Arrrghhhh!!!

Here's my little pirate. I'm so glad HE chose to be a pirate this year because his years of wearing "cute" costumes is coming to an end. I didn't want to have to MAKE him be a pirate. He will no doubt want to be something scary, bloody, and disgusting before long and I was determined to have a pirate picture for my Halloween album.

We went trick-or-treating last night with Mike, who drove up for the weekend. We first went over to Oma and Opa's house where he not only got candy but legos as well. He wasn't having any visiting though we had to get moving. There was candy with his name on it! We came back home and went around our neighborhood then headed over to the neighboring hood. Farmington is HUGE! We made it about half way through before Mike suggested we start heading back towards our house. Good thing he did because shortly after turning for home Jayke no longer wanted to trick-or-treat. Mike thought as long as we were heading for the house he could hit all the houses along the way. He went willingly at first but soon was yelling at us, "I DON'T WANT TO TRICK-OR-TREAT ANYMORE! I WILL NOT GO TO ONE MORE HOUSE! MY FEET HURT!"

When we got back to the house we had to "inspect" his candy. This is just what parents tell the kids so they can pick out the pieces they want. Jayke was kind enough to give Mike and me each a Reese's cup, which is both of our favorites. They left shortly after to go back to Mike's parent's house where Jayke could trick-or-treat...and hopefully get more Reese's cups.

Today I had to load the pirate up and take him over to my dad's to trick-or-treat. Halloween turned out to be just like Christmas...never ending. We had already gone trick-or-treating at the nursing home on Thursday. Grammy got to see Jayke in his costume, of course she didn't know who he was until she saw my mom and me standing over to the side. I would say total he got about 4 buckets of candy. I think I will be hauling some of it in to work to fill my candy bowl in my office. God knows I don't need 4 buckets of candy sittin' around my house waiting to make it's way to my butt and thighs! Jayke certaing won't miss it either!

Whew! It's Over!

Can't have Christmas without reindeer food which is usually followed by reindeer poop and many disgusted groans when my dad tries to gross the kids out by eating the reindeer poop! (It is just chocolate chips that he puts out after sweeping the oatmeal reindeer food away.) Here is Jayke carefully placing his reindeer food on Christmas Eve!

We had Christmas at my Mom's house after my Dad's but somehow I didn't get any pictures over there. Probably because I was exhausted from my middle of the night WalMart run and the marathon Christmas at my Dad's earlier. I think I was relying on my mom to take them and send them to me. Like anyone else I ask for pictures from though, I haven't received any. I do have a couple of pictures of Christmas morning at Grammy's though. This first one is of Jayke and Opa on their big scavenger hunt I made for them.

I spent a lot of time writing out clues and hiding them so the two of them could do this fun thing together and I don't think it was appreciated. At least no one was very excited about it. I don't think Jayke really understood what was going on. I had them go all over the house following my very clever rhyming clues and at the end they had to go out on the pier to get their gifts. I had bought Opa artificial fish bait and Jaykeb got a tackle box, bobbers, and rubber worms for the two of them to have a big day fishing this summer. Jayke's tackle box was a Scooby Doo one of course!





Santa brought Jaykeb a new bike at Grammy's. He was excited but was worried what would happen to his old bike. Seems like he flew through his presents as fast as he could which was fine since his dad would be picking him up. I had made a breakfast casserole and fruit salad for breakfast and we finished up just as Mike got there to pick Jayke up.








I headed over to my aunt's house for Christmas after Jayke left. I hadn't been there since I got married because I was usually with Mike's family in Bluffton. There weren't as many people there this year but it was still a lot of fun. There were tons of kids there and I wished Jayke could have been there to play but I knew he was having fun with his cousins at Mike's parent's house. Here he is with his cousin, Cassie, at Mike's parent's house. I think this picture is adorable...I don't know why.





And...just when we thought we had seen the last of Mike on my blog, here he is! His dad sent me some pictures of their Christmas and this was one of them. Mike got Jaykeb a rocket and they are preparing to launch. I'm pretty sure that it will stay in the garage until Mike comes back. I would probably burn the hair off my arm like I did when I tried to light the charcoal grill...that is a whole other blog entry though. There will be no launching of the rocket with Mommy! End of story.

What's Up With Your Retro Wallpaper?

The Boy goes with his dad today. He is so excited I can hardly stand him this morning. He has called his dad about 5 times so far...I'm sure Mike is not enjoying Jaykeb's new talent at dialing the phone now either.

Lets talk about that wallpaper in the background for a minute. I know it has shown up in many of my pictures now and then you read a post about how I worked in Interior Design for 10 years and probably are thinking to yourself...no wonder she is no longer working! That wallpaper, my friends, is in my grandmother's spare room upstairs and has been there as long as I've been on this earth. I considered painting over it but the last room I painted I no longer get to enjoy so I am living with the 1970s pussywillow and forsythia wallpaper for now. No, it doesn't match anything I own and yes, I do cringe when I see it in the backgrounds of my pictures. I just wanted to go on record as saying it is not my choice. If anyone likes it or by some weird chance has this wallpaper in their own home, I apologize for offending your willows. It is only my opinion.

As I sit typing this I now remember that I had sworn to myself that I would not allow a late pick-up of the boy ever again. He is literally hanging on my neck and won't be quiet. He spoke to his dad and we know he is somewhere in Indiana. I started naming towns but Jayke couldn't remember which one he is in. He could be in Russville or he could be in New Castle...we don't really know. I guess I will know when he gets here since there is about a 30 minute difference between the two. In the meantime I am going to try to sit here and wait with this boy turned maniac. What I'm going to do after they leave, I have no idea...probably miss them.

Here's Shrimp in Your Eye!

A word of advice, do NOT take your husband and child to Hobby Lobby with you when you are shopping for scrapbooking supplies...EVER! I actually thought that since Mike was going with me he could entertain The Boy while I looked. Unfortunately his form of entertainment was the kind that got on my very last nerve. Browsing the embellishment aisle while hearing your family argue 2 aisles over is not relaxing. It is not fun. It is not even amusing. Watching your young son try to navigate the aisles of breakables while pushing the shopping cart that is taller than he is is also not relaxing.

I finally gave up on the scrapbook supplies and headed over to the yarn, thread, and ribbon aisles. I need some thick thread for a banner I am making for The Boy's newly decorated room. The boys were left arguing in the model aisle. Not 1 minute after I left them I could hear Jaykeb yelling through the store, "I want to find Mommy!" Pretty soon I could also hear Mike calling him a little girl for crying for his mommy. I was beyond irritated. I even hid from them. Unfortunately there weren't too many places to hide.

The fun continued at dinner. I don't know what was going on today but the two of them just wanted to harass each other endlessly. This does not go well for my already pms'd nerves. Everyone eventually decided to give each other the silent treatment for about 10 minutes until it was broken by a shrimp tail hitting me square in the forehead. Okay, the tail didn't make a whole lot of noise but the laughter coming from my husband did. I just stared at him. Jayke started in with the questions. "Why did Daddy throw that at you?" Turns out he didn't throw it, it accidentally slipped out of his greasy paw when he was trying to rip the tail off with the shrimp in his mouth. Of course it hit ME in the head which made his night. I didn't find it as funny as he did, however. Nothing like trying to enjoy your dinner with shell fish drilling you in the forehead.

It was home and to bed after that, at least for the two trouble makers. I will spend the next 4 hours of blissful time alone scrapping my little heart out.

Wrong Twila

Seems I was mistaken as to which little girl is Twila. Jayke set me straight today when we got to school and she was coming in the same time we were. Twila has long, curly, blonde hair instead of short black hair like he orginally told me. When I came to pick him up I got there early enough to see he was sitting next to her during their goodbye songs.

Later at home he had his phone and was talking to Twila on the phone. Pretty soon he told me, "Twila hanged up on me! That is not good." Get used to it boy. It will probably happen a lot. He had several phone conversations with Twila then a while later came and asked me if Twila could come over now. When I said no he started to get upset and told me to please call her mommy and tell her to bring Twila over. sigh I think I'm in for it with this boy. He fell asleep on the couch with his little toy phone in his hand like he was waiting for her to call.

Mike informed me last night that as soon as we get back from Mexico next month he may be going to Germany for 3 weeks. I am not getting worked up about it yet since the last time they told him he would be going he didn't. 3 weeks is a long time though. I wouldn't want to be out of the country for a month which is what it will end up being with Mexico then Germany.

This picture has nothing to do with anything. Just wanted to put one on here for the grandparents to look at. I think the four wheeler has a short. It quits working sometimes and he needs a push.



That is our lovely empty lot that we attempt to grow grass in now and then. As you can see it isn't working out for us.

Fun at the Fair

We skipped the big Balloon Festival this weekend for something a little more kid friendly. The Upper South Carolina State Fair or as I like to call it The Fair that Brought Back the Pay Toilet. Not really but I'm surprised they didn't think of it. Jayke referred to it as the, "Up and Down Fair". Not sure why, but I can guess it has something to do with the word Upstate being in the title. Maybe it was because he went up and down on a bunch of rides or maybe it was because it was a lot like gambling...when you got there you were up and when you left you were down. Broke. Busted. Okay...he really wouldn't have thought of that last one.

This may have been the most expensive fair I've ever been to! Everything had a fee. You would think since you had to pay to do and see everything in the fair that there wouldn't have been a charge at the gate but there was. First you pay to park, then you pay to get in, you pay to ride every ride (Riding the Ferris Wheel for our family was $12) you pay to look at a snake, you pay to play games, you even pay to shake a monkey's hand. Maybe it has always been this expensive and I just never realized because my kid wasn't old enough to do any thing in the past. I know you have to pay for stuff but shaking a monkey's hand? First you paid to ride the ride or see the animal then you had to pay more if you wanted to take a picture...with your own camera! I can understand paying for them to take a picture but charging me to use my own friggin camera is going too far! Yeah, yeah, yeah...that is how carnies make their money, right. I think they are making plenty of money on $4.00 soft drinks, $5.00 elephant rides, and charging me to use my own camera! They sell you tickets for the rides so it isn't registering how much everything is. $4.00 for a lap around a haunted house...oh wait! Make it $8.00 because my kid was not tall enough to ride by himself so Mike had to go too! Too, too much!



Sorry...got off on a little rant there. Now back to our regularly scheduled post of our fun filled day at the fair. There were tons of animals there to see. You could see most of them without paying so we did get to see a lot of animals. We did not however, feed or ride any animals. I'd like to be able to make the mortgage this month ya know. We rode the Ferris Wheel together then Mike got to ride all the other stuff with The Boy while I played photographer from a safe enough distance on some things to not have to pay to take my own pictures. Jayke was in heaven when he got to take a ride on a real Monster Truck. For $10 each we could have taken a 2 minute ride on a real helicopter...this I actually understand because of gas prices and all. We passed on the helicopter ride but we did get to have tons of wind and dust blown on us from the helicopter while waiting to ride the Monster Truck. I'm surprised someone didn't come over and tell me that would be $1.00 for fanning me!

Jayke rode lots of rides, we ate, and then it was time for Mommy to gett'er done at the water gun game. I had been scoping out the place all day trying to find the best place to win a Scooby Doo for The Boy. He has this new obsession with Scooby Doo. Scooby Doo toys are kind of hard to find so I thought we could try to win one while we were there. I stood near the water gun game watching and learning. Apparently they only handed out the BIG prize if there were enough people playing, but get too many and your odds of winning go down. There were only two people sitting there so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to snag a Scooby. I hurried Mike and Jayke over, we paid for Jayke to play with Mike's help and me to play by myself. Just before we got ready to start more people came and sat down. Doh! There went my big plan...now I would have to beat more people. Shouldn't be a problem, I'm actually pretty good with guns. They count down and the bell rings...fire! I know I should have won...I didn't miss a drop but I lost. One more try! I'm not a gambler but put me in front of a fair game and it's on! Pay them Mike! I'm goin' again!







I won! And The Boy was so excited to get a Scooby Doo I thought he was going to climb up on the game itself to grab it from the woman. Mike took that opportunity to herd us right on out to the car. We were both on a fair high, me from the big win and The Boy from his Scooby so we were easily persuaded to leave. I made sure to point out the fact several times that MOMMY scored that awesome Scooby for The Boy. This only led to a passionate discussion about who usually kicks butt at the fair games. I had to bring out the big guns and take it all the way back to 1999, Kings Island and the Wack a Mole game. He went a step further though and reminded me of his 3 point shooting that same year to win a 4 foot tall Marvin the Martian. Just what we needed. We should not be allowed near fairs, festivals, or amusement parks.

Rats and Bulldogs

As Mike was walking out the door Saturday around noon to go to a Georgia football game, he decided to ruin my entire day with one little statement. "Jayke, Mommy is going to take you to a movie this afternoon." That did it. The rest of my day was pure torture until 4 o'clock when we could FINALLY head for the teatre.

I had decided that morning that I would take him to see a movie. Mike plays this game on his cell phone and wins all these prizes all the time, Target gift cards, Starbucks giftcards, Blockbuster giftcards, Amazon giftcards, and this time Fandango Bucks. The movie would be free and sice Mike was off to a fun afternoon without us, we might as well use them. I decided to take him to see Ratatoullie. I debated about Underdog but thought an animated movie might hold his attention better. i ordered the tickets online before Mike told him we would be going, otherwise I would have taken him to an earlier showing before he drove me batty!



I was planning on getting some laundry done, pay some bills, clean a little, stuff like that before going. However, since Mike decided to sabotage my day by telling The Boy we were going to a movie 4 hours before it would be time to leave, I didn't get anything done. I spent the next four hours with a kid hanging, literally, on my side. "Is it time to go yet? How long before we can go? I don't think I can wait that long! How far away is the movie theatre? I'm soooooo excited, Mommy lets go now!" Thanks Mike. I would have told him we were going as we were walking out the door so that I wouldn't have had to hear this for 4 straight hours.

Now, I know Mike didn't do it on purpose. He had no way of knowing The Boy was going to do this all day. He isn't around him enough to know all these things and all the tricks I use to keep stuff like this from happening. When he got home from the game, at 1a.m., I told him not to EVER do that again. He laughed and I laughed with him. We laugh because we know what a motor mougth child we have and that he would have talked all day regardless, but the excitement made it that much worse. It's funny after he has finally gone to sleep and you have peeled yourself off of the ceiling and had about 10 drinks to calm yourself.

The movie was cute and for the most part Jaykeb was very good. I will be more careful not to take him to a movie that is that long in the future though. He can do about an hour and 20 minutes but after that he just wants to stomp up and down the aisle crunching popcorn people...er, uh we...dropped.

Luckily there weren't very many people in the theatre since it was a big weekend here in Anderson, SC. Balloon Festival is going on and coinciding with the FSU vs. Clemson football game. First game of the season. All the orange paw prints came out of hiding all over town. Flags are flying from almost every car window. People are wearing their Orange shirts, orange crocs, orange hairbows, carrying orange purses, and I'm sure they are even wearing orange underwear! If you cut them they bleed orange. I thought basketball was big in Indiana, you haven't seen anything until you have witnessed football season in the South!

Mike brought souvenirs home from the game...




....matching hats for the guys and a Bulldog blanket. Souvenirs for the boys...more stuff for the mom to pick up.

Great Day for Jayke...Mike's was in the Pooper!

Our first day of school went much better than I had anticipated it would! Mike was here to see Jayke leave for school this morning. We got ready and hopped in the car with no complaints so I had hopes that it would be an easy drop off once we got there.



He was actually excited to go. When we got there he marched right up to the door without hesitation. I was making him stop every few minutes so I could take his picture otherwise he would have been inside in a flash.




His name tag that we made during his in home visit was waiting under his elephant symbol. He put his name tag on, grabbed his elephant and went right into his class.



I had to deliver the classroom supplies, put his folder in the box, turn in all his paperwork, and get our day for bringing snacks nailed down. I was in the hallway for several minutes and he never even looked for me. Actually he didn't even tell me goodbye. I snuck out the door to 3 whole hours of quiet alone time which I spent most of in Target getting to look at what I wanted to look at for as long as I wanted to look at it.



I ran errands all morning before heading back to the church to pick him up. I got there a little early so I sat in the car and watched through the window. Every now and then I would see The Boy go dancing by. They must have been doing some singing and dancing and he was really into it. He was excited to see me which made me feel better about how he didn't care at all when I left him. He told me what all they did and wanted to wear his backpack out to the car.




Yes, it is as big as he is. The teacher had sent a note home with each child telling what all they did in class. Jaykeb wanted to carry his note in his backpack which was fine but when I tried to take it out he was adament that I do not remove it. I tried to discuss it with him but he just kept telling me that the note was to him and I couldn't read it. When I asked him what it said he said he didn't want to tell me. The child has no idea what that note says. I don't either since he won't let me read it!

I'm glad the first day is over and I don't have to worry about fits and crying anymore. I even took pictures the other night at the open house just in case I couldn't get any taken this morning. Here is one of them in the hallway outside his classroom.





The bad news of the day was that when we got home we couldn't use our toilets or run any water. Something was wrong with the pump to the septic tank. Yesterday I kept hearing a noise but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Finally when Mike got home he asked me how long the alarm on the septic tank had been going off. Um...all day. I've never had a septic tank before I didn't know they had alarms. Who would think that a septic tank would have an alarm. What, it goes off if you put too much poop in it? That is strange. Strange but good, I guess. How else would you know that the pump was not working and you were about to have one big mess all over your backyard if you didn't get it fixed pronto?

Like everything else down here, the fixing was slow going. It turned out to be an all day process. Especially when the repair guys went off to "go get a new pump" and were gone forever. Then Mike told me the guy almost burned up the new pump after installing it. Mike stood out there and watched every move they made all day. Ya see, he doesn't trust any one that our builder sends out here to do a job anymore. From experience, we have learned that they don't do the best job and usually have to be called out again. I guess Mike wasn't going to take any chances with our toilets not working again. They are kind of important to have.

Finally they finished up right before dinner time. We could finally go to the bathroom and I could finally start laundry. Mike ended up missing a whole days work...sort of. He got called in a few minutes ago. He is not a happy camper today. I am though. Not only did they get the pooper fixed but Mike got a whole lot of yard work done while out there waiting for them AND...my boy had a great first day at school.


Oh yeah...and because my child is spoiled, spoiled, spoiled...he got this because he was so good on his first day of school...



No, it's not his Halloween costume...just for play. We had a sword fight this evening but I don't think it was quite fair since he was using his little plastic knight sword and I had a much superior weapon. I was using the weapon of a Jedi...my trusty light saber. I'm afraid the force was with me.

How Do They Manage?

Today we will be talking about blindness. Blindness in the male species in particular. I know you know what I'm talking about if you live with or know a man. They can't find anything! I'm calling it blindness, it may be another affliction but I'm not gonna go there today. Today I'm going to assume they have some kind of defect in their eyeballs causing them to NOT be able to see the car keys that are laying right in front of them. To NOT be able to find their glasses which have not moved since the owner put them in their current resting place. To NOT see their wife and child sitting in a running car in the very next parking space when they pull into the mall parking lot.

You got it folks. He parked right next to me in the mall parking lot today. Got out of his car, walked behind my running car with the kid screaming at him, and walked unknowingly straight into the mall. He was even meeting me there so you would think he would have noticed us sitting right next to him. I didn't even realize what was going on. I was talking on the phone to my dad waiting for Mike to get Jayke out of the backseat. I kept hearing Jaykeb say, "I'm watching Daddy! I'm watching Daddy!" Finally I decided to turn around and see what the heck he was watching him do. Um...he was watching him walk into the mall without us.

When we got into the mall a few minutes later he was nowhere to be found. We waited and waited and finally I called him to see where he was. Here is the conversation:

Me: Helloooo!
Him: Helloooo! (mocking me)
Me: Um, where are you?
Him: In the mall.
Me: No Sh*t! (sorry, it was called for)We watched you walk in after you parked right next to us!
Him: I did? Laughter follows. The kind where you can really tell he had no clue we were there.

Never did find out what he was doing in the mall. Maybe he was scoping out a present for me for being so understanding of his issues.

I was so hoping my son would not inherit this optical defect but I'm afraid he has. I think he may even be worse. Things can actually be laying at his feet and he will be looking everywhere but at the item he is looking for. How? I just don't understand it. I know where all my stuff is AND everyone else's stuff. I know my poor friend has to literally find everything of her husbands and hand it to him as he is going out the door to work every night. What would these poor helpless men do without us?

It also amuses me how their "misplaced" items always seem to turn up right where THEY left them. I know it isn't just my man too because I've watched my dad accuse my sister of taking his lighter only to find it in his own shirt pocket later. The one he was wearing no less! My step dad, same way. My grandfather, same way. No one gets off easy tonight...they are all blind! I know yours is too!

Under the Sea

I know I was supposed to post about our trip to Abbeville today but I couldn't wait to talk about the aquarium! We went to the Gerogia Aquarium in Atlanta today and it was wonderful!

We met up with Opa's parents and sister, Jennifer, for our tour. They all live in Atlanta so it was a good place for us to meet although we didn't get to visit much. We were too busy looking up. Looking up at the huge fish swimming over our heads! I've been to other aquariums but this was by far the best one yet. Why wouldn't it be, it is only the largest aquarium in the world! It houses 8 million gallons of water and has the most diverse collection of fish any where.

Ocean Voyage was by far my favorite exhibit. You found yourself walking through a 100 foot tunnel surrounded by 6 million gallons of saltwater and many many species of fish. Included in those species was the whale shark. The largest fish in the world. I also really liked watching the different kinds of rays swim gracefully past in large schools and the Goliath Grouper just hanging out at the glass staring back at you.

The Beluga Whales were beautiful and gracefull. The sea lions and otters were playful and cute. The penguins looked bizarre. We saw Nemo and his anemone, even got to touch the anemone. You could also touch rays, sharks, starfish, horshoe crab and shrimp. Jayke was very excited about touching the starfish but a little scared of the sharks. I don't blame him.

We had to hit the giftshop before leaving, of course. Oma bought Jaykeb a stuffed otter and a cute t-shirt. I wanted to ask where the heck was my souvenir but held my tongue. I guess I'm all grown up now and don't get souvenirs anymore. Whatever!

On the way home Jaykeb managed to talk literally for 3 hours straight. We got stuck in traffic so the 2 hour trip became 3 and we got to listen to an extra hour of chatter. He was too excited. He is at a really fun age to take to places like that right now, even though he didn't meet the height requirement to play on the climbing equipment. Made me feel bad. His dad did a great job of finding something else fun for him to make him forget about it though.

Once again, I put the pictures in a slide show. I just like the format for when I have a lot of pictures to share. Enjoy!

Land Ho!

I have a sun burn. I have not had a sun burn in proably 10 or more years. I don't go in the sun. Couldn't help it today though. We went out on a boat on Lake Keowee. I'm glad we went on Keowee instead of Hartwell. I think it is a prettier lake. It is closer to the mountains for one thing and it has a waterfall that you can stop at.

We were out there all day. Jayke was excellent. I think he has watched too much Backyardigans though. As we headed out towards an island in the middle of the lake he started shouting, "Land ho! Land ho!" which I know is from that show. He was also saying, "A'hoy Matie!" and calling Opa captain. It was very funny. He got to drive the boat too. He did a great job! Opa would tell him what to aim for and he would just do it. Drove us all around the lake.

We got out and got in the water a couple of times. Mostly we rode around and looked at the HUGE houses all along the shore. This is where mom and Jim have looked at properties with a realtor. I think after this outing they may be back to wanting a place on the lake. That would be fine with me! We stopped at the waterfall that falls into the lake. We all loved that. There was a nice sandy beach and you could easily get out and walk right up to the falls. The water was cold in front of the falls but the lake temp was like bath water. There is also a place on the lake where you can cliff jump. We didn't do this but we watched other people do it. Looked fun.

I have been putting the pictures together in slide shows since I'm putting so many on. That way those (my family) who want to see them all can and those who don't, don't have to scroll through them all.




Tomorrow is our trip to Abbeville. I'm going to need a vacation after my company leaves!

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.

Oma is Coming and Opa too!

Can you say excited? We finally found out today that Oma and Opa, (my mom and step-dad) are coming on the 25th and staying until the 4th! That is like 91/2 days. They have never stayed that long before. Hope I don't end up kicking them out before the 9 1/2 days is up. Joking...sort of!!

I'm glad they are staying longer because we always feel rushed and never get to do everything we have planned. This time we will be able to do more without Opa complaining about having to drive too much. We are renting a boat for next week some day. We are going to take Jayke to Monkey Joe's and Splash Zone. I think I may have run through all of this already...so I will stop now. I'm sure I will have a post about everything we do anyway.

Now I have something to use against the kid for the next week. "Jayke you better pick all your toys up or Oma won't want to come." I'm so mean, but it works. Whoever coined the phrase, "Terrible Twos" obviously did it before their child was three! He was an angel at two! I would have 10 two year olds but one three year old is almost more than enough some days. I said some days people, back off! I know I am lucky and he really is very good. I wouldn't trade him for anything, just lock him in the basement occasionally.

Right now he is outside with his father who is up on a 20 foot extension ladder cleaning the gutters. He is almost finished which I am happy about because I'm afraid he is going to fall off that thing and kill himself.



I have to go write a letter for the Home Owners Association now. We are preparing to sue our developer and every homeowner has to write a letter. One of my specialties. I swore when I got off the HOA board at my old house I would never be involved with another one. Too much fighting and stress. So what happens when we move here? Mike volunteers to serve on an advisory committee for the HOA. Yeah I said Mike, but that means that I get to do things like write letters, etc. I have yet to have to go to a meeting though and I intend to keep it that way. Six years of listening to people complain about their neighbors was enough for me. I still can't get away from it though since Mike is involved. He sends all the correspondence to me to read. Several of them are feuding right now too and when I read or hear about it it just gets me all fired up. THAT is what I'm trying to avoid. At least Mike is not involved in the argument so I don't have to get that worked up about it. I'll just write my little letter and be done with it...let the others fight it out.

Bad Hair, but Fat Free!

Say goodbye to these way too long bangs! I can stand you any longer, stupid bangs. I'm cutting you as soon as I finish this post. I think this may be the longest I've ever gone without a haircut. 7 months is way too long...and so are my bangs.



Jayke is not trying to bite me, by the way. He was going to give me a kiss but started laughing. I thought it was kind of cute. He was into making silly faces for the camera again. Somewhere along the line he has picked this one up...



I think they all do eventually. He got a really bad haircut this time. The girl really chopped it up on top and both Mike and I hate it. Poor kid. He kind of has weird hair. Next time I told Mike to try to get the same girl who did it the time before this one. He can't remember what she looked like though. I may have to go with them. I try to avoid that like the plague though. I had enough of taking him back when he through a fit everytime and turned the task over to Mike.

Speaking of Mike, he and I have both gone "fat free" as in our diets. He has had to do it for his cholesterol and I need to do it to lose weight so I figured we might as well go all the way. We went shopping this evening for our new "healthy lifestyle". We will see how this goes. He has been able to stick to it without any problem but he is a man. I don't think they get cravings like women do. I have been shocked to find how much the fat free stuff has changed though. It isn't bad and some of it is pretty good. My down fall could be Jaykeb though. I HAVE to stop eating his left overs...have to...have to...have to! Wish me luck!

Poor Mike!

We had a little storm come through the neighborhood this evening. I was trying to nap on the couch when I started to hear the thunder rumble off in the distance. I figured it would be a quick thunderstorm like we ususally get. I was just about asleep when Mike came in and told me about this...



We have 3 big trees down out by the garden. This one barely missed our barn, but as you can see, Mike's truck wasn't so lucky. There are three more ready to go that would land on our kennel fence so we need to get them down asap.



Poor Mike. He loved that old truck. The whole back end is bent up. It isn't worth fixing. We just had a new transmission put in that thing too. Figures.

While I was out taking pictures of the truck disaster I decided to get one of the flower bed that Mom and Jim helped us put in last time they were here. I wanted Mom to be able to see how much everything has grown. Next year I hope to get some more stuff in this thing but for now I think It is looking pretty good.

I'm here AJ! I have just had a busy weekend. Okay, really only Saturday was busy, but I was busy sleeping all day yesterday. Saturday we went to a party with all the management level guys from Mike's work. This was a first for me. I actually only know two people from Mike's work and he never talks about it so it was interesting. Very informative party. Found out, by accident, that Mike got a speeding ticket while driving to Indiana with his boss and another co-worker about a month ago. I guess he felt that since I tried to hide mine from him, he could hide his from me. Turns out neither one of us are very good at hiding things 'cause we both got caught.

Everyone seems nice but it was a little uncomfortable for me because all those people knew each other and were talking about things they had all done together. I also noticed that no one really went out of their way to talk to me. I tried talking to a couple of the wives but they would just answer me and go back to their own conversations. Jaykeb had fun though. The guy who brought Mike to SC has a son a year younger than Jayke and he had a ball playing with him and the bigger kids who were there. It was stinking hot, humid, and sprinkling though and it was at a house on the lake so I was sticky and miserable for a while.

After the party we went out to eat. They only had Korean food at the party and none of us really ate so we were starved. Maybe now we could start doing more with some of the guys Mike works with. There were a couple of the wives who I felt like I could become friends with.

Sunday, like I said, I slept all day. Slept and watched movies with my boys. Mike cooked ribs and they were VERY good. Whatever he did this time he needs to remember it for next time. Then when I was getting ready to go to bed last night I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me in the bathroom. A SCORPION was on the wall above the toilet! At first I didn't even know what to do. I was afraid to wake Mike so I just grabbed a huge handful of toilet paper, grabbed the scorpion, and through it in the toilet. I'm surprised Mike didn't wake up because I was shuddering and yelling and slamming things around. I dreamed about scorpions all night then. I'm heading to Lowe's to get bug spray this afternoon. Can't be having scorpions hanging out in the john. I have to go google them now and read up on them so I can give myself further nightmares.

Thank You Bell South!

The 4th of July celebration in Greenville was great! This was our first 4th down here, we were in Indiana visiting last year on the fourth, and I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did they have fantastic fireworks but they had all kinds of food and drink tents, rides for the kids, live music, and lots of freebies.

Usually that free crap they give away at these things does not interest me in any way but this time they were giving away something that I was very excited about. We got bottles of water, candy, a tote bag with grocery coupons in it, and Jaykeb got several balls. None of this was the exciting part though. What I got that almost made my whole night was a free Greenville phone book! A phone book you ask? Yes! Do you know how much they are to buy them? $50! Okay, $50 is not all that much but it is to buy something that should be free. I've been wanting one for over a year but didn't want to pay $50 for it. I even considered staying in a hotel one night just to be able to steal their phone book. Do I sound cheap? I don't care. I have my FREE phone book now and I've already spent a considerable amount of time reading it. Now I just need to get a map so I can look up the streets things are on. Don't worry, I will just go buy one of those.

Back to the 4th. I was temporarily distracted by my excitement over my FREE phonebook. Sorry 'bout that. We got downtown really early because we had no idea where anything was going to be, where we would be able to park or anything. This worked out really well because we were able to go eat then be first in line to buy our tickets for the food/drink tents and kiddie rides. Jayke went on all the rides and loved them. This year he just ran up to us after getting off one ride, snatched the tickets out of our hands, and took off for the next one. He is going to have so much fun at the fair this year. Getting there that early also allowed us to get the best seat in the house for the show.







We put our chairs in the amphitheatre and had a great view looking out at the treetops on the hilltop across the park. That is where they set the fireworks off from and we had a fantastic view. It felt like they were coming right down on top of us. Jayke loved them. Last year he was afraid but not at all this year.

Before the fireworks Jaykeb found another little boy to play with. They played for a couple of hours, running, playing tag, and coloring.



I was worried we wouldn't have much fun this year. The 4th is always something I look forward to back in Indiana. We are usually with friends and family and this year we wouldn't be. We wouldn't be entertained by the guys trying to blow up the neighbors when their fireworks misfire or trying to blow us up in similar fashion. We had no sparklers or fireworks of our own to light. No home cooked food. No flaming panda bear fireworks to crack us up. What we did have were the best fireworks I've ever seen, great weather, kiddie rides, and a FREE phone book! What more could you ask for?