oma and Opa a basket!



I'm sure I will have pictures of the big egg hunt later...much later when it warms up. I have to go see about preparing my Easter feast now.