Singing, Painting, and Feeding

On Friday we took the kids out to feed horses at a friend of a friend's. Jayke wanted to ride them but that will have to wait for another day. This horse is named Straight and he has very strange eyes. They are white.



The kids fought over the carrots of course. After that we took them to get popcicles and they fought over what color they would each get.

After the horses we went over to Angi/Jen's (their backyards connect) and sat around the fire while all the kids played. Ryan is back in town now and Jayke was glad to see him. I think he misses Maci too because he wanted her attention all evening.

Saturday I took The Boy to get his exploded dandelion hair do chopped off. I had them buzz it for the summer. I love it! Jayke,




....not so much!

We went to his Spring Sing concert in the morning. It was the cutest, funniest thing ever! I thought it was going to be ridiculous because they are so young but it was so darn cute! The kids managed to keep a secret from their parents that they were going to do a line dance as well as sing. That was the best part...that and when Jayke saw me in the audience and started waving and yelling into the microphone, "HI MOMMY!"






When they were done with their little dance Jayke let out a big puff of air like he was really relieved that it was over. It was precious and I'm the only one who was there to see him. Well, me and Jen...her daughter was singing too.



That is her...second from the right.

We put up a fence for the dogs this weekend and started painting Jayke's new bedroom. It is going to be yellow with a grey road running through the middle of it. We let The Boy help...there was no way we were going to keep him from helping. He painted in his underwear as you can see. We had to quit before we finished though. Ran out of paint. If we could have had all the paint that was on Jayke we probably could have finished. He now has primered hair and white freckles all over his face. He wouldn't let me take a picture of that though.




After all that painting I had to go to church with Laura so we could figure out what we will be teaching our VBS class in a couple of weeks. I don't know whether I'm coming or going anymore I'm so busy.

Here They Are!

Jayke and Hannah...I've never seen Jaykeb fight with another child the way he does Hannah. It is like they are brother and sister! She is 5 and Jayke is 4. The other day he was sitting on his soccer ball listening to Hannah give him a bunch of crap about something...just shaking his head and rolling his eyes. She went around the corner and he looked at me and said, "She's gonna need a smackin."

Hannah is the one who wanted her hair straightened and was going to wear her "high heels" to church since Jaykeb would be there. She even calls him now and then. When I hand him the phone and tell him it is Hannah he gets the goofiest look on his face. It is funny listening to them talk to each other on the phone. Mostly they just argue though. A trip in the car is mostly spent telling them to keep their hands off each other. It is good for him to have a friend his age now though.

Overheard at Work...The Clean Version

"The goose doesn't eat skittles"
"What? Is that code? What is that code for?"
"No, we tried to feed him skittles and he wouldn't eat them."
"Well, why did you do that? They are mean! That would go against my workers comp if he went after her!"
"You told us to feed him!"



"Good morning ladies...and Laura."


"Lori it is Tuesday! I told you I don't do work on Tuesdays. Stop messing up my schedule!"


"Shut up you little troll!"


"Jill, can I park in your parking space while you are gone?"
"No, you little turd!"

I don't know if I work with a bunch of nuts or big meanies! Whatever they are they crack me right up...this is just the blog appropriate stuff overheard at work. There is much I can't put on here.


Jayke is going on day 4 of a fever. Poor kiddo is sick sick sick! We have missed all of the final week of soccer and his last week of school up to this point. Being sick in the summer is no good!

My Little Slugger

Somehow I managed to miss the fact that our t-ball pictures were at 8a.m instead of when our game time was. Slept right through that. I did manage to get his individual picture taken and I snapped this one with the cell phone. I love their uniforms. Love the eyeballs on his cap. Their team name is The Victory Honda Storm. We have gotten the white pants plenty dirty but this week he didn't want to play. I had to bribe him into batting once. He did play the outfield once too. Meemaw had come to watch too. There seems to be something about the second week of whatever activity we are doing. He will never participate the second week. Next week is our last week of soccer. He will get a trophy for playing. Guess I am going to need another shelf to start that little collection. Vacation Bible School will start soon and we are looking into developmental leagues for summer soccer. Have to keep busy!

Last year for Mother's Day I got a new car. This year was much better though. I'm not saying anything against Mike or his gift giving abilities...I'm just saying that sometimes the little meaningful gifts can be way better than the big expensive ones. Jaykeb got me the bracelet and purse I already mentioned two posts ago and he made me a craft in school and planted a flower for me. A little sad looking flower planted in a styrofoam cup never looked so good! I also got a card from him at my Dad's today that had a gas gift card in it. God knows I need that right now! God and Laura both know how much I need it.

I went to church with Laura today and got lots of packets of flower seeds from her little one. Went to my dad's after that...yeah, I go to my Dad's on Mother's Day, weird I know. I see my Mom everyday though and I gave her her gifts yesterday. I go to Dad's on holidays since I don't see them very often. He served all us mothers pizza for dinner and we had our favorite dirt pudding. Just what I needed. It will be diet food all week and lots of bouncing around on the exercise ball. I get one splurge day a week and this may have counted for two weeks! Oh well Mother's Day only comes around once a year.

On top of all that fun stuff I also went to a purse party Saturday. I treated myself to a Mother's Day gift and got two Dolce purses, a Chanel purse, a Coach keychain, and a Chanel wallet. I have been saving up for this thing for a while! I'm having my own purse party in late August or early September.

It was a good Mother's Day WEEKEND!

Stalk U Much?

Jaykeb already has a woman straightening her hair in preparation of seeing him at church tomorrow. She also has her "high heels" ready to wear with her pretty dress. Funny stuff. Stalking which from here on out I will be calling intrusive contact seems to be running rampant lately!

Happy Early Mother's Day!

I was dreading Mother's Day this year. Figured I wouldn't get anything and it would just be a big reminder of the situation I'm in but it turns out it is going to be great! First, I got my gift early this year. My super sweet son took his piggy bank and cashed in all his coins then had Oma take him to the mall. Jaykeb and I had been shopping a few days ago and we talked about these four purses. He had Oma take him back and he picked out which one he wanted to get me. Then he got me this super cute bracelet that has charms on it that say, "Loved" and other sentiments. He even picked out the gift bag himself. He picked one for a baby gift but that made it even more cute. I will take pictures of this stuff later...my memory card is in my purse because I have a ton of pictures to develop from the past few days.

Tomorrow morning at school we are having Muffins for Moms and I know they have made things for their moms too. I am going to church with a friend on Sunday and the kids will give all the moms flowers and the day is dedicated to moms. We have also taken care of the grandmas but that will all happen on Sunday.

The BEST thing about all of this celebration of moms was how excited The Boy was to take his money and buy something for me. He was so excited he couldn't wait to give it to me. He called me at work to see when I was coming home and as soon as I walked through the door he yelled Happy Mother's Day and started pulling my gifts out of the bag to give to me. He was more excited about giving gifts than he is about receiving them and that makes me proud of him. He kept hugging me and telling me how much he loves me. What a good kid.

After all of that excitement he had a brilliant idea. He was sitting there and all of a sudden he said, "I know! Now we can have a kid's day and Mommy can buy me something!" At least he was into giving for a little while.

Today We Vote...

....and it actually counts this time. Jayke is totally ready for his trip to the voter's booth. He knows all the candidates and will tell you all about them although he really wants to vote for his Oma for president.

I have t-ball pictures to post but I have not been home much lately so I don't have them ready to go yet. I will try to get to that tonight. I couldn't have been more proud of the kiddo. He really smacked it at his first at bat and never had to use the tee. I think we have found his sport!

My smiley face is still on by the way.

Angi...when do we go to Winchester?!?

This Is Me Today...

....and that is all I'm sayin!

Green Grass and Work Stuff

These are some of the pictures from last weekend I have been meaning to put on here. My dad's yard is always so pretty in the spring. Jayke loves running through the garden with the "boys" on his heels. Brady and Brody, my dad's dogs like to chase him but often get side tracked by fighting with each other.





I have some other pictures of him running around out there but in the few minutes it took me to upload these two pictures I lost the others somehow. WTH! I will have to go back and upload all 500 of them again and see if I can manage to hold onto them. I took a bunch of him at soccer the other night too I wanted to put on here.

I have come to the conclusion that I work with a bunch of lunatics. Our two bosses being two of the biggest of them all. Today the CEO wanted us to go out and try to herd a goose out of the puddle in our parking lot. She actually asked Laura, our receptionist to do it and I jumped up and asked if I could go get my arsenal of cameras out of the car to film/photograph the undertaking. I'm sure it would have been quite interesting. This is not the only reason I think they are all nuts...that is too complicated to describe on this little blog entry.

One of my favorite reasons is something I like to call musical chairs. Someone is always rolling a chair around the office. Laura is always falling out of her chair. I will hear a big crash and I don't even have to look anymore...I just know it was Laura falling out of her chair. Sara crashed her chair into the wall today trying to roll through the door. This was all before we went to lunch where we debated having the pina coladas with our shrimp. We passed on the coladas...just knowing we had to ride back with Laura driving while sober was scary enough let alone riding back with her after having drinks.

Tomorrow Laura and I will be parked at the front desk together. She is training me to do her job so I can be her backup. I feel sorry for anyone who comes up to the front desk for anything. Between the two of us it is hard to get a serious non-sarcastic answer. Good thing our bosses love that about us. They are the first ones to admit it too. The poor mail man may just skip our pick up tomorrow when he sees us waiting for him. It's a wonder we get any work done!

Here She Is!

Here is my cousin, his wife, and the new baby. My mom thinks she looks just like Jaykeb. I agree...they both looked like little babies (okay maybe big babies).

Fa La La la La...

I got a note from the school today that Jaykeb will be performing along with his class in a Spring Sing concert. The two songs they will be singing are If Your Happy and You Know It and One Two Buckle My Shoe. We We had a sneak peak performance tonight and I think I need to practice with him. He sounded like a raspy old man...on purpose of course. He has a hard time being serious.

We got his t-ball pants tonight and they are adorable. He had to wear them of course and got watermelon all over them. They are white. Perfect color for small people to wear out in the dirt and grass.


I have pictures from the weekend to put on here but I can't find them on this laptop now that I uploaded them and I'm too tired to look. I'm still getting used to this thing. Will try again tomorrow.

Congratulations Ry and Serenity!

My cousin and his wife had their baby girl today. I'm sure I will probably spell her name wrong, but welcome Corinne! Sorry if I spelled that wrong. I'm sure if I did I will be corrected. I definitely know what is like to have your child's name spelled wrong.

Speaking of my child...another funny Jaykeism...

Speaking to my dad today, he said,"My mom is a Repelican and I'm a repelican too! Your a democrat P'pa!" I will be so glad when the election coverage is over. My child talks about Barack Obama way too much!

B*I*N*G*O!

Several years ago before I had Jaykeb I was in a Bingo club. Why? I don't know. Probably because Angi talked me into it. I went a few times and basically decided I didn't like it. All the women seemed to talk about was poop. Since I didn't have any children at the time I didn't find these conversations interesting in the least.I never won anything either so I really didn't like it. I dropped out of bingo and swore I'd never go back.

Tonight I went to Bingo. Angi is very good at talking people into things and I try to stay busy these days as much as possible. Tonight it was all girls from Angi's neighborhood who I know, Melanie, and one of the original Bingo girls. It was the same old game but this time I won. And I won...and I won again! Made it even better that the prizes were cash. I was slightly disappointed that the conversation did manage to get on the topic of poop though. I made sure I pointed out the fact that all those years ago they were talking about poop and tonight they were again. Over 5 years and I didn't miss a thing!

I don't know if I will go to Bingo again. If I win like I did tonight I might have to though! Maybe my luck is changing. Got some good, I think, news about my dad and won at Bingo. I'm taking it all as a good sign.

Today was national take your kid to work day. I wasn't able to take mine with me but he did go to work. He helped the guys who work for Jim tear out my grandma's patio so it can be replaced. Jaykeb got over there, saw them working, and went right in to get his tool box. He worked and worked helping tear out all the bricks. When the guys stopped for lunch he got real upset and wanted to go to lunch too. My mom had to take him and Grammy to McDonalds for lunch and the whole time he was worried about getting back in time to meet the guys to go back to work. She had to bribe him to get him to leave. I think I may need to hire him out.

Score!

This is where I spend the greater portion of my life these days...



....my desk. Can I just say I love Administrative Assistants Week! Our boss got us all flowers today. She loves to give her employees gifts. I don't know how many times in a month the employee of the month gets flowers. Anyway...you can also see my mini shrine to the main man in my life sitting there on my desk and on the bulletin board above. I couldn't put much of my desk in the picture because of HIPPA laws. Just a tiny glimpse into my day.


Jaykeb scored a goal tonight! Oma and Opa went with us and we were all VERY excited. I couldn't believe our team. It was like some other team was wearing our grey shirts out there! They were all great. Much more fun to watch. The swamp is finally dried up now too so the ground is easier to run on...maybe that is what made the difference. Whatever it was I was very happy with the boy. The two of us hit the Pizza King after the game for a celebratory pizza. I was doing so well on my diet this week too...oops. Start over tomorrow.

Typical Male...

I know this isn't a very good picture but I don't always have the Nikon on hand so I rely on the Chocolate...picture phone. We start T-ball this weekend so I figured we better at least hit it off a tee once before our game. No problem although in this picture he hit the tee instead of the ball. I'm hoping they pitch to them the first few then go to the tee.



I got home from work today and my mom told me that Jaykeb went into the bathroom to pee today and took a pencil with him. When he got in there and got his pants down he pretended to take a measurement. Where he learns these things I don't know but the funniest part was what the measurement ended up being...101 inches! All I can say to that is they must be born with that desire to have things be larger than what they actuaqlly are because I know he hasn't heard that around the house!

HELLO? HELLO?

It is just a normal thing any more to come downstairs and discover Gramma trying to make a phone call on the television remote control. Strange, but normal if that makes sense. Remember the rock eating post? She takes it all in stride though, laughing at herself instead of getting upset. Jayke now pretends his buses are driving to pick up old people and take them to the nursing home...guess he hears a lot of talk about that. He used to have all the guys driving trucks divorcing someone. I like to listen to him playing so I can find out what he is thinking about. If you ask him he will just say he doesn't know. Typical.

Smokin' Meat!

What is it with men and their meat? They are constantly buying something bigger and better to cook it in or on. If you ask me it is just something else to have to find a place for. Opa got this new smoker the other day and had to smoke some ribs out in the driveway. He first had to destroy my mom's kitchen though whipping up his homemade rub and sauce. I don't know how long it took this meat to cook but they were setting up when I dropped Jayke off before work in the morning and the meat came off the smoker at 6p.m. That is a lot of work when Damon's is just down the road! Seriously they were good though. Jayke loves ribs!




As you can see Opa had an assistant helping him all day. Jaykeb even asked my mom to leave so he could hang out with just Opa. Just a couple of guys bonding over some meat.


There were some other activities going on in the driveway while that meat was smoking too. We will just call this Jayke's version of bobsledding. You take a rolling gardening stool, add one Oma, and one fearless child and you have Garden Carting! No, I did not take a ride on the garden cart. If anyone were to fall off the thing it would be me.


One good push and kiddo went flying all the way down the driveway into the grass. Others were brave enough to take a turn on the flying garden cart and because of my fear of my mother killing me I am not showing the end results of this ride. Lets just say that all three of them, my mom, Jayke, and the cart ended up in a heap in the yard. I have action shots the entire way but I know she would not be happy about them ending up on here. They were not of her most flattering side.


Grammy came over for some spicy smoked ribs too. It was the first really nice day so we all just hung in the driveway with the men and their meat. Jayke is already working on his tan as I'm working on not getting a sunburn. Lucky kid got his dad's good skin. Mine just burns.



I have to give a brief earthquake update. When I got up and went downstairs Grammy wanted to know if I had fealt it. I told her yes and she told me that she woke up thinking my dogs had somehow gotten in the house and were underneath her bed scratching themselves and making her bed shake. I heard many more stories all day at work of what others thought it was and I guess Grammy's theory wasn't so far off...turns out several people thought it was their dogs scratching and making the bed shake. Bed shaking yes, but making the pictures above the bed bang on the wall is something else!

5.4

It's just not right, when you live in central Indiana, to be awakened by and earthquake. It shook the bed so hard it woke me up and that is not an easy thing to do usually. I woke up, laid there a minute, determined it was just and earthquake, rolled over and went back to sleep. It takes more than an earthquake to get me up before my alarm goes off!

Batter Up!

I finally got Jayke into a baseball league playing t-ball. Not my first choice but my second. We are going to be busy now. This means there will be more super cute pictures of the wee one in a cute little uniform. That and he will be playing the sport he is the best at. Hopefully he will be okay with hitting the ball off a tee...he likes to be pitched to. That will take some getting used to.



This was taken after leaving the ballpark the other night. We went to watch Angi's son practice and let the kids play on the playground. We hit the Delta Queen afterwards for icecream. Kiddo was two fisted.

The Boy is still refusing to kick the ball at soccer. He runs all over the field chasing it but won't kick it. He does great when they are practicing their skills but as soon as they start the game something happens to him. Guess we will have to drag our goals out in the yard and recruit some grandparents to play against us to get him used to taking the ball away from someone. Oma went with us tonight so she understands what the problem is now.

Jayke is going to be staying with gradparents during the summer instead of going to school. One good thing about this is he will be learning to swim while at my dad's. I enlisted Meemaw and Ppa for daycare/swimming lessons. Jaykeb is also finally going to get his own bedroom. He doesn't have one right now in Grammy's house but we are going to fix that very soon. I have fealt bad that he doesn't have his own room so we are turning the playroom into his bedroom. He can just play in his bedroom. He has been promised by his dad that if he starts sleeping in his own bed that he will get bunk beds. Jayke has been obsessed with bunk beds for as long as I can remember. He doesn't really ask for much so we figured we can give him this if he does his part. I will probably end up sleeping in the bottom bunk some nights.

It's looking like we are going to have a busy summer. We have already kicked off the season with the tradition of my mom getting the lawnmower stuck in the mud and Jim having to come pull her out with his truck. You would think she would learn her lesson but she doesn't ever seem to. She does this every year! She has a record with lawnmowers. When she was a kid she drove my grandpa's brand new lawn mower straight into the pond. I'm surprised anyone lets her on one anymore. Oh well, as long as my yard gets mowed it's all good!

Fuzzball

When the kid starts looking like an exploded dandelion it is time for a haircut! The Boy has decided that he wants to wear his hair in a mohawk. I've had to bust out the hairspray and gel several times alreay and try to get his stubborn hair to stand up. He ends up looking like a blonde rooster and thinks he needs to run around head-butting everyone when his hair is styled in this manner. This, of course, ruins the hawk and we have to start over. I have enough trouble getting myself to work in the morning without having to style The Boy's hair. He is too young to start that! I also can't afford to double my hair product budget. No, I do not have a picture of the blonde hawk yet. I will get one next time it is requested.

I finally had my review today! Yeah! More money! My boss is very happy with me. She even gave Jaykeb a new soccer ball. I think that makes 6 soccer balls for us now. I have no idea how we ended up with so many. You know boys can never have enough balls...snicker.

We Play in a Swamp!

These late nights are killing me. Late as in I'm out past 6:30. No really by the time we get home from soccer and I strip the boy out of his outer layer of mud coated clothing, get the laundry started, feed The Boy and Grammy then get him hauled up to bed(the bath will have to wait until morning) it is past nine o'clock which is late for us. Late for just getting home from work. I'm not used to this stuff. Coming out of retirement is killing me.

Tonight we played Taylor with the long hair's team. They smoked us. We are the grey team and the kids chose the name the Grey Elephants. I think it is appropriate for them because they all kind of lumber along. Jayke has some new issue with not kicking the ball. He has decided he doesn't want to kick it. He spends the entire time following either Trenton or Caleb around the field mimicking there every move unless they actually kick the ball. He does't immitate that move. I bribed him tonight with a trip to a secret place this weekend if he would kick it once. He went right out and kicked it then ran down the field looking backwards to make sure I saw it.

As you can see above it is very muddy here. The kids are all covered with mud by the time they are finished. The parents are pretty wet and muddy too. I'm hoping for some warmer weather soon because I freeze out there and I know the kids have to be cold too.

I have yet to have my review at work. My boss seems to think she has more important things to do like the end of the month and hiring 3 new people. I beg to differ with her. Maybe tomorrow she will get around to me. I need a raise so I can buy my kid who has decided to start growing like a weed all of a sudden new clothes. He has grown 4 inches in 5 months! I didn't think I would ever see the day. He is still small for his age though. That is okay with me for now. He is growing up too fast as it is.

What Did You Say?!?

There is something just not right when you hear the following phrases from your four year old...

"Hush up and drive!"
"I'll be on you like stink on a hog!"
"Isn't my peepee cute?"

and my personal favorite...

"Fix me a waffle woman!"

What We've been Up to...

I have a ton of pictures I've been meaning to put on here so I'm trying to get most of them up here tonight. I will try to give brief descriptions when necessary but mostly this will just be pictures.

First is our trip to the Farm Festival. A field trip with Jaykeb's class. I went with them. Isabelle was our partner. I particularly like the one of him milking the cow. He and Isabelle had a big discussion on the bus about what kind of potatos they each dislike. Turns out neither of them like mashed potatos...I think it is a match made in heaven!







Next is coloring Easter eggs at Meemaw's and P'pa's. Look at the green fingers... We called him Shrek for a couple of days.





The next few are of Opa and Jayke fishing the other day. Jayke caught his first fish although he isn't counting it because Opa had to help him. I'm counting it though. It was small and they threw it back of course. They fished a couple of times that day but only caught two. I guess it needs to warm up more. Opa was explaining all the stuff in the tackle box to Jaykeb and carefully going through everything with him. After that Jayke walked into the bedroom and told my mom, "I know how to fish, I don't need all that talk!" Anyone who knows Jim would see why I think this is so funny...lots of talk!





The last group of pictures are of my super soccer star! We started outdoor soccer tonight. I was really pleased that the indoor soccer really helped and Jayke was one of the better ones on his team. He is a little directionally challenged when he gets the ball though and sometimes runs the wrong way. That is when having a loud mom on the sidelines comes in handy. I had to help the coaches out too because they are new at this. The field was a swamp and we were trying to determine who got the most muddy...Jayke or Mommy. I think I was dirtier. I will be glad when the fields dry up a little.

I love how cute he looks in his soccer gear. We are still trying to get into t-ball but it isn't looking like it is going to happen. I waited too long and it may conflict with soccer. If we don't get in I will try earlier next year. I think I can teach him baseball anyway since I played softball in school.










I may have more but I have a sleepy boy who needs to go to bed so I'm off to the other room. I'm trying to get better about blogging again. I still need to get my laptop hooked up. I also have another new obsession...the Wii. I LOVE Smashbrothers Brawl! So much to do and so little time.

Ninety Day review tomorrow...hopefully that means more money. Keep your fingers crossed!

Late Easter Post

Jayke finally sat on the bunnie's lap this year. I did have to enlist Angi's kids to go with us to make this happen though. He hopped right up there and got his picture taken without any protesting at all. I think it turned out really cute too! Best one yet. I wish I had had him take his jacket off but he was already up there before I even realized it. Oh well.



We did eggs at my dad's house and got HUGE Easter baskets from the grandpa Easter bunny. We had Easter brunch at my mom's after a big egg hunt at Grammy's house. His eater eggs had little dogs in them which thrilled him to no end. Daddy had left a bag of goodies last time he visited too so he got way too much crap for Easter. He even said so himself, "Boy I got a lot of CRAP!" Yes, watch your mouth boy.

So, that is my way late Easter post which I am cramming in real quick while my mom is waiting on me to go help her haul stuff to and from the barn. I will have to put a post up later about the neighbors butchering our pine trees and the impending law suit that is heading their way. Sick people!