Hangin' With P'Pa

I got a bunch of pictures of our visit from my other mother today. Lots of pictures of Jaykeb with my dad. He loves hanging outside with his grandpas. He likes to work. Too bad he doesn't like to work when I ask him to.

The dogs look like they were still a little scared of him here but trying to warm up.

How can anyone sleep with all this piled on them???

It was my dad's birthday while we were in Indiana so we had a birthday/father's day party for him. He is obsessed with the weather so we got him a weather station. Here he is opening his gift.


....and installing his gift...



Here we are trying to get pictures of the cake before The Boy dives in head first. He gets his love of cake from my dad. White cake with white icing!

Tater Tot (AJ) is helping hold the kid away from the cake.




Working in the office with P'pa.



Here are AJ and Jayke cheesin for the camera. The Boy loves his AJ.

He managed to pet Sasssy somehow. I can't even pet Sassy but Jayke just walked up and pet her until she was done with him then she hissed and smacked him. She doesn't have claws though so it was no big deal. Just startled him a little.


My cousin, Kaitlin, who lives here in South Carolina was in Indiana visiting too. Jayke loved having her there. She swam with him and lay on the couch watching cartoons. He was upset when she had to leave. Here they are watching cartoons together.



And finally, I mentioned in a previous post how AJ did my hair and it looked so good. I really need her here to do my hair everyday. Well, Jayke wanted his hair did too so here is Jayke with his fancy do...



....and one more so he can really hate me when he gets older...



Yes, I said hair "did" on purpose and Tater Tot...we are sorry we didn't get to say goodbye. I was going to call you on the way home but you had way too much going on so I thought I'd wait. I really didn't want to get yelled at either. Sorry!

That about brings us to the end of the first week in Indiana. Good thing other people took pictures for me too because I'm finding I was quite the slacker while on vacation.

Muddy Morning

I was going to write about our trip to the river boat this morning but the morning started off way too interesting to talk about that. I will have to talk about that later or tomorrow. Right now, I have to talk about my morning of mud and madness.

It all began as usual woke up, took The Boy to go pee, let dog's out of their room, removed stick at back door so I could open it to let the dogs out to pee, opened door...two dogs went out...two completely different dogs came in. Yep, the Houdini dogs did it again! Bosley and Sophie escaped their kennel outside and were waiting at the back door when I let Simon and Laynie out. Not only was I upset that they were out but it had rained this morning so they were covered in mud and running loose in my house!

I herded them into the bathroom and tossed them in the tub. An hour later the tub was clogged with hair and mud, I was soaking wet, and the dogs were only halfway clean. I gave up and put them out on the deck to dry. I sent my ace photographer out to get a picture of them and this is what he brought me...



Bosley is the beagle and Sophie is the chow/Australian Shepard mix. They are my two escape artists. They will spend the day on the deck now until Mike can come home and find the week spot where they made their escape. Jayke is loving it though. He has more dogs to play with today. The Boy does LOVE his dogs!


I got an email from Christy, my neighbor, this morning. She included some pictures of VBS. They had 335 kids there last night! Jayke is in this picture standing in front of the woman in the white shirt. He has on a red shirt. Kind of hard to see him in that mass of children but he is there...not dancing though!

Scootin' and Fightin' but NOT Dancing!

Jayke got a scooter while we were in Indiana. I was worried about him hurting himself or not being able to ride it and getting mad but he did great! I got him all the protective gear of course and he wore it willingly. Funny how we all survived before knee pads.



He scooted around my dad's driveway bringing back a lot of pogo stick memories for me. Not good ones either. I managed to sprain two ankles within minutes of each other on one of those stupid things when I was a kid. My dad was a big believer in the whole gettin' back on the horse thing. After I sprained one ankle he made me go back out and get on the evil thing again and I promptly sprained the other one. Thanks dad. Good times.



I was just waiting for an ankle injury to occur but the kid must be a little more coordinated than his ol mother was because it didn't happen. Oma trying to kill us all in the drive way later on is a different story. Note to self...do not let mother run while pulling your child with her and barrelling straight towards you. I knew what was going to happen but it was one of those things you just had to let play out. No one was injured too bad, I managed to catch them both, in a way. I think he may need those knee pads for playing with Oma rather than riding his scooter. Opa just shook his head, knowingly like he always does at her...or me.

So that was my vacation story part of the post now for what is going on here tonight.

Jayke started vacation bible school tonight. I almost thought something was trying to keep us from going. There was a big wind storm as I was taking him and there was a tree blocking the road. I had to back track and ended up getting lost. Luckily I have a compass in the new ride and figured out I was going the wrong direction. I finally found the church but I have no idea how. Driving around later I saw that there were trees down all over the place.

I took him in and he immediately started the "up Mommy!" stuff but Christy swooped him away into the mass of children before he could get started. She told me he was fine once he got in with his teacher and some of the kids from his Mom's morning out group. I snuck in to watch him for a while and he was so cute sitting there in his pew with his friends. He was just looking around taking it all in. He saw me after a while and started acting all embarrassed that I was there. Crossing his arms, rolling his eyes, trying not to smile. Pretty soon they were led off to the gym to start their activities and I snuck out the back door.

Mike and I went to get something to eat but that is a whole post in itself. Let's just say I am not letting him pick anymore restaurants for a long long time.

When I went back to get The Boy he was exhausted. He did tell me two things though. One was that he and Luke, his friend from MMO, got in a fight. Great. Just what you want at VBS. The other thing was that he wouldn't dance because he was afraid all the people would laugh at him. Isn't he a little young to think that? I think his Meemaw might have something to say about this. I told him no one would laugh but he was adamant that he was NOT dancing! We'll see. He is looking forward to going back tomorrow though which is good. I'm not telling him we have Mom's Club in the morning too. Might be too much for the child to handle.

Jayke and P'pa with one of the dogs. Took the dogs about 4 days until they finally stopped barking at Jayke. After that they were fine with him. They kind of grow on you the more you are around them.

Puff The Fireworks Dragon

Everyone puts pictures of the strange things they see along the road where they live or on trips they are taking. I have seen this guy many times but never had the camera or didn't want to take the time to stop. Driving to Indiana this time Jayke wanted to take his picture so we stopped. The Boy is learning from me about taking pictures all over the place and of strange things.

This dragon is outside a fireworks store along the highway in Tennessee.

Anonymous...Keep Your Pants On!

Hey Ang, you have a blog you could sign in so your name appears when you leave your comments. Or, are you trying to be anonymous? If ya are,I'm kinda blowin that for ya huh? Oh yeah, could you try to send me your concert pics please? I want the one of the four of us to put on here.

On to the post...

Apparently Angi is waiting, not so patiently, for some pictures to be posted on here. She actually has the best ones on her camera but I will put a few up from my camera to keep her happy.

First off is Jayke playing in the sandbox with Maci, Angi's daughter. Maci is great with him and I wish they got to see each other more while we were there but they were super busy with baseball, rummage sales, and birthday parties so it didn't happen. Next time I will not be going to Indiana in June. Everyone is too busy with baseball and stuff. I think I may try the fall next year and see if that works out better. Jayke had a hard time staying awake in the evenings to be going out too.



Here is another of Maci and Jayke.



Next up...the concert! Gwen Stefani in case anyone is wondering or missed the post where I told which concert we were going to. It was GREAT! Before the concert we took Angi and Melanie's girls to Libby Lu's to get their hair did. That was an experience for me since I don't have any girls. See how cute they looked...



We got to walk the red carpet coming in and get our pictures taken. Woohoo!

Here is a group shot. You can't see one of the kids in the back. Brannon was hiding. I think he didn't want to be seen with all those girls and us old people. In the back row, from back to front(left to right howerver you want to say it) we have Kim, her husband, Ray, Angi, and Melanie whose father got us the box seats and VIP tickets. Thanks again Melanie! In the front(from back to front) is Brannon (can't see him)Lyndsey, Maci, Haley, and Katie. I'm sure I spelled names wrong there...sorry. I was taking the picture, of course, so am not pictured. I looked like crap so I am happy about that. Should have let AJ do my hair like she wanted to.



This is Maci and Haley. The kids had to stand on the chairs to be able to see. That was fine for a while then they made them get down...then they let them get back up...then down again...and finally back up for the rest of the show. Nuts! We were VIPs for cryin'out loud!



See the backs of those chairs...it says V I P!



Okay, now we are gettin' the party started right! At least, getting it started as much as you can with 5 kids.




Look! It's Gwen!



I sooooo need a new camera! According to my dad I won't be getting it for Christmas though. Guess I will have to buy it myself. Boohooo.

So that is it for the concert pictures. I have more but they are pretty much the same. Tomorrow I will have lots of pictures of Jayke. He had the best time up there but was ready to come home to see his Daddy. He starts vacation bible school tomorrow night. He is excited about that because his friend, Micah, will be in his class. We have Mom's Club on Tuesday too. We are starting to get back into our routine at home but it is hard after you have been gone for that long. From now on two weeks is my limit!

I'm BAAAAACCKKK!!

Seems like I was gone forever. I know I have been a total blog slacker but I think I needed a break from it. I didn't even miss it is the interesting thing. I think because I was so busy. Now that I am home again I was ready to come in here and get back to it.

I won't be puttting any pictures up until later though. Sorry. I am still in the process of unpacking and cleaning and doing laundry. Mike's Father's Day gift has been taking up a lot of my time. Jayke and I got him an XBox 360, High Def DVD player, and several games including Guitar Hero. I wouldn't say I am addicted yet but I can see it won't take long.

I feel like I accomplished almost everything I wanted to while home. The only thing I regret is not getting Jayke over to see Kim's kids while we were there. Everyone is so busy with BASEBALL that by the time they were home in the evenings Jayke was asleep or just too tired to go out. He is still a little guy who gets tired easily. Tired and grouchy.

So what all did we do in Indiana? Besides the Gwen Stefani concert, we hung out in the pool at P'pa's with Aunt Kimmy, Aunt Sherbo, and AJ. We visited Gramma RAin and Grandpa Dave and Jayke spent the night with them. Jaykeb did get to play with Angi's kids one night. He loved that. We visited Grammy, went to Chelsea's graduation party, had a birthday party for my dad, had Mike's parents down for dinner at my mom's with Grammy, and went shopping in Carmel. I got a "girl's night out" with Angi and Jen. We shopped, got pedicures and waxed, and went out to dinner and drank too many margaritas. FUN! That is what I miss down here. We also went to the river boat in Louisville for the weekend with Kim and her husband and Angi and her husband. Mike drove up and met us there. Mike was a big winner but as usual, I wasn't there when he won. It was nice to have a weekend with no kids. Mike and I never get to do that anymore.

I came home earlier than I had planned. Mike was not happy that we were going to stay longer so we packed up and headed home Tuesday morning. Jaykeb was excited to be home but kept asking Mike why he changed everything. He wanted to know why we got a new floor and a new stove. I guess nothing looked the same to him.

I have been extremely proud of Jayke with his potty training. He has not had an accident once since he finally decided to start using the potty full time on his own. He woke up wet only twice the entire time we were in Indiana. He made both car trips with no problem and is going to the bathroom all on his own now without any help from me whatsoever. There is a lot of banging around in there when he goes and he has to take the dog with him but still, all on his own. Such a big boy I now have. I thought the traveling might throw him off a little, but it didn't.

So there you have a brief update. I will try to go into more detail about things as I get the pictures up. I will shoot for tonight to do that as long as Mr. Xbox doesn't call my name. TTFN!

The Rock Star Sings Again!

Who knew that when you are potty training a toddler poop would be something you talk about so often and so freely. I sure didn't, but I do now. We talk about it often and this morning The Boy even sang all of us a little song about it. It went like this...

When you feel the poop come out your butt, plop plop poop! Plop plop poop!

I think it could be a major hit! His song writing abilities are outstanding! Watch out recording world there is a new star rising!

Just Hangin Out

Our trip has slowed down a little now. Just hanging out at Meemaw's and P'pa's. WE will be going up to see Grandma Rain and Grandpa Dave on Thursday then we have another big weekend coming up.

My sisters and AJ will get here on Saturday and we have a graduation open house on Sunday for my cousin. I will probably do something, hopefully, with friends on Friday or Saturday...or both. Had lunch with them yesterday on their lunch break.

Jayke and his P'pa have become best buddies. The dogs have calmed down and don't bark at him anymore. They are still a little afraid of him but it gets better every day. Mom got some cute pictures of P'pa, Jayke, and both dogs resting on the couch this afternoon. When she gets them on here I will post one.

So that is my quick update. I'm finding it hard to concentrate enough to write a good blog entry here. I need to try this at night after everyone has gone to bed like I do at home. Maybe tonight I will get it together and do that.

Shopping, Eating, and Good Music

Whew! It has been a busy weekend! I really didn't want to write about the concert until I could put the pictures on but that may be a while so I'm going to anyway.
It was GREAT! Gwen Stefani does a good show. I figured she would though because she is always good whenever I see her on anything. We ended up with box seats and VIP parking thanks to Melanie's dad. I think this worked out well since we had so many kids with us, they were all contained in our box and we didn't have to worry about losing one. They danced on the chairs and we took tons of pictures. I don't think I've seen Verizon Music Center that packed before.

It was a long day but the girls could hang with us which surprised me a little. We started out at the mall in Castleton, where the girls got there hair did at Libby Lu's. After that we went and ate dinner at TGI Friday's. AJ was with us. She ate with us then went and helped Melanie and Angi pick out different outfits to wear. What kind of women would we be if we went to a mall and didn't shop. I got a Jones of New York sweater on clearance for $27, it had been $129.00. Pretty good deal! It was a good sign it was going to be a good night.

Jaykeb stayed with Meemaw and P'pa. They had a picnic, played Sorry and Jenga, and colored. He didn't care that Mommy was gone until it came time for bed. He asked P'pa, with teary eyes, if his mommy was coming home tonight. He was still up waiting for me when I got home around midnight. He was exhausted and fell asleep soon after I got there. It has been a long time since I have spent any amount of time away from him so he didn't like that very much. He is having a lot of fun with Meemaw and P'pa though.

We are going to go see Grammy, Oma, and Opa today. Aunt Sherri and Aunt Kimmy, and AJ will be here this weekend for my dad's birthday. Opa wants to take Jayke to Summer Heat. I am going to go get a mani/pedi with Angi...did ya hear that Ang? And lots of other stuff. Busy, busy.

I'm trying to get around to everyone's blogs but I don't to make it to everyone every day. I will be around though.

I'm Not Stopping Every 15 Minutes for Gas!

WE made it here safe and sound. Only had one potty issue along the way. It really wasn't much of an issue either. He just thought we were going to stop for him to pee every 15 minutes when he really didn't have to and that every time he "has air" he has to sit on the potty to let it out now. Nope! Not happenin. After the first time having to completely undress him, haul the Dora potty ring into the rest stop bathroom, and having him throw the door open on me while I was pottying that was it. I told him to hold it and go to sleep. He did and we made it with no problem.

Jayke was extremely excited to be there. P'pa and Meemaw had 11 monster trucks hidden all over the house like an Easter Egg hunt for him to find. He wanted his old toys first though. He drug Ppa out to the barn to check out the lawn mowers right away. Must be a kids dream. My dad has like 8 or 9 lawn mowers.

He immediately realized the pool has a deep end and has decided he wants to stay far away from it. That is good, he has fallen in in the past. He will be in the shallow end swimming with his AJ tonight and tomorrow though.

This morning we came over to see Oma and Opa. We got to see their new house they will be moving into in a couple of days. We went over to see Grammy too. Oma had a bunch of new cars for The Boy too. The kid has more cars than the stores have. We went to lunch with Oma and now we are getting ready to head over to my friend, Angi's, house for Jayke to play with her kids, Maci and Matthew.

It has been a busy first day so far. Jayke is extremely wound up and excited to be here. He has done wonderful with teh potty training so far, which I am thrilled about. The new car was great on the drive up too. Much easier to drive through the winding mountains than the Durango was. I didn't realize how much my car looks like my mom's BMW until I parked it next to hers and almost go in the wrong one. I didn't do that on purpose even though I bought a Durango after she did last time. I am not copying her, I promise!

I hope to get some pictures loaded on Dad's computer in the next day or so. I have just been really busy and super tired since I got here. I only had 3 hours of sleep the night before I drove up. Never fails that I can't sleep the night before I drive. I may start leaving at 8p.m. and driving through the night. Would probably be easier for this insomniac!

I'm Outta Here!

I'm off! Headin north for about 3 weeks. I will be able to blog from up there though so I will be putting pictures of my trip up as soon as I take some. Going to be a busy trip! Graduation party, bithday party, concert, gambling trip, swimming, and lots of other stuff! Can't wait!

Jayke has been asking to go all week. He was so excited running all over the house today helping me pack and running the vacuum for me. He even asked his dad to take him to get his hair cut! Mike said he did great too. Walked in and went right off with the girl all by himself. Mike got his hair cut at the same time. He wasn't even in a chair near him. He said he sat there and talked to the girl the whole time and even wore the cape! When he got home he ran in to show me his hair and annonced that he didn't even cry. When he decides to become a "Big boy" he doens't mess around. I've talked about how he hates getting his hair cut here, it was such a treat.

Now that he is a big boy he is wanting other things too. Today he came in and asked me if we could, "Go get a girl now". I asked him what he meant and he said, "Can we go buy a baby sister now?" That led to a big discussion on where babies come from. Not how they are made, just where they come from. He thought about it for a minute then patted my belly and asked if there was a baby in there now. Nope, just looks like it, sorry kid. He moved on then but I'm sure we will have to talk about this again. Maybe someday he will get that sister, just not right now.

I didn't take any pictures of the new hair cut because I had already packed up the camera bag and didn't want to have to go get it all back out. I will put one up when I take some pictures up north. Now I have to go take my butt to bed about 3 hours before I normally would go so I can make it there without falling asleep behind the wheel.

Too Sexy For my Bucket Hat

Note: Edited to add the WCW theme! I'm lazy like that ya know. I didn't want to have to come up with a whole new post for WCW so I am just sticking the button up on this post. If you wanna play go see TKW to find out how and let her know you are playing. No bonus points this week, I don't have a W theme.

Yesterday my boys were outside being one with nature, swatting at bumblebees, shoeing flies, and what not. All of a sudden the small boy came running in yelling, "Moommmmmiiiieeeee!" It wasn't a hurt yell so I kept reading blogs and waited for him to find me. When he did he kept showing me his thumb. His dad then came around the corner cracking up. Apparently they had caught a lizard and while Jayke was holding it it bit down on his thumb and was hanging there. He wasn't scared or hurt, I think he was disgusted that that crazy lizard dared to hang off his thumb like that. If only I had been out there with the camera. I would have made him stand there with the lizard hanging long enough to take several pictures to make sure I got a good one.

We had another night where the kiddo stayed up all night. When I say all night, I mean only until 4a.m. or so. No more late naps for him! He napped right through dinner so then he went to bed and woke up around 1a.m. wanting to eat. Luckily for him I stay up at least that late every night so I whipped him up a PB&J and let him watch news with me. After eating he had to play a few minutes with his cars. I finally go him to bed but then he wanted to watch cartoons for a few minutes. I drifted off and he was watching Sagwa or Jakers or something. Woke up at 4a.m. because he and his dad were having an arguement about him going to sleep. No more tv at night. I guess I will have to find a way to sleep without it.

Since he was up all night he was crabby all day. I told him to go take a nap. He did but a few minutes later was yelling from the bedroom, "Mommy! Can one of my eyes stay awake?" The way their minds work...I tell ya! After convincing him that both eyes were tired and needed to take a nap he finally dozed off.

Before taking his nap though we got a package from Brown (UPS) and the following cheesiness insued...

(cue the music...I'm too sexy for my shirt....)







He is all of a sudden strikin' a gangsta pose...don't know where he learned this...



The posing went on...



....and on...





....and on...




All of this started because he got that hat and these new shoes...



He is all about the shoes these days. Both came from Old Navy. He got some flip flops too, but they are a little big still. If anyone knows were I can get some black Vans in child size 9, please let me know. I need them to go with his AC/DC t-shirt. He really got his Vogue on this afternoon. AJ, you would have been proud.



He even had to run into his Dad's closet to get one of his hats to model too. He got darn mad when I wouldn't take any more pictures.



So that is what we did today...along with MORE laundry and packing. Tomorrow is my last day before I head North. Yes, I am still leaving on Thursday regardless of pleas from more than one person today to leave tomorrow. I have to have one more day to mentally prepare myself to sleep in the sweatbox that is my Dad's house. A little AC won't kill ya, man!

To Opa!

Today is Jim's (my step-dad) birthday! If ya see him wish him a happy one!

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Lazy Pool Weekend

Happy Memorial Day! Hope everyone enjoyed their day off. It wasn't much different at our house than any other day except Mike was here all day. He got home from Indiana Friday evening. We ran errands all day Saturday, watched racing all day Sunday, and today watched movies and did lots of this...



Yes, I swam too. We blew up lots of floats trying to find one that Jaykeb liked. He still doesn't like the water on his head but he is getting better about not screaming if he does get wet. We put up a smaller pool for now. One that he can touch in. We will put the bigger, deaper one up later after he learns how to swim.



We love having the pool. Something I didn't think about though is the extra amount of laundry it would cause me to have. Towels and swim suits all over the place.



We watched the Indy 500. I had forgotten all about it. After living in Indiana where you can't escape it, it was kind of weird to have it sneak up on me like that AND to be able to watch it while it is happening instead of having to wait until later that night when they finally show it. They don't show the race in Indiana while it is happening...blackout rules. Stupid. I'm not a big fan of the Indy cars but I watch this one race each year. Much more of a NASCAR fan.

We watched Night at the Museum today. LOVE it! Jayke only liked the middle when the animals and museum characters come to life. I think Mike liked it too, although he would never admit it because he called it stupid before we watched it and also because I picked it.

Other than that I just did laundry and started packing for our trip to Indiana on Thursday. I will be glad when I am there and the drive is behind me. I'm dreading it. I used to love to drive, but not so much anymore. It is just the last three hours that are hard because by that time you are over looking at the scenery and you just want to be there. Plus, Jayke has usually had it by then and wants OUT! Hopefully the new DVD/game system will keep him entertained enough and we won't have any problems.

The Crash Gene Runs Deep in My Family

Jayke and I broke in the new pool yesterday. It wasn't pretty. He screamed for about the first 15 minutes until he realized I wasn't going to push him under water and hold him there until he drowned. It had been awhile since I had been in a pool and swam with rafts and tubes and stuff. I had the bright idea to sit in the inner tube. I hopped up in the air to come down on the tube. When I was a kid this was routine. Apparetnly it is not like riding a bike because I ended up flipping over backwards with my feet up out of the water, sending a huge wave over my child. Funny how that water in his face didn't cause him to shriek as if someone were pulling out his toe nails. He thought that was the funniest thing he had ever seen. "You went upside down Mom! You about drowned me too!" Sorry 'bout that. I tried several more times all ending in the same fashion. Finally I gave up and flopped down on it on my stomach to float around with the kid.

I think I have finally found my excercise routine to kick my butt back into shape. Swimming. I am so freakin' sore today because the entire time I was in there I tried to kick and move to excercise. I think it will work and the bonus is it eliminates the reason I hate to work out...sweat! I hate to sweat. Can't stand the feeling at all. In the pool it doesn't matter. I think my summer is going to be spent in the pool. Better go buy some new suits!

We had a crisis last night. Lost the very last binky that we own. Luckily Mike was out of town so the screaming all through the night didn't keep him awake. He finally went to sleep but kept waking up crying for it. First thing this morning he woke me up and asked me to go buy a new one. I am torn. I don't know how hard it will be to deal with him for the next few days without one. If he is that upset about it maybe he still does need it. On the other hand, we made it through a night so why not continue to try to live without it? I don't know what to do. He is waiting right now for me to go buy a new one. What to do, what to do?

I would like to go on record that there is someone else in the family who is a worse driver than I am. Let me correct that...I am a great driver...I just used to be wreckless. My aunt has now taken over the title of "Crash" in our family. My mom taught her how to drive the big Scag mower on Wednesday. She got on drove 10 feet and slammed into a tree. My mom said that she could barely stand from laughing at her so hard. It isn't the first thing she has crashed, although we have all done our fair share. Must be in the genes. Just wanted to give a shout our to Crash Hayes...way to go! I hope the "crash" gene skips my child.



Mike gets home today. Jayke will be thrilled he has really missed him. Last night in bed he was laying with his head on my tummy and he said, "It's jut you and me Mommy, just you and me." He then went on to tell me how much he missed Daddy and wanted him home right then. He has even been scared in the house at night since Mike has been gone. Okay, I admit I was the first night too. Darn dogs freak me out sometimes when they start barking in the night. We will both be glad when he gets home this afternoon. I know that thrills my grandma to hear me say that too.

We are off to Greenville now! Have to pick up Mike's car which is finally fixed. Well, I can't pick it up with just Jayke. I have to pay for it and get the keys then go back to Greenville tonight after Mike gets home. Nothing is simple when you are on your own.

Something Pink

Today for SPF we were to photograph something small and pink. Hhhhmmm. I couldn't find anything small and pink which is surprising considering how into pink I was a couple of years ago. I finally decided on this.



My video Ipod with it's pink sleeve on. I got the protective sleeve/sticker last year in Vegas. It is a decal or sticker that is the same thing they use on cars so it peels of easily and can be change. I won't be changing it much though because at Thirty bucks a pop I can't afford to.
Didya play? If so let me and Kristine know.

Raising a Rockstar!

Driving home from the grocery last night I was talking to my mom and Jaykeb was quietly riding in the back. I had the radio on very low since I was on the phone. All of a sudden, from the backseat I hear, "THAT'S MY SONG! TURN IT UP MOM!" What? Do I have a three year old or a thirteen year old riding back there? So now you want to know what his song is right? It is Party Like a Rockstar by The Shop Boyz. He likes a lot of songs but this one is HIS song. So he says.

Good Thing I'm Medicated!

What kind of a child doesn't want ice cream at an ice cream party? This one right here.

 

What was wrong with him you ask? Who knows. It took him forever before he would finally start playing with the other kids. First Abby, who is Ainsley's mom, had to take him out in the yard and play ball with him. That got him warmed up enough to go play. He doesn't really play with the other kids though. He played ball with Ainsley for a minute but basically ran around and did his own thing. I noticed most of the three-year-olds did this though so I'm not worried about it.

After not eating any ice cream at Mom's Club guess what we had to go do afterwards. Yep. We had to go straight to the grocery to buy ice cream and toppings. I spoil him you say? Nah. I was going to the store anyway and the ice cream was buy one get one free. He had been really good all day so it was no big deal. Maybe he has issues eating food at other people's houses. You just never know how clean people are...or aren't.

While in the grocery I was standing in front of the freezer reading all the different kinds of low fat ice cream when I had this terrible pain on my foot all of a sudden. I turned and some woman was "Oh My Goshing!" me to death. She then said, "I wish I had a bandaid." and walked off. The woman had just run over my bare pinky toe which was just inocently resting in it's flip flop home. I am not saying she barely tapped me with her cart, she ripped flesh from my toe! So I'm standing there with a throbbing toe, Jayke is asking me about my foot in his worried voice, and I'm watching Miss Hit and Run walk down the aisle caually doing her shopping. I think I must have been in shock. Normally something like that would have been grounds for spastic, eyeball bulging, Wendy to appear but she didn't. It was either shock or the meds are doing a fine job on me.

Mom's Club keeps getting better and better as I get to know some of the girls. A lot of them have boats so maybe we will get to do some boating eventually. We have playgroup tomorrow at another Mom's house. As of right now we plan to go. If the toe falls off in the night we will be staying home.

Note: For those of you counting...that is now both coffee and spagetti sauce I have coated the kitchen with. (read below)

Whoops!

Being the dutiful wife that I am...snicker...I always make my man's lunch and coffee before I go to bed. I also always make sure he has clean work shirts and pants hanging in the closest so he doesn't have to look for them. Boy did I drop the ball this morning.

Mike is going on a trip today. Just a short one but he will need to take a bag, as it will be over night. I heard him getting his bag out this morning and realized I didn't make the coffee before I went to bed. I jumped up and ran into the kitchen to get the coffee started. Right in mid preparation he walks in and asks me if he has any clean shirts. I stopped making the coffee and ran off to grab the stack of shirts I just washed yesterday. Crisis averted. I finished the coffee and went back to bed.

When I got up this morning I realized I had made a little mistake. There were piles and piles of coffee stained paper towels sitting all over the kitchen. Oops. I must not have had the carafe lined up under the coffee maker correctly and all that coffee ran out all over. Just what Mike wanted to do this morning...clean up a lake of coffee in the kitchen. Sorry Mike! He hasn't said anything to me about it yet but I know it is coming. He probably needs time to come up with a witty remark. That is good, gives me time to come up with an even better response.

Where is Mike going you asked? You didn't ask? Oh, well, I will tell you anyway. Indiana. He will be working in Ossian for a couple of days. I guess it is better than him going to Germany for a week.

Jayke and I have an ice cream party with The Mom's Club today. I will be sure to take my camera and a tub of baby wipes. Now I'm off to work on my response to the coffee incident...I'm already forming a plan to blame it all on him. I will let you know how it goes.

My wake up call this morning.

Jayke: MOMMY! Wake up and take me to go pee!

Still sleeping...

Jayke: MOMMY! Take me to go pee and I have poop in my pullup.

Me: What?!

Jayke: I tried to wake Daddy up last night to tell him I had to poop but he didn't wake up so I just went.

Me: You went and then slept in it?

Jayke: Yep. I said 'Daddy. Daddy! DADDY!!!' and he didn't wake up so I just went in my pullup.

When your day starts out with poop you can pretty much guess what the rest of the day is going to be like! Just sayin'.

Happy Birthday to my SIL atFull House! Hope you have a great day and warm food for dinner!

Blinded By The Light!

I am typing this half blind. I had to go get a check up at the eye doctor today. In Indiana I knew waht to expect when visiting the eye doc. I was in for a surprise down here though. I had to take Jayke first of all, no babysitters ya know, but I figured this would not be a problem. My appts with the eye doc are usually in and out.

We got there and waited about 20 minutes before getting called back. Everything went as usual until the doc came in and first put some weird yellow stuff in my eyes that burned like crazy then shined a bright light in there as if I werent' already in enough pain. Next came another drop. This one was to dilate my eyes. After the drops went in he sat me in another waiting room for an hour. A WHOLE FRIGGIN HOUR! Like I have nothing else to do. This would have been fine had I known a head of time. Jayke fell asleep and took an hour nap.

When I finally got called back in there was more light shining and pulling on my eyes. Never had I had most of this stuff done during an exam. I don't know if this means I'm getting a more thorough exam now or what but I didn't like it at all. Not to mention that I was blind driving home. That was fun let me tell ya.

I had Mike meet us at McDonalds to eat real quick since it was already 5o'clock and the boy was starving and wanting to play on the playground. The Boy is a chic magnet. He immediately hooked up with some little blonde girl to play with and help him with a boost up on the higher parts of the playground. He even got her to take off his socks and bring them to me! My boy knows how to work it. He is going to be a ladies man. I have other thoughts about that though.

He came home and went swimming but I'm not going to talk about that right now. This is too hard on my eye. I'm heading for the couch and possible a beverage...I don't know.

Another Sunday in Greenville

I was in trouble again today. I slept in this morning. It wasn't my fault though, no one woke me up and they even were extra careful not to. When I did get up Mike was mad though. I guess I ruined his plans for the day which included driving up to North Carolina to some park to hike to another waterfall. Did he tell me he was planning this? No. Did he try to wake me up so we could go? No. Yet, he is mad at me. Oh well. He did finally get over it around 4p.m. when I got ready so we could go take his car to Greenville to be fixed tomorrow morning. Something is leaking.

Here is Jayke with his new headphones that won't stay on in the car. Yes, he still has that stupid binky, but only in the car and in bed. I didn't want to traumatize him by potty training him and taking that away at the same time. It goes next though for sure!



We decided to go out to eat since we were already in Greenville. We ate at a restaurant called Smoke on the Water. It was right next to the falls I've talked about before. After dinner we walked across the suspension bridge that spans the falls.

I know I've shown pictures of the falls on The Reedy River before but this time I took a picture from the suspension bridge. You can get a better perspective of how big the falls are from this. I know it sounds like we are obsessed with waterfalls and all. We are. Jayke loves them. He asks to go to The Reedy River any time we head out.



This time we got to see something new. My child will not be doing this when he is a goofy teenager out doing goofy things with his friends! If he does do it I will take away everything he owns and ground him until he is 40! I guess that will be if I catch him though.



See that kid on the fall? That is a teenage boy sliding down the falls which basically is a straight drop. It looked like it hurt too. I bet those kids will regret it tomorrow when their butts are bruised. When you get to the bottom there is a big bump that sends you flying out into the water. Nuts! Two girls went down with their legs wrapped around each other and I thought for sure they would get knocked silly. They promptly left after going down. I don't know if one was hurt or not. We had a great vantage point from the bridge and every time someone would get ready to go the crowd would start cheering them on. I don't care how much cheering was going on, I value being able to sit too much to try something like that. Man I'm old to be saying this. I also got really upset at some kids for chasing a family of baby ducks trying to force them to go over the falls. I wasn't the only one though. Luckily their parents finally told them to stop before the poor things went over the edge.

We left the falls before I got really fired up and started yelling at kids who didn't belong to me. Greenville is filled with historical facts about the town, cute little buildings and shops, sculptures everywhere, and restaurants. They were having Shakespeare in the park and The Greek Festival this weekend. We didn't go to either of those but we did take a couple of picture of the boys with some of the sculptures.



They mix the old with the new as you can see one of the modern sculptures in the background. The red twisty thing. Look at the cheesy grin on The Boy's face. They also have a sort of scavenger hunt thing you can do by trying to find the mice hidden around downtown. We have never done this but while walking the 6 blocks back to our car from the restaurant, we saw 3 of them. Jayke had to have his picture taken with all three. The mouse is that tiny brown thing he is looking at. I don't know how many there are.



And he had to have his picture taken holding these kids hands. He never holds still for the picture anymore so I get him doing weird things sometimes.



So that was our evening. We went home and Jayke and Mike went straight to bed. Just in time for me to watch Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters. I hate when the shows end for the season. After this week there will be no more Dancing with the Stars, no more AI, no more Lost, etc. What am I going to do?

WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

We tried out the dvd in the car today. I'm not sure this is going to be a good thing. It came with two sets of wireless headphones which are great if your head is big enough to hold them on. Jayke's is not so the entire time we were in the car he was yelling...and I do mean yelling because he had the volume up so loud...that he couldn't keep them on. He would yell, "I told you to stop hitting bumps 'cause my things fall off!" Then everytime we would say something to him, or each other, he would yell WHAT because he couldn't hear. I am only hoping that before we drive to Indiana I can come up with some way to make the headphones fit better.

We got a solar blanket for our pool today to maybe we can get it warmed up enough to be able to get in it before leaving for Indiana. Jayke and Mike tried yesterday but the water was way too cold and the air temp was cool too. I know I'm not getting in that thing until it warms up! I now understand why my dad would never go swimming until the pool reached a certain temp. As kids it never bothered us, but as you get older it gets worse. I guess I'm old because I hate cold water.

We went to Skins for some "Southern Style Dogs" for lunch. Mike hadn't been there before. Jayke and I had though and we love it. We sat at the counter which The Boy loved and ate our dogs where all the action was. People shouting out orders, etc. Jaykeb had a Weanie Bun, which is what they call a plain hotdog. This is the only place he will eat his dog in the bun. I think it is because the buns are super soft so it isn't too big for his mouth. Yum!

Mike sent me to get him some, "Beverage" as he puts it and I thought since I was going I would just go on it to Scrooges, the huge liqour store in town and see if I could find some other ciders to try. I found Pear and Berry so they are chillin' in the fridge for me to sample this evening. For those who have asked me what Cider is scroll down. I posted about it just for you! I will let you know which ones I like and don't like later.

Oh yeah, the picture of The Boy was one from my "Day from hell" that I didn't post. It was taken at McDonalds where Jayke had found himself two cute little girls to play with. Surprise, surprise.

Cider

I posted the other day that I was having a Cider adult beverage and now I have people asking me what it is. I didn't know what it was until I read about it on Katie's" blog. After the day I had had I thought I would try it. My grocery has one of those coolers where you can mix and match to make your own six pack so I grabbed different ciders to try. They are pretty good! I can see where drinking a lot of it would make me sick though. I hardly ever drink so I have to take it easy. Good thing for Mike is I'm a cheap drunk. Two drinks and I am pretty much at my limit! Lightweight, yes.So here is the definition I got off of the Wikipedia website for cider. There are a lot of different kinds. I have only tried the apple so far. Haven't found any pear cider yet, but I'm still looking.
Cider (or cyder) is an alcoholic beverage made primarily from the juices of specially grown varieties of apples and pears. In most places in the world, the term refers to fermented apple juice and pear juice, but the drink is known as hard cider or ciderjack in the United States and parts of Canada, where the term "cider" almost exclusively refers to non-alcoholic apple cider.
Cider generally has a stronger alcoholic content than typical beer, usually over 5%, and appears golden yellow and often cloudy. To produce cider, apples are washed and mashed, pressed (usually in a stone mill or hydraulic press), then fermented in oak vats using natural or added yeasts.
Click the link above if you want to read the rest of the definition. Hope that answers any questions.