Welcome Ranch...and other stuff...

Howdy partners! We had a trip to the Welcome Ranch Friday night. A Mom's Club activity that the dads were invited to too. There were a bunch of people there so we started out with some instructions before heading up to ride the horses.



The kids all lined up to take their turns. When it was their turn they got to choose which horse they wanted to ride. Most of the kids wanted to ride the miniature horse, Chocolate, so I told Jayke to pick which ever horse was available and he would get to ride more instead of waiting in line for the one horse. That was fine with him because he wanted to ride the BIG horses anyway!



He had the best time! He would go on his ride, get down and jump back in line to patiently wait his turn. He was so patient I coule hardly believe it. He just stood there in line all by himself watching and waiting. When The Boy in into something nothing else exists in his world.



The parents could have ridden too but I wasn't about to try to haul by big butt up on one of those horses and I think Mike must have decided the same thing because he didn't ride either. Some parents did though and it looked like fun. I was more into talking to the other moms. You know, that adult conversation I lack in my life.



After the riding was finished we headed back to the picnic area and had pizza. The kids all sat at two big tables together. You could tell we were on a ranch, these people were good at herding us to where they wanted us and they were very efficient.


They had cupcakes for all the kids too. After the food the kids hung out and played for a while. Jayke was exhausted so when we got home he went to bed. I think he must have been dreaming about horses though. He does a lot of talking in his sleep. Not surprising considering how much he talks when he is awake.



Besides going to the ranch, not much else is going on. Mike has been working crazy long hours again. He worked like 26 straight a couple of days ago. Right now he is still at work and has been there for 19 hours. We thought his Germany trip was a done deal but now we aren't sure again.

I have lost track of how many people are currently living in my house. There are new people moving in and out every day. Last I checked we had Jayke, Mike, me, Mr. Nobody, Jayke's sister, and Jayke's new brother. Coincidentally, his sister's name is Twila and his brother's name is Will. Both kids in his class at school. I even had to make extra little smokies for Twila this afternoon. Mr. Nobody has been up to no good lately. Things keep happening around the house that Jaykeb informs me are the work of Mr. Nobody. When I catch that little turd, he is out of here! I will be kicking Mr. Nobody to the curb. I haven't seen Icky since we went to the lake though. i guess we left him there. Poor Icky. He is probably lonely and scared. Oh well, one less imaginary mouth for me to feed.

One week until my mom comes and Mike and I leave for Cabo San Lucas! I can feel the separation anxiety forming in the back of my throat already. I will be fine once we get there, it is just the leaving part that gets to me. Jayke is going back and forth with being okay with us leaving to not wanting us to go. I have a feeling once his Oma gets here he won't care what we do. She already shipped a box of surprises down ahead that we can't open until she gets here. She told Jayke herself not to open the box and he told her, "I probably will, Oma." Just matter of factly. He hasn't bugged me about it too much. I opened it and went through it though. Couldn't help it! It had his Halloween costume in it and I was dieing to see it. It is very cute and surprisingly well made. Don't worry, my mom expects that kind of comment from me about her craftsmanship. She will be more shocked that I said she did a good job than she would if I said it was horrible and if anyone thinks I am being mean I have two ottomans the woman recovered that you can come take a look at to see what I'm talkin' 'bout. She calls them my converstaion pieces...'nough said.

A Fungus Among Us

I don't know why...just thought it was kind of neat. I saw all this stuff on a tree in my yard and took these two pictures. Later I looked up toward the top of the tree and these things went all the way up to the top. Weird.



I will be posting about our trip to the Welcome Ranch later this evening. A Mom's Club activity which the dads were invited to! First one we have been to.

A Boy and His Dog

I hit the mother load on Ebay the other day. I found someone who was selling their entire Scooby Doo collection! You know The Boy is obsessed with Scooby Doo. All he wants to do is watch Scooby Doo. He even talks to Scooby in his sleep. The other night he told me he was dreaming he was watching Scooby Doo. He is nuts! Anyhoo...I won the auction and the stuff got here yesterday. A huge box full of Scooby! Scooby Doo is hard to find these days since there aren't any new Scooby movies out. You can find books and movies, but not toys so you can imagine how excited I was to get this box full of toys and other fun Scooby stuff.

I pulled out the 4 movies and one action Scooby figure to give to him last night. The rest is for Christmas and birthday. He was so excited about those movies and that Scooby dog I thought he'd pee himself. Mike and I both smiled at each other as we watched him carry that little plastic dog around and talk to him. He came in at one point and told me Scooby missed the rest of his gang. He wanted the rest of the action figures to go with him and the Mystery Machine van. He is just going to have to wait for those though.

I did tell him if he slept in his own bed he could have another Scooby surprise. He was gung ho about that until it was bedtime. He ended up back out standing in front of me in no time. He said he didn't want to sleep in there. I asked him when he was going to sleep in his own bed and he told me when he is 15 or 17. The sad thing is, he was probably telling the truth because if Scooby can't get him out of my bed nothing will!

Karate Action

Per Katie's request, I have more Karate pictures for you today. I finally remembered to take the camera in with me. They are getting the kids used to wearing their pads now so at the end of class everyone gets their gear on and they get to fight the instructor.



Here is Jayke getting his gloves on. For some reason, today there were a couple more kids in the class and others observing. Gavin, Isaiah, and Jaykeb are the three older boys so they did most of the fighting. They were calling themselves the Fantastic Four in this picture below.



Chase is the other little boy in the picture. He just came back from having a broken foot so he is a little afraid to jump in there with them and really go at it. Isaiah is in the blue helmet, Gavin in the full Karate uniform, Jayke in the white helmet, and Chase in the red. There was another little boy in there but he didn't want to wear the gear. I thought it was really cute when the three older boys were fighting how they had on red, white, and blue helmets. Hakim has to have a lot of patience to work with this crew. He gets down on the mat and lets them all beat the crap out of him. The kids really love him because he is fabulous with them.



As you can see, it was very hard to get pictures of Jayke where you could see his face. It wasn't like they were going to pose for me, but you can get the idea of what is like in there sometimes. They go through their blocks and kicks before they do all this fighting. They told me the other day that Jayke and Isaiah are going to move up soon. They have fitted him for his uniform and it has been ordered, size triple zero. He is going to look so cute, I can't wait!

Arrr!

Arr! It's talk like a Pirate Day, me mateys! Thanks to Cheeky for pointing it out to us land lubbers! You can learn how to talk like a pirate here or you can just talk to Jayke for a while and he will teach you. He learned from watching The Backyardigans. In honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, I think I will go pop in the pirate Scooby Doo movie for The Boy!

I Expected This

Report from the teacher on the Twila situation today was pretty much what I expected. Here is what she told me when I asked about them...

Jaykeb is so sweet and such a good listener and Twila pretty
much does her own thing. Because Jaykeb is such a good
listener, he is now trying to help Twila do what she is
supposed to do. He is trying to guide her more now. I just
keep telling Jaykeb to keep doing the right thing and Twila
will come along eventually. He really is a leader, which is
great!

Um...I think this was a very nice way of telling me my son is bossy, which I already knew. He always bosses the other kids around and tries to make them do what they are told to do. He gets this from me. I don't deny it. I can't because Mike or my mother may come on here and start leaving comments about my bossiness.

I have to go clean up paint now. The Boy has been painting in the kitchen while I've been typing this. I'm a little afraid to go in there.

That is about all I have for today. Forgot to take the camera in with me to Karate last week again. I will remember tonight for sure. I think Jayke and his buddy Isaiah are getting ready to move up to the regular Karate class from Tiny Tots. They fitted him for his uniform and told us we needed to buy his pads now. They fight the instructor in helmets and gloves now and it is hysterical. I will try to get pictures of that tonight.

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.

Time For Change

I think I've been waiting. Waiting for something to happen and I finally figured out what it was. I was waiting for the weather to finally cool off so I could get motivated. Seems like it happens towards the end of both summer and winter. I go into a "holding pattern" just waiting for the weather to motivate me in some way.

Last night if finally happened! I looked at our weather station on the kitchen counter, you know the cheap version of the $500 one my dad has. His probably tells him when a squirrel "makes air" in the woods. Mine, not so sophisticated. It tells you the temperature inside and outside of the house. It tells you if it is raining or sunny out and it also gives you the humidity and the barometric pressure, which I have no idea what that means. I've walked in to check that thing many many times this summer and it seems to have never moved. Last night it finally told me something that made me happy. It was only 65 degrees out! Whoopee! I threw open the doors and windows and finally let the poor a/c take a long needed rest.

It is really true that fresh air makes you feel better. I immediately felt like a new person. I dove into my scrapbooking, which I haven't done since last spring. I have gotten out of bed the past two mornings ready to tear into some project. So far I have gotten back into scrapbooking, tore half of the clothes out of my closet to wash them and get them ready for consignment, Reorganized a closet in another bedroom, painted the first step in a growth chart I am making for Jayke's room, and begun decorating for fall and Halloween. I have also been scrubbing like crazy...not the norm for me.

Mike must have been waiting too because he began a long awaited project on the driveway. I'm not going to get into our driveway issues, let's just say if you are moving to the Anderson area, DO NOT even consider buying an AHO Home. He is making a trench at the end of the driveway where the road meets the unfinished part and putting in a grate to try to correct our drainage issue. It is way to complicated to explain. It is even more complicated to explain his method and how entertaining it has been for me to watch the process.

In a psychology class I had about 2 years ago when I was finishing up school, we learned about a condition where the weather affects your moods. Being the wonderful student I am, I can't remember the correct term for this condition but trust me there is one and I have it. When we lived in Indiana I thought it was only related to the long dreary winters but since moving down here I think it relates to any weather condition that is miserable and stays too long. The long hot summer has affected me the same way the long dreary winter did. I need to find a location that is 70 degrees and sunny year round. Someplace where there is always a gentle breeze to make the trees whisper, it only rains at night, and there are still four seasons so I can watch the trees change colors in the fall and come to life again in the spring. I know, I know, this place is only in my dreams. That must be why I spend so much time napping!

Hey Moms!

There is a great new show on PBS I learned about at our Mom's Club. It is called Word World. It teaches kids to recognize letters on site and how to put them together to spell words. We have watched it once and Jayke really liked it. The mom who told me about it said her son is already going around spelling everything. While watching it with Jaykeb I found out that he already recognizes many more letters than what I realized he knew. I think this show will help him continue with his learning. Check it out if you have a little one at home!

It is Reciprocated

Jayke's affections for Twila, that is. This morning when dropping him off I had my first talk with the teacher about my child's behavior in class. I knew I would have these with this kid, I just didn't think it would be in week 3 of preschool! It wasn't too serious though.

When we got to class his face lit up light a Christmas tree and he ran in to take a seat across from Twila. They didn't speak to each other just grinned like fools. Miss Cheryl came over to tell me that Jaykeb and Twila were, "Quite fond of each other." Ya' think? I told her I knew, that The Boy had told me Twila was his girlfriend. She then went on to tell me the way she figured it out was that Jaykeb was such a good listener and all of a sudden that changed. Now he and Twila just look at each other and smile and giggle all the time so they have to be separated at circle time. sigh.

We actually were laughing about it and both think it is very cute. I told her I completely understand that they need to be seperated. They can still play together during their free times but when it's time to get down to business no more googly eyes at each other. I wonder if she told Twila's mom the same thing. I'm signing The Boy up for Lunch A Bunch this week because I saw that Twila is signed up. That means he will get to take his lunch to school and stay until 2p.m. instead of leaving at noon. An extra two hours with Twila...I'm such a good mom to him.

I learned today that most everything I put in the treat bags cannot be given to the kids in his class. We can't put anything scary in them. I think I need to take them in and have Miss Cheryl look at what I have put in them. I don't think a cute little rubber ducky dressed like a mummy is scary but she might. So if bats, skeletons, witches, and ghosts are scary on a pencil or a tattoo then I guess I won't be giving out treat bags this year because I'm not starting over. pout.

I think there will be a sign up sheet for volunteering to be room mother at the different parties when I go to pick him up today. I'm all over that! I'm going early so I can sign up for the Halloween party...er, uh...Harvest Party. I can't wait to see what Twila will be dressed as.

Oma is making Jayke's costume this year. She has one finishing touch to put on it and it will be done. I have one more thing to locate for it on my end and he will be all set. I finally talked him out of being a Werewolf since he wouldn't be allowed to wear that costume to school. He doesn't even know what a Werewolf is. Too much Scooby Doo watching! He finally agreed to be anything that had a gun or a sword. Well, he can't take the weapons to school so we compromised and now we are both happy.

Dracula

See what the kid is doing here? No? Look at his mouth. This is a recent development. He has begun biting his lower lip in the past week or so. He bites it so much that he constantly has two red marks where his incisors rub along right below his lip. They look like scratches. They don't bother him, but I can see how they may start to get sore. I don't see him do it that often but when I do, I tell him to quit. He has extremely long incisors, which could be the problem. I plan to take him to the dentist to ask about the teeth, but my question is how do I get him to stop biting his lip? Anyone?

All Aboard!

During our day of truancy we went with The Mom's Club to the South Carolina Botanical Gardens in Clemson. This was Jaykeb's and my first time there. We started out walking the path that goes around the entire garden to the right, then all the way back around to the area with the gardens and ponds, and back up to the parking lot. You can click on the map to enlarge.



Yes, we were dieing by the time we got back to the main entrance where the few moms who were left sat and had snacks and let the kids play on the old caboose. I was very proud of The Boy. He made it the entire way and never once asked for me to carry him. I was ready to ask him to carry me though!



The gardens were really nice and I plan to go back on a cooler day to explore them a little further. By the time we got around to the good stuff we were too tired and thirsty to look and just headed for the parking lot and the cooler.



There is also an old historical landmark home in the gardens called the Hanover House. You know how I love to look at old homes! This one was relocated from the Low Country to the gardens. I don't know if you could go in it or not, that will be something to check out next time we go.



I think the favorite part of the gardens, at least for the kids, was the caboose. They played for a long time up on the end of it, pretending to pick up passengers along their way.



Jaykeb loved being able to take a long walk outside and didn't want to leave. I think we did leave just in time though. He was worn out. We made a quick stop on the way home at another old plantation house just to get a brochure on it. It is the Ashtabula House. I've been wanting to tour it for a while. I think we will go back when Oma is here. Jayke and I were lucky enough to get a sneak peak though when they took us through the main corridor of the home to get the information I had requested. Jayke wanted to stay and look around. I would have settled for sitting on the big ol front porch for a while. There is something about those old porches, you could spend hours just sitting. With the slight breeze today it would have been a perfect afternoon to lounge on the porch at Ashtabula. I love that name!



We headed home after that and The Boy took a very long nap. He even woke up in a good mood for a change. I think I need to wear him out more often. I, on the other hand, did not take a nap so I am exhausted.



Update: Angi's mom had her surgeries today. They were able to fix everything instead of having to go back and do more surgery at a later date. They repaired her femur, wrist, and knee. She will have to go to rehab but should be able to begin her recovery now. Angi is doing well, just really tired. I'm sure she is relieved now as well.

Where Were You?

Katie is asking, "Where were you?" over on her blog so I am going to do the same. It is one of those days you will never forget exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard the horrible news.

I had just gotten up and gotten ready for work when I walked into the kitchen and saw it on the little tv in there that I always had on. I was confused at first. It took a while to register that it was real and it was in our country. I'm sure I just stood there with my mouth open for a long time watching. I know it was right as the 1st tower was coming down that I started watching. I called my mom to make sure she knew then headed to work. I worked with her at our interior design store. We might as well not even opened that day. One woman came in and she didn't know. We told her and she left. Mike and I slept with the tv on for a week and I would periodically wake up in the night to see if they had rescued anyone. Sadly, they never did.

Grumpy Gus

Jayke had a bad day today. I should have known it was going to be bad when he got me up at 5a.m. We don't usually get up until around 9a.m. unless we have school, so this was way early for us. He took a nap but that just makes things worse. The kid is not pleasant when he wakes up from a nap. There is screaming and crying for about 30 minutes after waking from a nap. I don't have any idea what it is all about, I guess he just doesn't like to wake up. He is usually pretty grouchy for the rest of the day too. I like to prevent naps now. Jayke without a nap is much easier to deal with than Jayke who just woke up from a nap. Go figure!

Today was really bad. He was grouchier than usual which he took out on me of course. I was happy to take him to karate and let him work his frustrations out on the bags and his teacher. Only Jayke and another little boy were there. These two are the trouble makers in the class so it was a riot today. Mike was able to come watch for the first time in several weeks. Working 22 hour days doesn't really let you attend other things very often. The 3 parents were in hysterics watching these kids "fight" their teacher. At one point my son was heard yelling from the corner, "YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME?" as he charged then tackled Hakim, his teacher.

On the way home he was in a better mood but still wanted to argue. He waited until we were at our exit then asked to go to Jack in The Box. I told him we were almost home and we weren't going. He got mad and said, "Then I'll drive this car and go to Jack in The Box without you! Which way is Jack in The Box?" I refused to tell him. Then we had to discuss why his four wheeler doesn't have a license plate and he is insisting that I get one for him. I was so happy Mike was home this evening. I needed to be away from Jayke this evening.

I talked to Angi tonight. Her mom hasn't had her surgeries yet. They are hoping they will be able to do it in the morning. I had one of her injuries wrong in my previous post. Instead of a broken ankle, her knee was shattered. The guy who hit her is in even worse shape. It sounded like he had pretty bad head trauma. There aren't a lot of details since they are still investigating what happened. I will be anxious to read what the paper says tomorrow since today they only said that Sharon had a broken leg.

Tomorrow we are skipping school to go to the South Carolina Botanical Gardens. I think this is an acceptable excuse for skipping school since he will still be learning and getting fresh air and exercise. Mom's Club is going and we already missed the trip to the Farmer's Market so I want to be sure to make this one. Next week is a trip to a ranch near our house. Two great picture taking opportunities. Today I just have this one of grouch butt for ya!

Request

We did absolutely nothing this weekend so I have nothing to report. However, I do have a request. I'm not big on asking for people's prayers, but I have a friend who needs them right now. My friend Angi's mother was in a terrible car crash last night. She was hit by a drunk driver on her way home. She has a broken hip, pelvis, ankle, wrist, femur, and other injuries that I can't recall at the moment. She is in the hospital in Indianapolis waiting to go into surgery. There have been some complications so that is why she hasn't already had surgery. So, if you are the praying type, please say one for Sharon and one for Angi too.

I will be back with a post later tonight.

Here she is!

Doh! I had a picture of Twila all along and didn't even realize it! It was taken the first day of school and has been on the blog all this time. She is the little girl on the far left. I will still try to get a better picture of her sometime.

Thai Smile...

Did you hear that? That was a sigh of satisfaction and shear happiness. I no longer am missing something. I have found what has made my life complete again. It took 1 year and 8 months but I was finally successful. What have I found that would cause me such elation, you ask. I have found THAI SPICY NOODLES just like the ones I loved from Thai Smile back in Indiana! At last! They complete me! No really, they do. They are my favorite food EVER! Can you see me doing a happy dance? Jayke on the other hand, not so happy with the Thai cuisine. He took one bit of a spring roll dipped in Thai sweet and sour sauce and yelled YUCK as loud as he could. Didn't even phase me...I was focused on the beautiful pile of noodles I had in front of me. He could have dumped his coke on my head and danced on the table and it wouldn't have deterred me from my goal of making those noodles disappear! Yum. Me.

I will now have a standing lunch date on Tuesdays with my beloved noodles. Tuesday will now be known as Thai Tuesday. I will have 3 hours of kid free bliss and Spicy Noodles...what more could I ask for?

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.

Twila, Twila, Twila!

There was more talk of Twila today. Guess this is pretty serious. We went back to Target...again...they had a few things out. A little bit of their Halloween candy was about it. We got chocolate eyeballs and candy bracelets with bone charms to add to the treat bags. Jaykeb wanted to make sure he got to put Twila's in her bag. He didn't care about the rest of them. Also tonight when I was trying to get him to go to bed he was bouncing around refusing to go so I just told him if he didn't lay down and go to sleep he wouldn't get to go see Twila in the morning. He plopped right down and that was it. He's smitten. Maybe I will take the camera in with me tomorrow and see if I can get a picture of my future daughter-in-law, Twila.

Young Love

My favorite time of the year is fast approaching. HALLOWEEN which also marks the beginning of the treat bags! I love to make treat bags for the kiddies in Jayke's class. Last year I did it for Mom's Morning Out for every holiday. This year I have fewer kids to make bags for, but they are older so there are more choices of what I can put in them. These are not finished yet. Yes, I am well prepared and have them ready almost 2 months before I need them. Hey! A SAHM has to have something to do with her time!




I still have to get the candy for them when Target finally puts out their Halloween stuff. I checked yesterday and there were a bunch of empty aisles so I know if I go back this evening there will probably be Halloween items to gander. After I put the candy in I have orange and green ribbon to tie them up with. Here is what is in them so far.



A Halloween cup, two rings, two boxes of tatoos, a glow in the dark spooky rubber duck, scratch and sniff stickers, a mini frisbee, and I will add fun candy after I find it. Sorry the picture is a little blurry. Hobby Lobby is a great place! Did you know that every Sunday there is a coupon in with their add for %40 off one regular price item? You can also go to the website and print one off daily.

Jayke had another great day at school yesterday. He got to be line leader and came home talking about a girl named Twila who is his girlfriend. Shhhh! Don't tell him I told you, I wasn't supposed to tell anyone not even his dad! He gets this silly grin on his face when he talks about her too. So, my boy's first girlfriend's name is Twila. He put together Twila's treat bag and gave her the special purple spider ring instead of black. Later on he told me I am his girlfriend too. I felt much better. I don't want to be in competition with a girl named Twila!

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.

Bad Mini-Van driving Woman

We had our first serious accident with slight injury on Tuesday. I have gone back and forth on whether or not to tell about this on here or not. I feel guilty because I know it was partly my fault, I am the mother after all. First let me say that Jayke is fine, I'm fine, we are all fine. I would be a lot better if my mother would stop acting like I don't know what I'm doing with him though. Sorry mom, you are.

After picking Jayke up from school Tuesday, I ran to Target to return an item that I got from the website that came damaged. I purposely parked next to the cart return so I could put the item, which was fairly large, and Jaykeb right in the cart. I hate having him walk in the parking lot. He protested a little and I told him I wanted him in the cart so I didn't have to worry about him getting run over by a car. In he went and we headed for the doors. Jaykeb was squatting in the front of the cart holding onto the edge when a van started to back out right as we were walking behind it. The lady driving slammed on her breaks at the same time I stopped abruptly and pulled the cart back. When I did this Jaykeb stood all the way up at the same time and flipped head first over the front of the cart. He landed on the top of his head on the concrete.

I'm not really sure what happened next other than I ran around to the front of the cart and grabbed him up. I think I must have screamed because another lady and her daughter ran over and as I glanced around I saw people all over the parking lot looking in our direction. I started checking him out to see how badly he was hurt. He had a huge purple knot on his head and it looked like road rash on his scalp where he hit. I started asking him questions about his neck and trying to look at his eyes to make sure they looked normal. He was screaming but calmed down quickly after I had him in my arms and told him he wasn't bleeding or anything. He wanted to know if his head cracked open. I don't know how it didn't.

Now, with all of this that happened you would think that the woman who about ran us over would have gotten out of her car to see if my child was okay, right? Nope! She sat in her van, half in and half out of her parking spot just looking at us. I carried Jayke in my arms and slowly walked behind the van making sure she saw that I was looking at her. I stopped a few cars up to check his head again and the lady pulled up beside us and in the most sickening sweet voice said, "Awwww, is he okay?" Not sorry I about plowed over you, not sorry I didn't get out to make sure you were okay, not do you need any help. Now I understand accidents happen, she may not have seen us but it was her lack of action after the fact that really ticked me off! If I had about run over someone and their child had just landed on his head, I would have been out of that car in a flash to make sure the poor kid was okay. I would have offered to go get ice or do whatever I could to help. Not this woman. I guess I should be happy she at least asked if he was okay before going on her merry way.

I took The Boy inside and sat down with him to check him out again, let him cool off, get him a cold bottle of water to put on his head, and a drink. He said his head didn't hurt. He didn't understand why I kept asking about his neck either. He said, "Why would my neck hurt, I fell on my head!" So true. The poor little guy had a huge goose egg that was making his hair stick out over his forehead. He insisted he was fine then told me he wanted to buy a lot of stuff in Target. He must have been fine, his shopping gene was kicking in.

We made our return and went on to pick up a couple of things we needed but I couldn't stop seeing him landing on his head. I was furious at that woman and furious at myself for not making him sit all the way down in the cart. I still feel really bad every time I look at him. He is fine. Hasn't complained one bit and the knot is gone along with all the bruising. You can hardly tell anything is there at all now. When I asked him if he wanted to tell Daddy what happened all he wanted to talk about were his new kid scissors he got today. He had moved on but I'm still traumatized. I'm also afraid if he ever breaks a bone or something my mom may have a stroke!

On a happier note, I am thrilled to report that day two in school was just as great as day one! I think he is going to have a great year as long as he gets to be Weather Helper soon. If not, he may boycott.

An Athlete in the Family

I thought I'd throw this up for the family to check out. My cousin just started college at Northern Kentucky University. She is there on a volleyball scholarship and while checking the website the other day I found some pictures of her in action during one of her games.



Number four is Chelsea. She has been playing volleyball since...well, I don't know forever!



Here is what her player bio says.

Chelsea Clark Enters her first year at NKU ... outstanding hitter and good athlete ... could contend for playing time as a freshman. HIGH SCHOOL: A 2007 graduate of Yorktown High School ... collected a school-record 27 kills in one match for the Tigers ... named All-Hoosier Heritage Conference as a senior and sophomore ... named second team all-state as a senior in Indiana 3A ... also earned All-Delaware County and All-Area honors as a senior ... helped Yorktown to a No. 1 ranking in 3A most of her senior season ... coached by Mark Clark. PERSONAL: Born on Jan. 10, 1989 ... daughter of Mark and Robin Clark.

Now, I hope grammy can remember she saw these and come back to look at them whenever she wants without any trouble. I thought you folks in Colorado might want to see them too.

Stomp Stomp Stomp

Monday after karate Mike asked me to drop off some audio books he had since he had to hang around and wait for the septic tank guy to arrive. I was a little irritated that I would have to go downtown to do so but thought it was better than sitting at home with a guy who repairs something that grinds up poop all day.

When we pulled into the parking lot Jaykeb immediately started yelling that he could see books in the windows and wanted to go in. I thought we might as well. He has never been in a library before and would probably like looking at all the books. We went in and got our new library card, returned Daddy's books, and headed straight for the kid section.

My fantastic idea turned out to not be so fantastic after all. First off, I should have thought twice about taking the loudest kid on the planet into a place where talking should only be done in a whisper. Second of all, I should not have taken this same child into any place with new shoes that are too big!

stomp stomp stomp!

He insisted on wearing them.

stomp stomp stomp! Note: We finally broke down and joined the masses of Croc wearers down here.

Lastly, I should not have taken him in without first explaining how the library works. He thinks those books we brought home are his to keep and has been arguing about it ever since.

I can't imagine where he gets this desire to argue all the time and his fiery temper...wink!



We were able to select 4 books to check out and get out of there with my nerves fairly intact. After all the stomping around, the exaggerated whispers, and the one panicked yell for Mom after he thought he lost me, we were off. Heading home with our borrowed books. Discussing the entire way why he couldn't keep them. I was discussing, he was just saying repeatedly that he WAS going to keep them. I will probably just return them while he is at school and avoid going back to the library for a while. I don't know why we thought we needed more books anyway, we have like 200 books in the closet. Half of those we have never even read!

In light of our new found adventures in reading, I want to ask what is your child's favorite book? If you don't have children, what was your favorite book from childhood? Maybe I will get some suggestions to look for when I get brave enough to go back.

Talkin Baby Talk

Again with the baby sister questions today. "Are we going to go buy one yet?" I have to explain this to him but a generic answer won't ever satisfy this boy. He understands way too much and is too curious to just tell him something like, "God will put her in Mommy's tummy when it is time." I tried to tell him how it works without actually telling him the details. I jut told him Mommy and Daddy make the baby and then it grows in Mommy's tummy. I think this was a satisfactory answer for about 10 minutes. After about 10 minutes of pondering my answer he came to me with another question, "Do we have all the stuff to make a baby sister?" blink blink My response was just, "Yeah, I think we do."

We then went on to discuss what would happen if it were a baby brother instead of a sister. He is quite adamant that he does not want a baby brother. It has to be a baby sister. I then asked him what would happen of his baby sister tried to play with his cars. He said, " I will spank her butt and send her away!" Just as I thought.

If we do have a baby sister someday I hope he doesn't carry her around like this...

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.

Serenity!