A Brief Explanation of My Insanity

Kailani wanted to see our favorite Christmas ornament. Well, that would be difficult for me seeing as how I am crazy for Christmas! I should be after dealing with Christmas 12 months out of the year for 10 years!

In my past life...the one before Jaykeb was born...I worked in interior design. I did a lot of different jobs like floral design, in home consultation, visual display design, waited on customers, I even did the books but my favorite part of the job was planning the Christmas trees. I would start in January when the new catalogs came out and begin putting together my themes for our 9 trees. Sometimes I would also be planning a particular customer's special order tree as well. We would go to market closer to Christmas and that is when the fun really started. Seeing the stuff in person was so different than planning from the catalogs. It was exciting!

Since I dealt with Christmas 12 months out of the year it was hard not to change your own Christmas tree from year to year. If not change it then at least add a substantial amount to it. I believe currently I have 4 trees ranging from 9 foot to 4 foot and atleast enough stuff to fully decorate in 6 different themes. Crazy, I know. I couldn't help it!

When Jaykeb was born I decided I needed to go to a more kid-friendly themed tree and have stuck with that them ever since. Yes, I still add to it every year and next year I will need to use my bigger tree if I plan to get everything on it. My Christmas stuff was one of the things I made sure I didn't leave South Carolina without and I have decorated Grammy's house from top to bottom...literally.

So when I saw Kailani's post about showing off our favorite ornament I thought to myself how could I pick just one? Well, I couldn't so I give you several of my favorites and why...



This is a Department 56 Snowman in mercury glass. Department 56 is my FAVORITE company to buy Christmas ornaments from as you will see because most of the ones I chose to show you came from them.




We carried Department 56in our store but back then I was on different themes and wasn't really interested in them. I've had to acquire most of mine through Ebay since they are retired or hard to find. I don't think we ever had Humpty Dumpty in our store but I loved him the moment I saw him and had to get him. I like to have differnt size ornaments on the tree from very small to very large. Humpty is huge!



Another Dept 56 ornament for Jayke because he loves his automobiles!



Dept 56 baby shoes...For The Boy, of course! As you can see I love the mercury glass ornaments!



This one was Jayke's special ornament this year. He is on that Scooby kick ya know!



I'm crazy for The Kitty so I had to have this Kurt Adler collectible Hello Kitty! I like to have an ornament or ornaments that represent each of our likes on the tree.



This last one I had to think about putting on this year. It is the ornament Mike bought for me after Jaykeb was born. It seemed a little strange to put it on there with all three of our names on it but it seemed even stranger to not put it on. In the end I stuck it on...towards the back so it wouldn't constantly be reminding us of what we are missing this year.


Honestly I could have put a picture of every ornament I own on here and told a story about it but that could take weeks. I already showed the Texas Star I got from Tommiea earlier in the week and I got two super cute wooden ornaments from my cousin in Colorado. I managed to select an ornament that matched my tree perfectly from the ornament exchange party...we selected without seeing them first. It was a pair of red mercury glass mittens. Love it!

So there ya go. A handful of my favorite ornaments. So, do you have a fvaorite ornament or are you like me and love them all? Tell me, tell me!

Mr. Telephone Man

Yesterday I had one of those proud moments as a parent. When you look at your child and you can see yourself in him and you are so proud of his accomplishments. Jaykeb learned how to dial Oma's phone number. Now he can call her anytime he wants and as often as he wants...which, it turns out, is about every 10 minutes. He is a chip off the ol block! Anyone who knows me knows how I love the telephone and now my child is taking after his mother.
tear slips down cheek
I don't think my mom is too thrilled with this development, however. Every 10 minutes she gets a phone call that goes something like this...

Mom: Hello?
Jayke: Hello, CAN I COME OVER?
Mom: (makes up and excuse and tells him not right now)
Jayke: Soooooo...what are you doing?
Mom: (tells him something)
Jayke: Okay, bye, I love you, be careful!

10 mintues later the call is repeated.

I just sit and laugh enjoying my son's accomplishment and my Mom's torture.

A Frozen Winter Wonderland

I think I have a sledding injury. My neck is killing me. Must have been that huge bump Jayke and I hit while flying down the slopes. We didn't get the snow they said we would but we got enough to sufficiently cover the huge hill in McCollough park where the best sledding in town is. Angi invited us to join her family for sledding and we happily went. I had located The Boy's snow boots stuffed in his grocery cart and I got him stuffed into his snow gear...not an easy task when he is constantly screaming at me about bumps in his socks and his sleeves not being right.

We got to the park and it was packed. Half of Muncie was there with every kind of sled and snowboard you can imagine. We found a good place and off we went. I have to admit I didn't think Jayke would go down this huge hill but he did. Hopped right on the sled with Angi's daughter, Maci, and went flying through the masses of people right to the bottom.



It didn't take long before Angi and I decided to join them. Yes, we had four sleds but decided to pile up on one for our first trip down the slope. We ran out of room so we had Maci hanging onto the back of the sled going down on her stomach. Good thing, she slowed us down some.



When we got back to the top of the hill I asked her husband, Ryan, if we were the picture of grace and eloquence gliding down the hill. I don't think that was quite the image he got of the two grown women flying down the hill on a neon orange sled screaming louder than all the kids out there. I was hoping the daylight reflecting off my huge silver earrings would alert the people on the hill that we were coming. I think the screaming did a better job though.

After that ride down The Boy had worked up the courage to tackle the hill solo. He climbed on one of the discs and took off down the hill. He needs to work on his technique though, leaning back dragging your hands while your feet are sticking up in the air is not the best way to accelerate down the hill. It was slow going but he made it and then trudged back up the hill carrying his sled.






There was a guy there taking video that we assumed he would use for the news or to get stills from for the paper. He was fond of Jayke and took lots of shots of him. I think he was admiring the technique. I'm hoping to see his rosy cheeks in the paper tomorrow.

After an evening cruising down the frozen hill we had to go have hot chocolate (a Mocha for me)from Starbucks. Daddy had won a bunch of gift cards a while back and Jayke and I are still using them. Even the folks at Starbucks were getting into the frozen spirit and I snapped this while waiting at the window for my order...



I just wish I had a picture of my sledding ensemble to show you. Pigtails, earmuffs, huge silver earrings, soccer socks so I could roll my jeans up on top of my boots, and my new white winter coat. The before and after shots would have been priceless. Somehow Ang and I looked worse than the kids when we got back to her house and peeled off all our snow gear. How does that happen?

The Best Time to Go to Chuck E Cheese...

....not that there is a good time really, but if you have to go you should do it when the weather forecasters are calling for up to 17" of snow! The place was almost empty and it was great!

We were there for a birthday party for our new neighbor's son. He was turning one and his mom invited Jaykeb. I knew Jaykeb wouldn't really play with Danny much but he would enjoy Chuckie Cheese and we hadn't been there in over a year so off we went. We lucked out because not very many people showed up for the party because of the weather so The Boy got a ton of tokens and had a blast. We ended up getting lots of little prizes which thrilled him to no end. That place is a racket though, they make a ton of money off that little junk they call a prize. I didn't care though because it made him happy, which made me happy and I didn't have to pay for anything. That is a good thing considering my lack of employment right now. That could all change very soon though!



Monday I have an appointment with one of the higher ups at the bank where all my friends work. He has asked me to come in and said he would help me. I'm sure part of the reason he is doing it is to get my grandma off his back. You don't want an 85 year old woman who has nothing else to do to have you in her sights. She is relentless but she gets things done! One year she decided she wanted her street paved and called them everyday until they came out and did it...I'm sure just to shut her up. She knows this poor guy at the bank so she just gave him a call. The same day my dad asked his contact at the bank to talk to him and Angi emailed him! He is probably sick of me already! Oh well, I don't care as long as I get a job soon.

If that doesn't work out then I have an opportunity in Indianapolis at St. Vincents Hospital to become a transcriptionist. AJ hooked me up with this one. There would be a lot of training involved and I'm not thrilled about the drive but at least I would have a foot in the door. We will see. At least I have a couple of options now.

We got a package in the mail from Kelly today! Cute cute ornaments and a couple of other goodies! Thanks, Kel...your package is in the mail. Really it is, you should get it Monday.

Today was the last day of soccer. The parents were supposed to play so I managed to get a representative to take my place. Opa ended up taking Jayke and I showed up a half an hour later. Managed to get myself out of that one. I considered wearing my heels so that I wouldn't be able to play but opted to send the grandpa instead. Jaykeb got a certificate and we got his pictures back. They were adorable! I'm signing him up for the next session which starts right after his birthday in January. He loves it now so I figured I better sign him up.

We got snow today but not what they were calling for. I guess the rest is coming tonight then the winds will come so tomorrow I am planning on doing laundry unless some crazy woman from "The Woods" calls and wants us to go sleding. We may join her family for a day in the snow if we can locate The Boy's snowboots. Someone tell me how you lose a pair of snowboots! They are gone...no where to be found. Yes, I looked under the bed in and the closet and in my car. They are gone unless the mountain of laundry in the bathroom ate them.

Party update tomorrow!

How to Prepare for a Blizzard

It's on its way! The big snow! I'm sure the bread, water, and milk will be flying off the shelves today. Personally, I will be buying dog food and ice. Yep, ice. Weird thing to buy before a blizzard huh? Not if you are having a party the night before the blizzard! My party is this evening. I have already made my Hello Dollies/magic cookie bars...whatever you want to call them. Now I am just trying to keep the two vultures I live with out of them! I tweaked the Christmas tree with some more decorations...you know me and my Christmas tree decorating issues! I cleaned the dog's kennel out so it wouldn't stink up the garage on the slight chance someone may need to go out there for something, and I've made arrangements to ship the little and the old out of the house for the evening! I actually tried to ship them out first thing this morning but my mom wasn't going for it.

I received a special package in the mail today! Tommie, from Tuesday Update, sent me a little bit of Texas and I love it! It will go right on the front of my tree where everyone can see it! If you haven't visited her blog you should! She is a wonderful friend, wife, mom, and organizer! Go see her soon, her husband comes home from Iraq in a few days and she may be too busy to update for a while. I am hoping to see pictures of the reunion and the happy happy faces of her children when they see their daddy again. I can only imagine how excited she must be so I thank her for taking time to send me a little something to brighten my day! Internet friends are the best! Just so Angi doesn't get her panties in a bunch..."in person" friends are the best too!


Now back to our regularly sceduled post...What do you do when a blizzard is on the way? Well, if you are my mom, you try to burn wet leaves in the driveway. Why? Who knows!!! Who knows why she does half the stuff she does! I'm sure it is becaue Grammy mentioned it and mom knows it will now be the topic of discussion until it gets done but come on! Wet leaves don't burn woman! I saw the happenings going on in the driveway and raced out there with my trusty camera in hand to capture the moment for the other half of "Lucy and Ethel" who lives in Colorado. Yeah, Dona, I'm talking 'bout you because you know if you were here you would be right there next to her! My mom and her sister are exactly like Lucy and Ethel...when they were kids they were called Westinghouse and GE but that's a whole other story about child labor I won't get into now.










All I know is when Mom came out of the garage dragging the box my new computer desk came in I left the scene. I heard a lot of banging and the leaf blower going later but I was too scared to look out the window to see what the situation was. She could have picked a day I wasn't having a party to indulge in her pyro adventures. The whole house smells like burnt wet leaves now. Yummy!

I'm off to rescue Angi from the old folks home she is running over in the Woods now. We have a mission to accomplish before I have to be back to finish the preparations for the festivities this evening. With the amount of bottles I have sitting on the kitchen counter there just may be interesting pictures to follow...in a day or two...or four.

Please Use Your Little Voice...PLEASE!

We made ornaments today. I saw them online somewhere and thought I should make some. Then I figured since I already had the glue out and all we would go ahead and make garland like I used to make when I was a kid. Why is making that garland so much fun? It's just paper glued together but when you get finished you have this cool chain of brightly colored paper. Of course now I have to make another one because the first one wasn't enough. I just like to cause myself to stress out over stupid things...like I don't have enough on my plate already to stress over. Paper garland shouldn't even make the list right now but somehow it does. Paper garland and my party guests. They are starting to stress me out too. I'm about to break down and have two parties so everyone can come on their preferred night!

Since I was already stressed out over my insufficient amount of paper garlands I decided it would be a good idea to take my very loud child to meet Angi, Maci, and Matthew at Target this evening. Nothing calms the nerves more than two wild kids racing through Target on Heelys. No wait, scratch that...two kids yelling, throwing a ball, and climbing over the seats to retrieve that ball while I'm driving is even more relaxing. For some reason all of us also felt that we needed to shout everything at each other. Angi and I eventually just gave up and broke down into hysterics at our stressfree living. Next week we may kick it up a notch and actually take the hellians inside the mall instead of just cruising the parking lot. They should make Christmas shopping with children an extreme sport. Moms could compete against each other to see who lasts the longest without screaming or throwing something. I swear I would tune in!

Christmas Puppies

Jaykeb's Christmas pjs have puppies on them this year. Perfect for a little boy who LOVES dogs. His friend, Matthew, gave him this puppy and he insisted that he have his picture taken with it in front of the tree with his puppy jammies on. Not quite what I had in mind for his picture in front of the tree but I was sick of arguing and Jayke needed to get to bed. When he reaches his limit there is nothing you can do or say to argue with him. I think he gets that from both his father and me. Stubborness runs in the family. Poor boy didn't have a chance. I think I will have to try again another night to take some more pictures.

Jayke's school was having a book fair today. I don't know whose bright idea it was to set up racks of books and small toys in the lobby where every child has to walk past them to get in and out of the school but they should get a promotion! I practically had to drag Jayke out the door screaming because he wanted a book that had a jeep on it. I had already bought him 5 other books but he didn't want those "dumb books", he wanted the one with the JEEP ON IT! I would have gotten him the one he wanted but it was a little young for him and I'm pretty sure we have others like it...in a box...somewhere... Seems like most of our life is in a box somewhere right now.

Once we got to Oma's and she read the books I got him, he loved them. Turns out Mommy isn't so "dumb" after all! I hope those books are gone by Thursday when we go back. Jayke is still talking about "Taylor, with the long hair". I guess there is more than one Taylor but he only likes the one with the long hair. He told me today that he always sits by her, with a big cheesy grin on his face. I think I will invite her to his birthday party next month. Better get to know this girl.

Christmas Meme

My day was pretty boring. Cleaning the house and doing more decorating for the party Friday. Shopping, a daily activity. I did get a super cute shirt. I tried on new jeans but decided to wait and see how long I can wear the jeans that literally fall off now when I walk across the room. I don't want to have to keep buying new ones.

We put up another Christmas tree and Jaykeb decided to decorate it with his toy cars. Very cute but not practical. They don't want to stay on there. I had them remove them and put the real ornaments on. He is into decorating this year. We also got glass ornaments and drew pictures on them Very cute. I had him make one for his dad. We hung them all on the tree and they look pretty good. I'm going to make more tomorrow. I'm starting to feel crafty again. It comes and goes.

It has been a while since I've done a Meme...so here ya go. Stolen from Cheeky.

My name….Wendy, Mommy
My website…..You’re reading it
I hail from ….Indiana.

1. All I want for Christmas is…to erase the past year of my life and start over at last Christmas.
2 My favorite holiday cocktail….I don't have one...I may after the party Friday though.
3. My favorite holiday party hors d’oeuvre….I love Angi's sausage thingys. Could I get that recipe please? I need it before Friday!
4. The average price I spend per gift….I'm not buying gifts this year except for Jayke. When it comes to him there is no limit!
5. My favorite gift to give during the holidays ….. It doesn't matter...whatever as long as I know the person will love it.
6. Something overrated about the holidays ….Nothing...I love it all!
7. Something I must have before Christmas ….. Ornaments! I get tons of new ones every year. Next year I may need a bigger tree!
8. One thing I always do during the holidays …. Send cards, decorate like a maniac, shop like crazy, take tons of pictures, make Christmas crafts.

9. Where I love to shop for the holidays….Target, Kohls, Hobby Lobby, etc.

10. A holiday tradition I have ….I thought I was starting a new one last year and that was going to Me's Zoo on Christmas eve with Jaykeb and Mike. I guess I will have to change that now along with everything else.

11. One thing you won’t find me doing during the holidays….Singing...I'm terrible.

12. What do you want for Christmas….Um, wasn’t this the first question.

I’m not tagging anyone, if you wanna steal it too, go for it.
AJ, I would appreciate an update sometime soon...maybe you could steal this meme!

Deck The Halls, Falala, Grandma Got Run Over and All That...

We went to a Christmas party this weekend. My friends were kind enough to include Jaykeb and me in their family get together. We had a stocking exchange which turned out to be really fun and cute. My friend, Jen, has a daughter who is 5 and goes to Jaykeb's school. Avery and Jaykeb are becoming good friends. Together, they played Santa for the party, passing out the stockings to everyone. They had each other's names in the drawing too. Jaykeb was very excited about what "He" got for Avery, that is after I talked him into giving up the stuffed puppy we bought.




Here he is before diving into his stocking. He got all kinds of goodies. I was thrilled with my stocking because it was full of scrapbooking supplies and other cute things. I've said all my life that the stocking is my favorite part of Christmas morning. I love filling them and love going through my own just as much.



We got our stockings, sang Christmas songs with the kids, took pictures, ate, then played Catch Phrase. Jaykeb decided he wanted to spend the night with Oma at one point so I dropped him off then somehow the evening ended up with Ryan, Angi, and me playing Rockband in Best Buy. Not quite sure how that happened. I'm pretty much just along for the ride these days.



I took this picture of my angel making an angel the other day. The snowman making didn't go so well. I am not a snowman builder, but I can definately make a snow blob. Guess I will have to practice or go over to "The Woods" and take a lesson from one of the bazillion kids that are always in Angi's yard.

Nothing a Good Bourbon Can't Take Care Of!

We went to see Santa today. Finally, the kiddo was agreeable about something. I promised him this morning that if he didn't cry when I dropped him off at school I would take him to see Santa when I picked him up. Normally he wouldn't have taken this deal because sitting on a strange, bearded, man's lap terrifies him but some genius at the Muncie Mall...Yes I said genius and Muncie in the same sentence...decided to set up a train ride right next to Santa. What a perfect bribe! When I saw that little train chugging around the track I knew I was going to get my Santa picture this year.

When I picked him up he was all set to visit Jolly Ol' St. Knick. We got there and I was all prepared to remind him of our deal involving the train but my little trooper marched right up and climbed up on Santa's lap without any hesitation. He sat there and timidly smiled for several pictures so I even got a choice. He told Santa what he wanted and got his candy cane then it was off to the train. Uh oh. The train doesn't take plastic and Mommy doesn't carry cash. Luckily for Mommy she had $2 in change buried in the bottom of her purse so the perfect trip to see Santa was not ruined by a penniless, promise breaking mother.

The Boy got his train ride and all was right with the world. He refused to smile at me while riding though and each time he passed he had this silly look on his face with his lips pursed from attempting to look serious. I was in hysterics as was the girl running the train.

If I can figure out how to work my scanner I will put the picture up...I wouldn't hold my breath though. I did get a couple of him on the train...



Before all this Christmas fun took place we had an interesting day. Mom, Grandma, and I headed out for lunch this afternoon. On the way back my mom got fed up with the holiday traffic and took a shortcut across a parking lot.(She is always taking shortcuts that end up taking 3x as long) Turns out her shortcut cost her the rest of the afternoon. She bounced us off a curb that was buried in the snow and blew out her tire. Normally this wouldn't be such a problem except that my mom is at the end of her rope stress-wise and sort of flipped out. We got to see where my temper really comes from. You know it is a sad situation when I am the calm and collected one on the scene. Jim showed up to take Grandma home and me to get my car. When we got to the house Grammy was like a kid who had just been on an adventure. We got in the door and she had this huge grin on her face and started talking about how fun it was. I didn't have time for that I had to get back across town to pick up my mom before she hitched a ride in the tow truck. I also had a resume to deliver! When I got there and told her about all the conversations had on the way home she was in hysterics. Literally. Grandma had never seen her that mad before and just couldn't figure out what was wrong, I just thought it was funny, and Jim thinks everything can be fixed with a good bourbon. Sigh This is what my life has come to now, afternooons spent with a bunch of nuts!

SNOW DAY!

We got snow last night! Not as much as they had predicted but enough for The Boy to bust out his new sled and head out into the frozen tundra. Oma took him out and I joined them later. I pulled Jayke all over the place on his sled. I must report that my new fancy snow boots worked quite well, my feet were not cold at all and my new coat is almost too warm.

The dogs were even excited about the snow. I ended up losing Laynie for a brief period of time. At least I got my exercise in today hauling the kid on his sled and running after a crazed beagle.



When Opa got home from work he and The Boy went out to find a hill they could go down. They found one just Jayke's size, not too big but big enough he could get a good ride. I trudged out through the drifts to take one picture before the battery in my camera died. Unfortunately the snow was not the Snowman making kind. We will have to wait for Friday's snow to see if it will be the right kind to make Frosty. Jayke didn't seem to care, he was just happy to ride around on his sled and walk through the drifts.



One great thing about the snow is it tires one little guy out enough that he is willing to take a nap after playing all morning. Good for us during the day but not so good for me at bedtime.

Love is In The Air...

This boy is in love...again. Instead of Twila, her name is Taylor. Once again I have no idea which little girl she is either. Guess I will be scoping her out on Thursday. All I know is she has blonde hair and it is long. There is a Taylor with short hair too that he apparently isn't interested in. He gets this goofy grin on his face when you mention her. Very cute. Guess I will have to be inviting her to the big birthday party next month. I think I'm more excited about the birthday party than I am for Christmas. This will be the first birthday with friends there instead of just grandparents sitting around staring at him. We are having it at Escapades, an indoor playground and the theme will be Scooby Doo, of course. Jayke is already telling people he is four. He needs to slow down. I don't want him to grow up any faster than he already is.

It is snowing tonight. We are under a snow advisory. Jayke has his boots and brand new sled all ready to go tomorrow. He doesn't know about the surprise from Aunt Dona yet. Guess I will be breaking in my new snow boots tomorrow too. I am just waiting to get my mom out in the yard and throw snow balls at her. I'm easily amused. Before we can go out for out snowday I have to go see a man about a job though. I'm not saying anything else about it right now 'cause I don't want to jinx it but this is the job I want so wish me luck! I'm ready for the job search to be over. It is all anyone ever wants to talk about.

Jaykeb and I watched Rudolph tonight. This is the first year he has been interested in watching the Christmas movies so it was fun. We watched The Charlie Brown Christmas movie last weekend but he fell asleep. Friday Frosty is on. I usually am watching my own Chritmas favorites by now but am not in the mood this year. I've got everything ready for Christmas, the decorating, the Christmas cards, all the presents are wrapped and under the tree, my party is planned and the invitations are out but it still doesn't feel like Christmas. Maybe the snow will help. Hope so.

A Whole Bunch of Stuff...

It has been a while so I have a lot to catch up on. First is a day in the leaves with P'pa. We pulled in the driveway and the entire yard was covered with pretty yellow leaves that had just come down over night. The Boy was ready to rake leaves as soon as he saw them. He made P'pa go out with him and blow them into a huge pile.



It didn't matter that P'pa uses a tractor to pick up his leaves, he went out with his leaf blower and made a huge pile just for the kiddo to jump in. He had to go back later and spread them all out so the tractor could pick them up. Anything for the boy! I got in the pile with him and Meemaw video taped it.



Amazing how much fun a pile of leaves can be. The first picture was so cute I had it made into porcelain Christmas ornaments.




We are halfway through soccer now. Jaykeb loves it. He had one bad day there and ever since then has been bugging me all week about going back to soccer. I can't wait to put him in the spring league. He looks so cute out there in his soccer clothes. He is getting the basics down but when it is time to scrimmage he just runs back and forth grinning at me the whole time. Last Saturday he actually kicked the ball during one of their games. His team won too! He has a favorite coach who they call Captain Norway because that is where he is from. There are two little girls from his preschool class who play too so he has familiar faces there.



There hasn't been another Twila yet but he has two friends who are boys who he talks about alot now. He really likes his teachers too. He got his picture taken for soccer and for school. We got the school pictures back and they were pretty cute. He looked like he didn't really want to smile in them though. I am anxious to get the soccer pictures back now.

We play outside a lot. There is a lot to do here for little guys. Where we live now is where I grew up so I have been having fun taking Jaykeb to do all the things I did as a kid. Walks in the woods, picking up buckeyes, blowing milkweed seeds, and climbing on Grandpa's equipment.




As you can imagine, The Boy LOVES all the construction equipment that is available for him to get rides on. He doesn't look thrilled in the picture but that was because I was making him pose all over the place for pictures. He is getting tired of that. He has started giving me goofy faces when I tell him to smile for pictures. I guess this will be a stage for a while. I did manage to get a cute picture of the two of us for our Christmas card this year. We had it taken in the woods one evening before it got too cold out.



We got our Christmas tree put up after he got back from his weekend with his father. Oma and Opa came over for dinner and decorating the tree. I will put pictures of the finished tree later when I get some good ones. I have been decorating like crazy for my party I am having on the 14th. I've never had a Christmas party so I will probably go overboard like I tend to do, but it is giving me something to look forward to right now.




Along with tree decorating, we also baked Christmas cookies. This was quite a production. I let Jayke cut the cookies out himself and I even gave up control of the decorating and let him do it all.



We had all kinds of fun stuff to put on them. Jaykeb liked the sprinkles and icing pens the best though. When we were finished we were both covered from head to toe with flour. That is the only way to bake though! At one point I looked at him and he had this funny look on his face. I just turned my back to him and told him to brush it off. He wanted to know how I knew what he had done. I told him it was because I was the mom. I had a big white handprint in the middle of my black shirt. I think he was in shock that I wasn't mad. I had already decided that we would just have fun with the cookies and I would clean up the mess later. Much easier that way, I don't spend the whole time worried or upset about the mess and just have fun with him.





Before we left SC we had sent out a Flat Jaykeb to visit my cousin, Kelly, in Colorado. We got Flat Jaykeb back today and boy did he get around. Kelly took him to work with her and had tons of great pictures of what all they did there. She also took him to see the butterflies and to the aquarium. After hanging out with Kelly Flat Jaykeb got to go on a cruise where he visited Turkey, Croatia, Greece, and italy. Man do I wish I were Flat Jaykeb! My other cousin, Ryan and his wife Serenity, took him to see all of these places and had wonderful pictures all with Flat Jaykeb in them. I wish I could put the whole book Kelly did for us on here. It was fantastic! I bought the book, Flat Stanley for Jaykeb so he could read it then see where all his Flat traveler went. She also sent lots of post cards and little toys from where she works so he was in heaven when his package arrived today.



My only problem now is that I have no idea where to send Flat Jaykeb next. I had planned to send him to Indiana to go to work with Opa and hang out with Oma, Meemaw,and P'pa but now Jaykeb can do that in person. Also, I told my mom that Kelly did such and outstanding job that she may have raised the bar too high. I guess I will have to think about this for a while and figure out where Flat Traveler can go next.

Thank you Kelly! We were more than pleased with your hosting duties! I knew you would do it up like that though.

We have a Christmas party to go to this weekend with a bunch of friends and their kids. We picked names and are doing stockings for our exchange gift. Jaykeb got Avery, who is five and a new little friend of his, so it should be super cute to see him give her her stocking. I finally got to buy for a little girl too...you know I had fun with that right? Can you say Pink and Hello Kitty?!?

We are supposed to get snow in the near future so I'm hoping we get enough to go out and use the really nice snowman building kit Aunt Dona made for Jaykeb. We will make a snowman and a snow dinosaur and all kinds of cute animals. P'pa saved a bunch of sleds for us too and I want to go to the Me Zoo in the snow. Just plugging along trying to feel normal. Still no luck in the job department though. I turned in an application today that I have high hopes for. The job is exactly what my degree is in so hopefully I will hear something soon. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Hustle and Bustle

Somehow I got convinced going shopping at 5a.m. the day after Thanksgiving was a good idea this year. I've managed to avoid shopping on this day my whole life but Angi is convincing when she wants you to join her in some madness. Yes, I will admit it turned out to be a fun day but it was touch and go in the beginning.

There may or may not have been some cheating the lines and pushing of security guards to get in the door ahead of the crowd at one Target store in the central Indiana area. There may or may not have been running like a mad woman down the aisles to the electronics section once you were in the door ahead of the crowd. There may or may not have been a lot of sweating and frantic phone calls from cell phone to cell phone. In the end though, there WERE coveted items scored from behind the electronics counter. That is all I will say about our first stop on what I now like to call Scary Soccer Moms on the Loose. If you see a burgandy Honda Odessey loaded with packages and 5 crazed women in your area, be afraid, be very afraid!

We hit a total of 4 stores. We could have kept going but we couldn't fit anything else in the mini van. We saw people yelling, cussing, running, and sweating every where we went. Yes, some times it was us. I decided to behave myself after the Target entrance. Somehow that story got embellished all day long. I would like to go on record right now as saying I DID NOT throw a security guard to the ground. I was merely pushed into one causing him to conveniently move out of my way. This will probably end up being one of the stories Angi and I like to tell over and over again like the one about the throwing of a trash can and a bottle of Vodka.

As I'm sure you can figure out on your own, we had a good time. We got a lot of shopping done. We got a ton of great deals and we had a lot of laughs. I was up by 4 a.m. and didn't come home until 6:30p.m. When I was done shopping with my friends I headed to Anderson where I knew my dad would be at some electronics store buying extremely large and expensive televisions. I was correct. We went hunting for something I wanted then headed to his house to haul everything inside.

I managed to not only get Christmas done but I got Jayke's birthday shopping done as well. Now I'm onto party planning. We planned one gift exchange for the kids with my friends and I am planning an ornament exchange with all my girlfriends at my house. Sunday I am having a trim the tree get together. I have all my decorating done except the tree which I promised Jayke I would hold off on until he got back from his weekend with Mike. I am so ready for that little turkey to come home. I miss him like crazy but I'm happy that he is spending time with his cousins and having fun.

Jen and Angi call today "The Hustle and Bustle", I now know why. I certainly hustled my bustle all day long!

By the way, I am officially back in the world of blogging now. I am all hooked up with highspeed internet at my own house! Yeah!

Would You Like to Buy a Pizza for My School?

I took this evil looking child to the park yesterday. Oma and Grammy went with us but Grammy doesn't walk well and Oma had thrown her back out so it was just the kiddo and the Mommy playing. We took a walk down by the river so Jayke could throw rocks in the water and Mommy could try to teach him how to skip them. I don't think he is ready for that quite yet. It was supposed to be our last nice day for a while so we wanted to get a day at the park in.

I was surprised at how easily The Boy climbed up the rock wall. He has never done it before that I know of but he went right up the thing like it was nothing. This park has great walking trails and they have installed exercise stations along the path since I was there last. Angi and I have plans to start using it. Notice I said we have plans...not that we have done it or anything. All we manage to do is walk around department stores so far. Still exercise in my book!



He climbed right to the top of this thing too...




I have a modem now so I can get hooked up to high speed internet. It has been sitting in the bedroom all week. As you can see, I jumped right on that. Maybe I will get around to that tonight. I have been doing my scrapbooks instead of blogging. I'm officially addicted! I did remeber to charge my camera battery though so now I can start taking pictures with it again instead of my phone. I'm getting tired of texting the pictures to my email account and waiting to check it when I'm at my mom's. You can see why I don't blog as often...PITA.

I had my first parent/teacher conference. Jayke has only been going to that school for 2 weeks so I didn't know what we could have to confer about but I went any way. Just as I suspected she wanted to talk about his sereration anxiety. He has it really bad when I drop him off but he also is having it when any of the teachers leave the classroom. That was on Monday. He had school on Tuesday and again today. By today he had already gotten over it. He didn't cry at all today. He was so proud of himself too. I think we are over the hump with that now.

Another first for Jayke is he is selling things for his school fundraiser. I probably wouldn't have even bothered but they are offering money off tuition for the top 3 sellers. Yeah, they just had to go and make it a competition so you know I'm all over that. I have a list of people to hit up. We have made it to a few houses so far and everyone has been generous with their orders. Tomorrow I'm taking him to my dad's to sell him some pizzas and over Thanksgiving he can hit his dad up too. I taught him to go up to the doors and give his sales pitch. It is the cutest thing ever watching my kid hock over priced frozen goods to our unsuspecting friends and family. Brings a tear to my eye. I reminded Angi of all the pies, mums, and candles I have bought from her kids over the years before ringing her doorbell. Must have worked she bought a couple of things. We are so gonna win this thing!

He Must Have Thought we Were in The Outback

Jayke and I took a couple of walks today. On the first walk we went back behind my grandmother's house in the tall tall grass that is along the long pond. We started out to check out the buckeye tree, a favorite activity of Jayke's. We had the dogs with us so we were soon off into the tall grass to retrieve the mutts who had wondered off. Jayke thought it was great tramping around in that grass. He kept telling me he was hunting with Simon and Laynie, the dogs. I think The Boy and the dogs need to get out more often. All of a sudden I hear Jayke yelling, "A KANGAROO! A KANGAROO!" I turn just in time to see a rabbit running off through the field. Apparently he almost stepped on it in it's hiding spot down in the tall tall grass. So, not only does my child think a rabbit is a kangaroo, but my big hunting dogs (one is an actual beagle) didn't even have a clue there was a rabbit in the vicinity. Not even after it took off across the field.

We ventured over to the woods after that and found an abundance of milk weed to blow the seeds around. I was never allowed to do that as a kid. My grandpa would yell at me and tell me the farmer doesn't like them in the fields. Come on! How can a kid resist a milk weed pod just bursting with white fluffiness? Anyway, Grammy doesn't care so we blew all the seeds out of every pod we could find. We also discovered a tree stand on my dad's property with a salt lick just a few feet away. Talk about unfair advantage, not to mention illegal. Poor deer wouldn't even have a chance. I called Jim and he came and took the tree stand down and took the salt lick over to the field with the tall tall grass and the kangarabbit for the deer to be able to enjoy it safely. Jayke and I felt good after our hike and playing conservation officers. Grammy decided to take us out to dinner. Jayke got to pick...Red Lobster, his favorite. Today was a pretty good day.

Grammy and Jayke...

....just hanging out. Jayke likes to go down and sit with Grammy in the mornings.


We found out that one little girl in Jayke's class at school plays soccer with him too so we are excited about that. Also, there is a little girl in his class that lives in Oma's neighborhood! Yeah, a friend to play with at home! She's no Twila though. No one will ever take Twila's place in his heart. He is loyal. A good quality for a man to have. Too bad they don't all have it.

Still looking for a job. Not doing much else. I have started scrapbooking again though. Still no highspeed internet at Grammy's so I am not getting around to blogs regularly yet. I will soon. I'm thinking of ordering my modem tomorrow. Enough waiting. Who needs a job before they start running up bills, right?

They Almost Won

Boooo!!!! The colts lost last night. Bummer. Actually, the women at the party we went to had no idea who lost or what the score was at that point. We spent the evening in the kitchen within arms reach of the blender. My dad makes these drinks that we named "Cabana Boy Specials" because my sister sits by the pool in the summer and orders drinks from her "Cabana Boy", my dad. They are lemonade and rasberry Absolute Vodka frozen drinks and they are yummy. Anyway, Angi introduced them to her entire neighborhood and now they all make them. Last nights batch was even colored blue for the Colts big game. We weren't around for part of the game because we were making one of our trips to fetch ice from another house down the block or to cut hydrangea's...don't ask. We got the bad news when Angie's husband, Bob, came in the house in a very bad mood. (Different Angi, different house, different husband)All the kids were moping around. Not the moms though we were all happy as clams.

Here are a few of the kids from the party in the Colts gear.



Jayke ended up going home early from the party. I think he was having some effects from his flu vaccination and wasn't feeling well. I ran him to my mom's and went back. Before he left we took this picture of our Colt's babies though...



Jayke was holding the baby girl at one point but told me it made him nervous. Too cute. The other little boy is Mason. I think Jayke will end up being friends with him. He is a year yonger but has older brothers so is used to playing with older boys. I think more of the parents had on Colts jerseys than the kids. Jayke has a Manning jersey and I have Harrison. He was excited that we totally matched. I'm excited that we get to do fun stuff like this again with friends. Now if the husband was just doing it with us too everything would be perfect.

Last One, I Promise!

I know you are all probably getting sick of seeing and hearing about Halloween but I'm still trying to catch up on my blogging so this is the last Halloween related post I promise.

Some pictures of the kids we went trick or treating with...



These are Angi's kids, Maci and Matthew. Matthew was a Zombie and I don't think I managed to get a picture of him without his mask.



Brannon, Kim's son, as a Sumo Wrestler. Probably my favorite costume of the night next to Jayke's of course!



Here is Jayke and his women. The two in the middle are Haley and Lindsey, Kim's girls and the one on the end is Maci. At one point Maci and Haley were literally fighting over who was going to hold Jayke's hand. Scared him and he didn't want either of them holding his hand after that. Funny. I will have to remind him of this when he is 15 or so.
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He had a great night. Got tons of loot and totally worn out. The only bad part of the evening came when we took off his little cowboy boots and discovered there was a spot where the boot had rubbed his leg raw despite me putting knee high socks on him. We discovered the spot when he acidentally missed the toilet and peed down his leg hitting the raw spot causing him to scream bloody murder. I will be so happy when he gets his aim in the bathroom under control.